Slashdot Mirror

Have you considered a Fairphone to meet your specifications, which among many other redeeming qualities prides itself on its repairability, which includes being able to root your own phone whenever you want? So you can install CyanogenMod, or perhaps Jolla's Sailfish OS (that can also run Droid apps). It has a *lot* going for it, especially its designer's goal of staying out of the scrap heap as long as possible. About the only downside is the one attribute they didn't prioritize by design is being the fastest phone with the latest technology; but you must also consider the upsides when doing your own research to see if this is a good phone for you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06...

https://www.fairphone.com/

It uses a GSM SIM card, so it'll work on T-mobile worldwide as you require. I've held one and it's plenty classy in the hand.

Im also lookign to replace my N900 (which i like), previously had an OpenMoko Neo (which was a great talking piece, bad phone).

Im currently keeping an eye on the fairphone, they are just finishing there first batch of 25,000 phones and looking at a new order soon. Second release is usually a good one to get in one as they have had a chance to find and fix hardware bugs.

The replicant project has done a review of the fairphone, there biggest criticim of it is that it doest have good hardware isolation to prevent NSA type spying. It isnt supported by replicant yet, but say it should be possible.
http://www.replicant.us/2013/1...

It looks like the project is more driven ideology rather than profit, but that ideology is very much focused on the phone. I hope they do well.

http://www.fairphone.com/

Fairphone, http://www.fairphone.com/
And, the specs go much beyond just avoiding 'conflict metals'. For instance, the battery is replaceable, and there are two SIM slots that make the phone much more interesting to reuse in developing countries when you'll be tired of it.
And, they considered a lot of 20000, then sold them all, then extended to 25000, then sold them all again.
So, things are going well for them.
(I'm patiently waiting for them to become compatible with the open-source Sailfish OS, and then will be ready to pay twice the current cost.)

See http://www.fairphone.com/

Fairphone manages to do pretty well on specs for €325 per phone, with an initial production run of 25,000 phones, while using ethically-sourced minerals, recycled plastics, reasonable wages and working conditions and so on:

http://buy-a-phone-start-a-movement.fairphone.com/en/specs/

Admittedly there's no 4G, it hasn't actually shipped yet (they should start shipping out in December) and it's running Android, so the software development costs are lower. But building a decent phone at those sorts of prices is definitely possible, even for relatively small production runs. I'm waiting patiently for my Fairphone, but I'll definitely be following Jolla closely. From their press releases and general design ideas, it seems like they've managed to retain some of the brilliance that Nokia used to have.

Fairphone might qualify as fully open source... they seem to be proud of their open source status. http://www.fairphone.com/

Fairphone seems like a more capable candidate for an open smartphone.
http://www.fairphone.com/

Speaking of... http://www.fairphone.com/

Its an open source design, initially intended for the EU.

http://www.fairphone.com/

They met their minimum orders already and are getting close to selling-out their initial production run. Delivery date is December.

For about 1/10th the cost, one other FOSS phone was able to get off the ground. Actually, even though the main page says 66%, they reached their minimum goal months ago so the startup threshold is much lower than that.

Their initial market is EU-only, but I would still consider getting a FairPhone if only to have a mini-tablet with the most open hardware that's feasible at this point.

One thing I like about FairPhone is the emphasis on open hardware in addition to software. Can anyone explain the relative strengths of Ubuntu Edge on the open source front?