Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves - This sustainable smartphone aims to reduce global electronic waste::In a bid to reduce global electronic waste, Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves. What makes its technology so sustainable?
Fairphone existed for years now, and the title makes it seem like as if they made a new phone just now that is repairable.
Yeah, the Fairphone 2 is 7 years old and you can still buy all the important replacement parts directly from their store.
Does it still get OS updates?
Yeah, they’re touting this as if it isn’t old news. Yes, the phones are cool and yes, America can’t have them. What else.
Kind of. It doesn’t run Android with the Play Store so it’s a pretty different experience.
I have the Aurora store on my /e/os so I can get apps that are on Play Store too. Haven’t noticed any difference in experience except that well, no Play Store is installed.
But isnt /e/OS an android system too? Always wondered what stops a person from not just installing lineageOS on these phones? Basically did what i did with mine lol
You can easily do that indeed. You can even install the Play Store with microg if you really want to.
Yeah, I was considering getting one and installing CalyxOS but I don’t like that they removed the headphone jack. It’s even more sad in their own words
“we want to reduce e-waste by forcing everyone to throw out their wired headphones and buy a new set of wireless ones every couple of years when the battery goes dead”
Id need to look it up, but i think it had to do with it costing them too much to add it since their phones are made with components that are abundand and wanted by phone makers so it can be as cheap as possible for the consumer.
However, with headphone jacks dissapearing in phones they cant garantee that, nor provide the years of support they stand for. I’d like my headphone jack too, and use my laptop’s extensively at work, but i can understand their choice
It’s bs. They’re making excuses. Sony has a headphone jack and microsd slot in their newest phone. Samsungs made galaxy phones thin and waterproof with a headphone jack. They’re copying Apple to make money and they know it. I would pay their $800 if they show they care about this issue. They can still sell their bluetooth devices which will still work even if it has a headphone jack. If they truly want to save the environment, why make people throw out perfectly good earbuds.
the main complaint from me is still the headphone jack. they faced insane backlash when they released the FP4. i thought this company cares about the user as well as the environment. but it seems they didn’t realize that people want actual features (like wireless charging, the headphone jack, or a usable battery size).
don’t get me wrong, i own a Fairphone 4 and love using it. but making these mistakes 2 times in a row now is just pathetic.
Not including wireless charging IS caring about the environment. Wireless charging is extremely wasteful and inefficient.
It’s inefficient for energy, but it’s efficient at saving charging cords. My girlfriend goes through one lightning cord a year.
A phone only needs like 5 watt hours a day max, which is a cost of 365 * $0.08 * 0.005 = $0.15 a year at local prices
I work retail, people come in with broken Apple cables more than almost any other cable.
Surprisingly these people are also often very picky with getting the Apple-Branded cables as well, even USB C
Literally any cable other than Apples will not break like that.
I’ve had the same 100w tb3 cable for 4 years. It charges all of my devices and gets a ton of use.
Wireless charging is still a little gimmicky imo. It has only come in useful when my friend’s iPhone needed to mooch some charge off of my phone.
The headphone jacks are pointless to include bc they’re so horribly underpowered. USBc headphones or a dongle is 10x better.
Bought a pixel 6 after breaking my oneplus 6t.
I absolutley love wireless charging. Its so good i wouldnt want another phone without it. No abuse on the usbc port which is something i definately damaged on previous phones. Just me being clumsy and knocking it off the table with the cord plugged in still.
My experience anyway. Love it
I have only had one charging cable “break” (the cable sheath separated from the plug sheath, it was still usable and had no exposed wires since they all had their own additional sheath) since I stopped using Apple/Samsung phones as my daily driver.
I think the issue is crappy cables that are then super expensive so that they can continue milking you for every penny you are worth.
it’s efficient at saving charging cords.
How does the wireless charger connect to power again?
You don’t need to replug it daily. Usually the cord doesn’t break, actually, it’s the connector at the end of the cord
Then don’t use it. people who want to switch expect basic features like this for double the price.
“we want to reduce e-waste by forcing everyone to throw out their wired headphones and buy a new set of wireless ones every couple of years when the battery goes dead”
The hypocrisy enrages me here
I’ve been using the same pair of Sony XB50AP wired headphones for over 7 years now. It works fine (although not great) even after going through couple washing machine cycles. Meanwhile my wireless WH1000XM3 broke after 2 years of use.
Also I own an Android with no headphone jack, so I have to use a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle. And I can feel it’s slowly destroying the type C port’s connectors on my phone everytime I plug the dongle in, making the headphone connection sometimes not even recognizeable on my phone.
