More than a decade after launching in Europe, the Netherlands company is now selling its repairable phones in the US, starting with the Fairphone (Gen 6+).
  • jumperalex@lemmy.worldEnglish
    410·
    8 days ago

    There is Verizon service, you have to buy from the US store. But then it is Android and not /e/OS … it took me a while and a fair number of AI tokens to full figure that out.

    trl;dr it is a hardware cert problem why the EU version is T-Mobile and the US is VZW/ATT. I still couldn’t figure out why the US-VZW/ATT version can’t have /e/OS but it still smelled like obtaining certification is the problem and there doesn’t appear to be any public statements on a timeline for it.

    If you want privacy, buy a pixel and flash GrapheneOS.

    If you want modularity/repairability buy a Fairphone.

    • If you want modularity/repairability and privacy, buy an /e/OS Fairphone from the EU store but accept only T-Mobile
    • If you want modularity/repairability and ATT/VZW, buy a Fairphone from the US store but accept no extra privacy
    • If you want it all, guess we gotta wait.
    • thagoat@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      71·
      8 days ago

      According to the fairphone website, the reason it’s incompatible is because the hardware does not support the lte channel that us Verizon service operate on, leading to unreliable service. No Ai tokens necessary.

      • jumperalex@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        6 days ago

        It doesn’t ahve all the hardware needed for all the channels. It DOES however have enough to actually work. Verizon certification is a well known difficulty.

        And none of that explains why the US Verizon version doesn’t come with /e/OS

      • jumperalex@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        8 days ago

        Yes you can put whatever COMPATIBLE OS you want on it. Sadly GrapheneOS isn’t one of them. But again, you’re not wrong. I was just highlighting what I found about the options and their trade-offs.