Based on https://postmarketos.org/install/ the Nokia N900 can run the latest stable release of PostmarketOS.

Nokia N900 was a proper Linux-powered phone released in Nobember 2009.

So yeah, it’s been getting over 15 years of community support so far.

What’s wrong with Fairphone then? Think I’m gonna buy FP 6 when it arrives

Imo I don’t think the goal is/should be “every part is repairable by any average person without tools” tbh. Like that would be awesome but it also isn’t realistic, like you said phones are super complicated. But making simple repairs – stuff like swapping a battery – possible for anybody is realistic imo, and then the rest should be as easy to repair as possible for local shops or someone who does have the necessary skills and equipment. At least personally I feel like that’s a good spot to aim for.

It’s sad that people have gotten used to just throwing away stuff instead of repairing it. Sure, some repairs really aren’t worth it - like the screen I’d gotten replaced of my LG G3 that was prone to have this defect with its screen regardless of screen swaps and whatnot - but most of the time, it’s just minor things that can actually be fixed by non-tech savvy person.

I think it should be of paramount importance that more companies are held accountable as to the amount of waste they’re producing and how much they’re contributing to pollution and waste around the globe. Unfortunately, capitalism is a thing, so that’s not gonna happen.

Having repairable options for those that do care is awesome, though. If I could afford, I’d gladly go for a Fairphone if I ever need to replace my current phone (still going strong after 5 years of use). Until their mass appeal, they’ll likely remain out of my pockets.

Bga is more about skill than equipment. I’ve done it with a cheap hot air gun and a toaster oven. Though it took many failed attempts to get right

But this isn’t always about your phone being repairable by you. It’s about your phone being repairable at all. Apple, google, samsung, et al have made it clear that they have no interest in refurbishing and repairing phones. That’s fine, they have the right to do whatever I guess. And further, this creates a great opportunity for many people to create small businesses.

America has very few markets left wherein one can create a business that is not utterly dominated by some conglomerate that will eat your shit. This is one where you can do so, with honest work (eg not just buying shit from Chinese manufacturers and reselling it on amazon for a profit).

However, the tech industry is openly hostile to small business and its consumers, so every business that has worked in this sector has been either destroyed or hollowed out to barely anything by big techs greedy bullshit in the name of security.

This would enrich communities: you would have another possible route where someone local could open a business within the community, that would hire locally within the community. But apple, samsung, microsoft, etc lobby extremely hard to make sure that they never have to stop pairing parts, providing spare parts, providing schematics, etc. and of course they’re not being asked to do this for free. They’re being asked to do this for a fair and reasonable cost, but they still refuse.

Now designing phones with user replaceable wear items like batteries or even common failure points like screens is obviously a good idea as well in theory but comes with challenges. However the challenges are mixed. Batteries can be user replaceable in thin and waterproof phones. The galaxy s5 is almost as thin and almost as waterproof as the s23 and has a user replaceable battery. If more engineering effort was put forth I’m sure it could be greatly improved. The issue is design; they (especially apple) don’t want to disrupt their “beautiful”glass back phones that 99.9999% of people slap a case on. User replaceable screens are more challenging to make waterproof but I’m sure they could figure it out.

But if the above was addressed, they wouldn’t necessarily have to. We could go back to the days of going to a small store next to your grocery store and getting your phone screen changed out for $150 while you do your shopping. except much more money because an iphone 16 pro max oled is ~ $700 just for the screen, which brings up the other issue of people don’t want to repair stuff anymore because component cost is outrageous. The phone is $1200 for the base model so if the screen and labor is $800 a lot of people will (foolishly) go “well for $400 more I can just get a brand new one!” even though it’s the same damn phone. However, these screen prices fall dramatically when the phones get even a few gens older and a bunch get recycled

I picked the Pixel A because:

1. It runs GrapheneOS
2. It’s slightly smaller and slightly cheaper than the normal version
3. The back is plastic and not glass

Glad I can use it and type on it one-handed, can’t imagine using a bigger phone.

I can’t trust anything made by google. It’s a company that literally makes its money capturing everything everyone does on the internet…and yet the phone they make is the ONLY phone immune to having everything captured…

Sorry. Not buying it. There will be a chip in there phoning home we’ll find out about in a decade.

Is there an 8a? Those are usually the smallest model

my Chinese tiny phone has a name, it’s the Unihertz Jelly Star. they even have a subreddit, not sure what makes you think it’s a “no name” they make a lot of phones for niches in today’s world including one with a physical qwerty keyboard.

now the fact that they’re the only company filling those niches sucks, but it’s better than nobody doing it.

There was the iPhone 13 Mini. It’s adorably small. But it didn’t sell well so they stopped making the Mini line.

So once again instead of providing choice the market is simply phasing out things with smaller profit margins as if they planned it together in some kind of cartel.

I have fairly small hands, but still prefer a larger phone. More content on the screen and space for battery.

HOWEVER, I’d take both. A small phone would be a good secondary device. I want something modern the size of my Samsung Galaxy Ace (GT-S5830i). The back also has a really nice texture.
Oh, yeah, it also has a headphone jack, MicroSD card slot and quickly swappable battery which I should probably replace because it seems it has slightly increased its capacity… volumetric capacity.

But I also prefer a bit more thickness so it doesn’t feel like a fragile, slippery sheet of glass (rugged phones are good for that).

I am a very average-sized woman with average-sized hands, and big phones would have been unusable for me. Seems like they’re all for big men’s palms.

My main complaint is that they don’t directly support the US. There’s a reseller here, but I think there are issues with some bands.

Maybe it’ll be better the next time I need a phone.

yeah the screen is very small but that’s kinda the point for my use case. I didn’t want all the limitations of a dumbphone (i.e. I wanted banking apps, gps, useful browser) but I wanted to add friction to my phone use to encourage me to use it less.

battery life is great, lasts me almost 2 days without a charge and will typically go from almost dead to almost full if I plug it in while driving to work. part of the battery life being so good is that I use it less and keep it in grayscale 99% of the time I figure though.

camera is great, it’s 48MP the same as an iPhone 14 Pro. the pictures don’t look great on the device because of the tiny screen but when I look at them on my computer or the pixel 6 I still use at home they look great.

speaker is pretty awful, it’s fine for calls but music, fuhgeddaboudit! I have a Bluetooth clip on speaker that’s great and I don’t really watch videos on it so non-issue, for me at least.

screen res hasn’t bothered me but again that might just be use-case. most of what I do is reading text and it’s fine for that esp with high contrast on, looks ugly but again that’s friction and I want that.

Would you pay $1000 for one? Economy of scales matters…

Plus everyone who did look at them would say it is smaller it should cost less! Even though a smaller phone would be more technically challenging to build. Next you have compromises. No matter what you take out to make it work. People would bitch, I need that! I don’t need this other thing! Next battery life, people complain about current battery life, you think they want less?

I could go on, but I can easily see why manufacturers don’t want to deal…

I’m probably gonna annoy people with this but I will shout it from the rooftops

Unihertz makes one.

I don’t think it’s the consumer market. It’s more expensive to manufacture with physical controls, keyboards, and moving parts. It wasn’t lack of consumer demand that killed the phono jack.

you could get a Unihertz Jelly Star like me