The WH-1000XM3 have repairable batteries. You can buy them online, and pop them in after undoing two screws
Thanks for the headsup but mine broke because of something wrong inside the device, probably something wrong with the pcb (might be water corrosion or something). Plus the headband on WH1000XM3 is just so easy to broke. I’ve replace both side of the headband just because it’s designed very poorly.
There are wireless earbuds with repairable batteries. Just not Fairbuds, which have soldered batteries (LOL!)
forcing everyone to use a high quality 9$ dongle DAC with their wired headphones
Ftfy
Which you have to carry around separately, which comes at a convenience cost and so you’re more likely to just go for wireless ones (I know I have after the headphone jack wore out in my phone)
And also not charge at the same time unless you get a well shielded dac dongle with a usb female which also allows charging and supports thunderbolt, which is another piece of future e-waste that you’ll have to carry around in addition to your phone and 3.5mm only dongle, as the unconnected wire will get caught on your hand if you try to use your phone
Your idea of a fix makes as much sense as apple calling selling you 90% of a new device fixing your device - let’s not allow degenerate business practices just because a brand like to think of themselves as green and ethical, it’s anti-consumer and anti-environment, no ifs, no buts.
My nice head phones came with a case, I usually keep them in that case. The dongle fits inside with them.
Unfortunately my previous phone’s headphone jack was underpowered and didn’t work well with my headphones so I used to dongle despite having a jack.
This is the unfortunate reality with most phones that do include the headphone jack (RIP LG)
The problem is there is no competition here. I’d love to see several repairable smartphones with slightly different features that create some competition. For example something with a max 5.5” screen and only a single camera.
Yes, absolutely. fairphone themselves say they want to create competition by making the fairphones. sadly, no one has really fully committed to this.
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Usable battery size? The FP5 has a 4200mah battery which is about 500mah less than the s23 plus which is pretty reasonable and I’ve found it very usable for day to day use. Wireless charing is a pointless gimmick personally and I don’t see the utility of it. Lack of a headphone jack is a pain though.
Wireless charging is a good alternative to have when your usb-c port breaks.
Of course, with Fairphone is is less of an issue since replacing those is like 15€.
I thought the same of wireless charging before I tried it. I now have a charger on my desk that I sit my phone on whenever I’m there. Charging isn’t something I ever even think about now. It just is charged.
I’ve just never had that be a problem for me. I’ve had wireless charging phones before and I never really felt having a wireless charger any more convenient than just plugging my phone in. Really the only time I used wireless charging was on an old phone when the micro-b port failed but with the advent of type c being and the ease of swapping a charging port on the FP5 it just seems to be adding needless expense to the device to have a less efficient method of charging the device.
My guess for the real reason is that they buy off-the-shelf components from suppliers and don’t have enough money to design and order a custom motherboard with a headphone jack.
they designed the whole thing themselves. that’s why the schematics are publicly available. they definetely made a choice to fuck over users.
Laughs in FP3
Jep their decision that I shouldn’t waste energy is the reason i don’t want one(wireless charging)
plus it’s easy as heck to add during development, i simply don’t get why they didn’t include it.
I do sometimes feel like what we really want is something a little bit more like how Framework are doing things. Yes it’s easily repairable, but it’s also easily upgradable.
Upgradability isn’t really a design consideration for fairphone. So everyone is stuck with the kind of mediocre camera that they decided to put on it. It would be nice if the option was there to have something a bit better.
Actually, they do.
The Fairphone 3 was upgradable to the Fairphone 3+ by buying spare parts like the camera and installing them yourself.
The thing is that phones don’t really need upgrades.
The main upgrade they need is the processor because the companies making those are not supporting newer Android-Versions and at some point that becomes a security-issue.
Problem is that replacing the processor to a newer generation usually means the whole mainboard is obsolete, too and then is very quickly doesn’t become easy to upgrade anymore
just switching between different types of cameras, screens etc. wouldn’t be as big of a problem but that’s also not part of the main-problem either
Own a 4 had to replace the screen, and it was refreshingly easy with the modular system. My only issue is parts availability at times.
I’ve replaced a few screens that were glued in place (Samsung being one), just had to warm them with a hair dryer and used a playing card to cut through the adhesive. Easy-peasy.
Fairphone 5 Please come to the US ☹️
You’re not allowed nice things until you get rid of the guns, remember?
If you have friends in the EU, maybe you could pay them what it would cost in terms of buying and shipping the phone over here. Or, if you can find one, maybe there’s someone online who does imports that might be willing to help import one.
But yeah, I really hope they expand their business here even though they’ll be absolutely 100% legally bullied out of business and forced to leave the US market because cApItAlIsM.
My wife and I got new phones earlier this year, because her battery wasn’t holding a charge anymore. The FP5 looked awesome and had everything we wanted, but they won’t release it in the US. So we were stuck with the usual suspects. I understand why FP can’t bring all of their stuff here, but it still sucks.
