Linus reviewed (roasted) our phone | Fairphone reacts
I can't believe some of the points Linus made against the Fairphone, especially given he's onboard with the same compromises for the Framework laptop. 🤭
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I don't think Linus Sebastian is worth watching during the NCIX days because he always seem like someone who would spend the least amount of effort and say whatever is popular to get the most amount of views. As you can see in this video, a lot of the criticism he made on the Fairphone are really nitpicking and isn't fair (heh) at all.
For example, the phone thickness, which he measured with a caliper as a point, is not a metric most people outside of reviewers would care about, especially since most people puts a beefy case on their phone immediately anyways, and size is usually the main tradeoff with modularity.
Or their point about using a Qualcomm industrial chip instead of a Snapdragon chip as a point against Fairphone, when they have previously stated that it is to get a longer time of support.
That being said, having a long, uncut and unfiltered reaction video towards criticism by having the co-founder improv on the spot was not the smartest thing to do on Fairphone's part. He came off as defensive and completely unprepared in the video and failed to address the criticism effectively (with some easy rebuttals if he was given even a little time to prepare) effectively, which is not great for PR.
The video could be much more effective if they cut it down to half the length with an actual script. It's a YouTube video, there's no reason to do it completely live and unscripted.
For the last part: I'm pretty sure it's just his thing to do "real" things, instead of scripting, cutting it down, watching it before or anything.
I also very much got the feeling that he acted in a defensive and hurt way, but it's his real emotion and I can understand it since Linus is bashing the phone much more than "necessary".
Or their point about using a Qualcomm industrial chip instead of a Snapdragon chip as a point against Fairphone, when they have previously stated that it is to get a longer time of support.
Of course the support is great, but some other phones also achieve that without a slow and old SoC.
The Fairphone seems pretty nice in theory but the performance is pretty poor and the price is high.
Poor in comparison to what though? I know what the benchmarks say but I don't really notice any differences between the Fairphone 5 (what I'm currently typing on) or my previous phones (Huawei Mate 10, Zenfone 6, Zenfone 8 Flip) in terms of daily driving (aside from battery maybe). I'm sure there is for gaming, but that's the one thing I don't use my phone for.
I haven't used it personally but apparently it's general usage is pretty slow.
All I can say is that has not been my experience and I am curious what exactly people think is slow about it.
I could be entirely wrong, but it seems like some people are conflating benchmarks against current flagships as the day to day experience.
What are people using their phones for that require such beefy processing power? I have a Fairphone 4, which presumably is slower than the Fairphone 5, and it is perfectly snappy for all my needs. Actually curious. Is it gaming?
I dunno I just heard it was slow for general usage.
But I also wonder why there exists so many phones that target mobile gaming with external fans and all that.
What games are people playing that require a special gaming phone? Switch emulation or something is the only thing I can think of.
Last I checked all mobile games ran perfectly fine on everything. I don't really understand non-casual mobile gaming. If I want to play good games I play on a switch, steam deck, or I just wait until I get home and I play in the way I find most comfortable, i.e. using a mouse and keyboard.
Fairphone 4 is not slow for general usage, but for gaming it can be slow depending on the load, ye.
Gamecube emulation would be slower than latest and greatest, but those soc's only have 4 years of support, and thats not up to fairphone's standards
Just like any hardware, it all depends what you use it for and what your requirements are.
Hehe yeah, mobile gaming seems awful to me as well. Never heard about external fans. Seems like going out of your way to have a sub-par gaming experience.
Asus called their fan (and sometimes water cooled I think) contraption" AeroActive Cooler [rev number here]" I think the phone opens up in some way so the fan (or water) works better. It's pretty cool technology but seems entirely useless to me at least but I have no idea.
Its gaming. I asked this in an old thread before and the response was gaming and emulation. Which is fair if you want the latest and greatest, but general usage on my fairphone 4 is snappy and fine so idk. I dont do gaming on my phone though :)
To me, the profile thickness is a benefit. Tiny thin phones scream "compressed electronics, overheats fast, difficult repairs"
I think the main reason for a thin phone nowadays is to have it fit in your trouser pocket. (or lack thereof). Having a flip style folding phone (as opposed to a book style) really helps.
I generally wear loose fitting pants and belt, but I can definitely see how it would conflict with tightpants fashions.