so I’ve had a fp4 for 3 years now, running iode for probably most of it, I honestly don’t use it much, and despite my efforts to make it last 5 or even ten years, after some important missed messages (because I wasn’t in the room when they came in), I’ve come to the conclusion that the lack of a notification led is a dealbreaker. so looking for alternatives, I found the shiftphone 8.1.
However a lot of the reviews ive seen of it have said get a fp6 instead, its cheaper and you get more for your money, but fp6 doesn’t have a notification led, it has a so-called always on display. Although ive never seen one, I’m not at all sold on the concept.
I’m not really bothered about cameras or radios or gaming or those things. It’s a phone, I use it for sms, taking phone calls occasionally and the odd app.
can people with these phones share their experiences and opinions?
Basically you answered the question yourself ;-).
If a notification LED is important to you and everything else unimportant, then the focus is clearly only on devices that have it.
Some form of persistent notification, indeed. I think a led is better than this ‘always on’ display idea, but having never seen one, I can’t really judge.
FP4 has nothing so unless I remember to turn the screen on and look regularly, I don’t know anything has arrived, and unlike a lot of people, I’m not permanently glued to my phone. If I’m in the room and its in front of me when it arrives the camera led flashes, but thats as far as the notifications go.
No. It’s not cheaper. SHIFT provides extras that they insist every manufacturer should offer and every customer should use (and in my opinion, they’re right). And even taking that into account, the SHIFTphone 8 is cheaper.