I’m the US… Literally a new phone every one or two years.
If you’re thrifty like me, it’s every four years. And watch as that phone suffers from bad battery life, then incredible slowdown, then apps not updating/working, or worst… your phone provider refuses to support your device any longer. You Feel forced to upgrade your perfectly workable mobile device.
We pay a subscription fee for both the service AND the hardware.
My current phone is 5 years old. Could use a battery (which I can buy for $10). It runs faster than any phone in my circle (running a fork of Lineage, currently Android 13, and it will get the update to 14 any day now).
No reason phones can’t last a long time.
Oh, and I paid $100 for this phone, so I have 3 them, one for testing and one as a hot spare, and still spent less than buying new.
I’m still rocking my Galaxy S8. Gonna use it till the battery is toast.
I’ll get occasional hangups and stuff but it’s definitely useable still.
Same here. However the lack of security update + battery life ans slowness is pushing me toward a new phone.
A shame, it’s still in good condition. And that small form factor is becoming more and more rare…
I feel like I still want a phone that is repairable but also upgradeable. Slowly being able to swap in a better screen, better camera, and a new mainboard when it’s time to upgrade.
The Google Ara was supposed to be exactly this. I think it has since been abandoned. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Ara#:~:text=Google%20planned%20to%20launch%20a,planned%20consumer%20launch%20in%202017.
I think the Pinephone/Pinephone Pro has this functionality.
It’s still very much a developer’s device, though. It isn’t ready for widespread use.
Yes I’m very disappointed the the FP4 looks almost the same as the FP4 but isn’t backwards compatible in the slightest… I was looking forward to upgrade my screen.
This is total green washing marketing bs.
They purposely removed the headphone jack and started selling disposable earbuds. This one move alone will generate more ewaste than any swappable parts.
This company is full of it. They don’t care about the environment and they certainly don’t care about their customers.
While the headphone issue is problematic, it’s a single issue amidst a deluge of ethical and sustainable practices by the company. Including, but not limited to:
Fairphone carefully sources the components in every device, and the workers who put them together have safe and healthy working conditions. Where possible, Fairphone uses recycled materials (plastic, tin solder paste, steel, and nickel alloy), sources Fairtrade gold, and buys cobalt and silver credits to support the improvement of working conditions for miners.
The factories that make the Fairphone pay a living wage to workers. It also employs 100 percent renewable energy. Fairphone invests in projects to reduce CO2 emissions, and to balance bringing a new phone into the world, Fairphone recycles the equivalent amount of e-waste. It has a B Corp certification, which means its claims have been independently vetted, and Fairphone regularly releases impact reports.
(As reported by wired.com)
Absolutely they should get push back on the headphone situation. But calling it “greenwashibg marking bs” is textbook “letting perfect be the enemy of good”. Simply put, almost no other company even competes with Fairphone in the field of ethical phone manufacturing.
Are you going to back that up with something or stick to “my word is truth”? Because it doesn’t take much to go to their site and see that the earbuds are discontinued. Or that for a company full of it they sure go to great lengths about being transparent. They even have a page explaining why they removed the headphone jack.
I get that their own site could all be “just marketing” but that’s why I’m asking where’s the proof that they’re as shitty as you claim?
I mean, how many people still use wired earbuds? I’d be surprised if it is 5% of users
I would still us wired earbuds if my phone still had a headphone jack… It hard to find a good phone that still has a jack and this sucks
Use a dongle or usb c earbuds
I had 2, lost both :(
“I mean, how many people in this town eat hamburgers anyway? Ever since the only hamburger shop for miles around burned down I would be surprised if it’s 5%”
Me, everyday. Bluetooth just doesn’t offer the same sound quality.
I have three pairs of wired earphones (plus more regular headphones) and a portable DAC amp. I know what you mean though, Bluetooth headphones really are the norm these days. The tech in them also make them hard to repair.
I use a usbc dac and a 3d printed brace to prevent it from bending. For how infrequently I use the earbuds it’s fine for me. Most of my phone based music listening is at work on an AliExpress Bluetooth device hooked up to the speakers pulled from my car before junking it. (Catalytic had been stolen and it had 400+ thou. km on it)
I do, however the headphone jack on my last phone was so bad I ended up just using the dongle anyway to get decent audio.
they certainly don’t care about their customers.
Yes, because if they did they would make sure to provide the security required by GrapheneOS.
The headphone jack is worse off than just the USBc port.
While I’d like two USB ports (one in top and in on bottom), the headphone jack won’t be missed.
I can disagree with this a little. At least the bootloader isn’t locked. But overall, you’re right.
is this an ad?
