This is my second linux phone and coming into it i had high hopes and low expectations, the result was a mixed bag but generally positive.

My first was linux phone was the PinePhonePro and i really liked it at the time as a concept, but it was hard to use it as a daily driver, i think i lasted around a month before buying an android.

The PPP had several problems, it was very slow, would get very hot, and my primary concern as i said here its battery was terrible.

And the battery has since fully died, so sadly i can't run side by side tests.

So that brings us to the FP6.

The installation was pretty smooth, follow the steps from the wiki and for me they worked perfectly.

The usage itself feels alot more snappy compared to the PPP, general UI work is comparable to a normal android i would say, and no longer each action has a delay.

So i wanted to tackle the battery point, i ran a few tests, please take these with a grain of salt as they were not done professionally, but they should be indicative:

Idle (not full suspend as the SSH connection was still active):
Power	0.43 W (98 mA @ 4.44 V)
Drain	2.2 %/hr (45.4h)
CPU	0.9%
GPU	264 MHz

Idle with screen on:
Power	0.95 W (214 mA @ 4.43 V)
Drain	4.9 %/hr (20.4 h)
CPU	3.0%
GPU	277 MHz

Watching 1080p H.264 video with BT headphones:
Power	1.57 W (359 mA @ 4.36 V) 
Drain	8.1 %/hr (12.3h)
CPU	20.7%
GPU     278 MHz

Peak CPU:
Power draw : 6.15 W (1437 mA @ 4.28 V)
Drain rate : 32.6 %/hr (3.0 h)
CPU usage  : 100.0 %
GPU        : 277 MHz

Temprature stayed fine across all tests only during the CPU test did it became warm but not too much, which is in stark contrast to the PPP which would get very uncomfortable to hold, and be severly battery drained.

I think these values are interesting when compared to the same test on e/OS, well atleast that's what i would say if i could gather it.

Sadly i was not able to gather detailed power data on android.

Idle with screen on:
CPU usage : 18.7 %
GPU usage  : 11.7 %

18.7% seemed very sus, but it checks out?

58% 3760/foundation.e.blisslauncher: 49% user + 9.3% kernel / faults: 13209 minor
21% 1476/surfaceflinger: 14% user + 6.9% kernel / faults: 18 minor
12% 1383/vendor.qti.hardware.display.composer-service: 6.7% user + 5.5% kernel / faults: 137 minor
4.9% 972/crtc_commit:137: 0% user + 4.9% kernel
4.2% 986/android.system.suspend-service: 0% user + 4.2% kernel
2.3% 3353/com.android.systemui: 1.6% user + 0.6% kernel / faults: 8031 minor
2.3% 2364/system_server: 1.1% user + 1.1% kernel / faults: 5054 minor
2.1% 26001/kworker/u16:8-qc_ufs_qos_swq: 0% user + 2.1% kernel
2.1% 25893/kworker/u16:3-kgsl_devfreq_wq: 0% user + 2.1% kernel
2% 539/irq/153-24091000.qcom,bwmon-ddr: 0% user + 2% kernel
2% 15/rcuog/0: 0% user + 2% kernel
1.7% 4284/foundation.e.advancedprivacy: 1% user + 0.6% kernel / faults: 693 minor
1.1% 14/rcu_preempt: 0% user + 1.1% kernel
0.9% 25150/kworker/u16:13-events_unbound: 0% user + 0.9% kernel
0.7% 973/crtc_event:137: 0% user + 0.7% kernel
0.7% 946/kgsl_hwsched: 0% user + 0.7% kernel
0.7% 25148/kworker/u16:11-wmi_rx_diag_event_work_: 0% user + 0.7% kernel
0.5% 23213/kworker/u16:0-wmi_rx_event_work_queue: 0% user + 0.5% kernel
0.6% 1393/vendor.qti.hardware.perf2-hal-service: 0.1% user + 0.4% kernel / faults: 38 minor
0.4% 26004/kworker/u16:12-events_unbound: 0% user + 0.4% kernel
0.3% 1338/android.hardware.audio.service: 0.1% user + 0.2% kernel / faults: 34 minor
0.4% 1362/android.hardware.wifi-service: 0.1% user + 0.2% kernel
0.3% 23453/kworker/0:2-events: 0% user + 0.3% kernel

Watching 1080p video:
CPU usage 19.6%
GPU usage 7.3%

it seems the launcher from e/OS really is slurping down CPU.

So where does this leave us?

Would i recommend this as a daily driver?

No. If i gave this phone to someone who is not a linux fan they would probably get very frustrated.

Is it usable as a daily driver?

I think this is the more interesting question, if you really wanted you could definitely use this as a working daily driver, if you don't mind not having a camera or audio that is. BT works fine, so when combined with voip its a usable phone. and does all the phone things you would want it to do. Also if you are photosensitive it might not be a fit as there are currently some graphical flicker glitches.
The audio driver is in the works if i look at postmarketos so if that gets fixed it would become much more daily driver worthy.

