OK so after rummaging on the internet for a bit after my last post I found this reviewjolla article, which has some info that isn't on the wiki. Specifically, camera and some codecs don't work on the newer Android bases so you need FP OSOS 1.1.7 as the base.

If you have already flashed something else like I did you can just flash that on top of whatever you have at the moment, and then reflash sailfish. I was worried it wouldn't work to downgrade, but it was fine.

After using FPOS 1.1.7 + SFOS 2.0.0.10-alpha1 for a few days, here's an update with some general observations:

My RAM usage seems pretty consistent at around 1.2-1.5GB. On Jolla I had to be really careful about closing apps I wasn't using if I didn't want ones I cared about to close (like Hangish) but I don't have to worry about that any more. In fact, I've barely had OOM killer close any apps at all.

The nicest thing about this is that OKboard is much more reliable - it used to freeze on the Jolla but that doesn't happen on FP2 so I guess it was memory related.

This thing is very quick compared to Jolla. I tried the N5 as well but I didn't have 4G on that because I bought the wrong model (US model instead of international) - more RAM plus faster speed plus more cores whilst still having 4G makes a huge difference. Would recommend.

Some apps look great on this screen, Iike Neliapila:


...and some don't, like Quickddit:

... I think some work has been done on Quickddit already to make the UI resize with the screen, but it still needs a bit of tweaking - those thumbnails are too small! Shame, because it's one of the best apps for SFOS - I'll file a bug report.

My torch app (hammerhead-torch) works great on here, although it'll tell you you're using a N5... I'll fix that somehow.



Now, some specific comparisons between FP2 and Nexus 5 where applicable. If I haven't written anything it's because the two devices are much the same.

Battery
Battery lasts a lot longer on FP2 than N5. I think this is because of the N5 sensors bug - the screen size, RAM, processor type and clock speed are all about the same, so I doubt the FP2's slightly bigger battery would make that much difference here. Hopefully the N5 users can fix that, I know they are working hard to find decent blobs.

Anyway, I think it gives me about another 2-3 hours over the N5, which I frequently found I had to put away to save battery or it wouldn't last until I got home, so I couldn't really use it on the train (~12h day). This makes the N5 about the same as Jolla, despite being faster with a bigger screen.

FP2 also has a replaceable battery

Fastboot mode
Fairphone's fastboot mode is not very user friendly - it displays the same logo as you get when you do a normal boot but it just stays there which makes it look like the phone has frozen, but really it's just waiting. How difficult would it have been to make "fastboot mode" appear on the screen? N5 is easier to use in this regard.

I noticed that the most reliable way for me to get into fastboot mode was to remove the battery and leave it out, and then connect the data cable and hold volume down. For some reason with the battery in, it seemed like it was in fasboot mode but fastboot couldn't detect the phone.

GPS
I can get a GPS lock on fairphone 2 really easily and quickly (must be AGPS), whereas the nexus 5 took ages to get a lock (>10 minutes) so I don't think it was doing AGPS.

This could be because I messed up and bought the US version by mistake (I'm in the UK)...feel free to confirm if you know anything about AGPS.

FP2 wins this one hands down.

Camera
I prefer the camera on FP2, I think the flash is better than N5 and it seems to focus better. The way the camera is recessed into the case slightly in the FP2 instead of protruding like on the N5 means it's less likely to get scratched too - that detail used to irritate me on the N5.

Hopefully the next release for FP2 will have support for the physical camera button!

Edit 1:
Bootloader
The modified TWRP available for N5 is much better than fairphone's, particularly because it enables multiboot. It would be really nice to be able to dual boot on this,especially as it has tons of storage and an uSD card slot.

Edit 2 (can't believe I forgot this!):
Bluetooth
Bluetooth works on Fairphone 2 - my Pebble has been connected all day, and all of the Rockpool functions work as they should .

The only wobble is that it doesn't seem to connect properly if you have had other devices connected recently (like bluetooth sync to transfer contacts!). After leaving it for a while, it suddenly connnects and then disconnections/reconnections as you walk in and out of range all work as they should... so I guess connections to a single device are working, but not multiple devices - can live with that!

On N5 the Pebble would periodically lose connection but the phone would think it was still connected and other odd behaviour, so I'd have to turn BT off and on to resolve the issue. None of that strange behaviour on FP2, once it's connected it works as it should.



That's about it, I'll add extra stuff as I think of it.