I see it more like a hacker news style “show HN”
I’ve had a fairphone 4 running /e/OS (aftermarket) for a month now and im very happy with it. It consistently surprises me and exceeds my expectations in terms of flexibility and reliability (and of course privacy).
You should be aware that there are occasionally compatibility issues with common apps – particularly proprietary ones. The worst incident was when the NordVPN app stopped working for me a few days ago… though this may have been a problem with /e/OS or the custom launcher ive installed rather than with Fairphone. I ended up switching to Mullvad VPN and i like it a lot more.
Also I have not been able to purchase any paid apps via the App Lounge… i get a google error message stating that my device isnt registered with the Google Play Store or something like that. not sure if its just me or a widespread problem. I suspect it is an /e/OS issue that might not present itself if u are just using stock Android. If you have some absolutely must-have google play store paid apps that you can’t do without, I’d avoid /e/OS for now and some research to make sure this bug doesnt exist when using Android on FP4.
At this stage i cant recommend it for mom & dad or someone without any tech savvy whatsoever… but the privacy and flexibility make these minor setbacks absolutely worth it to me.
Overall i have no regrets and I can honestly say this is one of the most satisfying purchases I’ve ever made.
Also I have not been able to purchase any paid apps
It’s the same on my Pixel 6a with CalyxOS and the Aurora Store (anonymous access to Play Store). We simply cannot get a paid Play Store app to work without logging into Google. I can get my bank app, local transit app, firefox, bitwarden, etc from there as well as what I’ve settled on for driving nav, HereWeGo.
That’s TomTom’s free nav app and it appears to get it’s traffic info from the commercial solutions TomTom provides to truckers (paid service for them). It’s good enough, but I do miss Google Maps sometimes. I like it better than Apple Maps.
Most everything else is handled through FDroid and the apps are decent to great, no show stoppers. I don’t use it for much that would leak privacy on the app side besides banking, browsing and navigation though. It’s not for everyone.
The only way I can think of to use paid apps is to pay the developer directly and then sideload. I don’t even know if any devs do that.
As long as /e/os hangs tough my next phone will probably be a FairPhone, I really dig the philosophy and repairability.
You can buy apps from the play store with your google account in a browser, then log into your google account in aurora to download them. If your google account is important to you, you should be aware of the risk that google might ban it though. I recommend using a separate account for aurora. And it’s also of course less private than using aurora anonymously.
log into your google account in aurora
Yeah, no deal. Google login does not touch this phone. It’s just how I like it.
I’m writing this on a Fairphone 5 right now, the hardware is great, the only slight issue is the USB C Port is a little looser than I would like, not enough for a problem, alas.
The main issue currently is the software, there’s a few well known bugs that cause annoyances that the Fairphone forum widely know about, one of which requires you to hold the power button down and force restart the phone. I am confident that the developers and customer support are aware of these bugs and are working to fix them.
Overall I’m happy with it, £700 isn’t too bad for a phone that I’m going to try to keep for the whole 8 to 10 years that have promised security patches. Sure its doesn’t have flagship specs, but no day to day tasks for me require that power.
I have to say that in terms of software the team is amazing. They seem to listen to the community, and work super hard to keep up with the updates.
USB C Port is a little looser than I would like
Maybe yours is one that barely passed QC. That’s one of the replaceable modules though right? Might be worth contacting CS about.
I mean I would if the cable kept becoming unplugged, its more it wiggles more than I’d like
I am happy with my FP3, only weaknesses I perceive are the low res camera and the almost never working finger print sensor. Besides that it´s a really good phone. When I got it I completely disassembled it and put it back together -just because- and it still worked!
Couldnt the fp3 camera be replaced with the plus camera? Or is it low res too?
Yes, the camera+ module is compatible and can turn an FP3 into an FP3+
Very interested in repair but I also want software freedom, and I’ve not heard anything about avoiding proprietary drivers/software.
I run /e/ OS on my FP4, super easy install. Been loving it.
How do you do if you need for work to use Google products? I would love to use alternative OS, but I cannot because of my job
Google services are not installed by default but you can install the play store and other google apps from the built in app store if you need them. The only thing I am lacking from stock is google pay because I haven’t installed any google services but I’m fine with that trade off.
The built-in anti tracking and privacy features a very nice
I would love to use /e/ but I couldn’t get it to install. It seemed my phone was the wrong version of the phone it was. Like a revision 1.01 kind of situation. They should also change the project name, it’ll be killing their SEO.
That’s a shame, are you talking about a fair phone? I was not aware there could be versioning issues, I thought the hardware was unchanged per model.
I am not talking about a fair phone
And yet they straight up ignore one of the biggest cell phone markets by not selling in the US at all.
small company, my dude. they only have a few hundred employees, but they have said numerous times that they are planning to bring a full release to the US.