For the people interested i have also uploaded the vulkaninfo

Thank you for the detailed write up on the power draw!

Thanks for sharing. You got me wanting to tinker with my pinephone pro again

Thank you! I wanted to include the android power draw aswell for a direct comparison, but sadly I couldn't really get it detailed enough via adb.

As a fellow PPP owner I've always wondered, was my battery defective or is it like that for everyone? What is your experience with it?

Thank you for your review. I have a FairPhone 5 with UBPorts loaded on it, and it doesn't work for me. Now I'm waiting for the new Jolla phone with SailfishOS to come out this fall - which I'll probably get after everyone else, seeing as though I'm at the bottom of the preorder list - but I would really like to stay with FairPhones.

I'll have to check out PostmarketOS. It's getting really imperative to get off the Android train at this point.

The usage itself feels alot more snappy compared to the PPP, general UI work is comparable to a normal android i would say, and no longer each action has a delay.

What UI system do you use (as I understand there are KDE and Gnome mobile launchers and others?). How do they compare to the Android launchers/platforms (perhaps you've tried Samsung OneUI)?

I am thinking of getting a Jolla phone in the coming months. While leaving US mobile platforms doesn't seem viable in the immediate future, I thought I might as well start preparing for the move.

Any issues related to battery / heat are extremely challenging to deal with in a smartphone. You can workaround certain things not working, platform derived battery issues are the kiss of death.

Cheers!

The one shown in the photos is plasma mobile, it's one of the default DE (or ME in this case?) that comes with postmarketos.

I've also tried phosh, it's more lightweight and runs a bit better, but that matters more on constrained hardware and the FP6 runs plasma mobile with no peformance issues.

plasma mobile is the most comparable to other mobile UI like android ofcourse they are cosmetically different but it functions mostly the same.

Do calls and cellular data work?

I haven't tried either yet but according to the wiki calls "work" but with no audio and cellular data works.

How do you measure power draw?

I have a new to me device that I installed postmarket on. I'm at the step of deciding how cooked the battery is or if something is wrong on the software side.

I haven't had any problems with mine, but i have used it sparsely since getting it years ago.

calls "work" but with no audio

That's a very loose definition of "work".

That's why i wrote it as "work"

Its not completely broken because the modem can dial.

I used this script:

#!/bin/sh
LABEL="${1:-test}"; DUR="${2:-60}"; INT=2
B=/sys/class/power_supply/qcom-battmgr-bat
G=/sys/class/devfreq/3d00000.gpu
GMAX=$(cat "$G/max_freq")
TMP=$(mktemp)
cpu_snap() { awk '/^cpu /{idle=$5+$6;t=0;for(i=2;i<=NF;i++)t+=$i;print idle, t}' /proc/stat; }
cap0=$(cat "$B/capacity"); cpu0=$(cpu_snap)
t_end=$(( $(date +%s) + DUR ))
while [ "$(date +%s)" -lt "$t_end" ]; do
  echo "$(cat $B/current_now) $(cat $B/voltage_now) $(cat $G/cur_freq)" >> "$TMP"
  sleep "$INT"
done
cap1=$(cat "$B/capacity"); cpu1=$(cpu_snap)
awk -v label="$LABEL" -v dur="$DUR" -v gmax="$GMAX" -v cap0="$cap0" -v cap1="$cap1" \
    -v cpu0="$cpu0" -v cpu1="$cpu1" -v mah=4415 '
{ i=$1; if(i<0)i=-i; sI+=i; sV+=$2; sG+=$3; n++ }
END{
  if(n==0){print "no samples"; exit}
  aI=sI/n/1000; aV=sV/n/1e6; aW=aI/1000*aV; aG=sG/n/1e6;
  pph=aI/mah*100; rt=(pph>0)?100/pph:0;
  split(cpu0,a," "); split(cpu1,b," "); di=b[1]-a[1]; dt=b[2]-a[2];
  cpu=(dt>0)?100*(1-di/dt):0;
  printf "TEST: %s  (%ds, %d samples)\n", label, dur, n;
  printf "  Power draw : %.2f W   (%.0f mA @ %.2f V)\n", aW, aI, aV;
  printf "  Drain rate : %.1f %%/hr  (~%.1f h from full)\n", pph, rt;
  printf "  CPU usage  : %.1f %%\n", cpu;
  printf "  GPU        : %.0f MHz  (%.0f%% of %.0f MHz max)\n", aG, aG/(gmax/1e6)*100, gmax/1e6;
  printf "  Capacity   : %d%% -> %d%%  (delta %d%%)\n", cap0, cap1, cap0-cap1;
}' "$TMP" | tee /tmp/battest_last.txt
rm -f "$TMP"