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?
When I couldn’t repair my Nokia and replace the 5 € USB-Port because there happened to be a small crack in the screen (of course you have to remove the glued on screen to accese the innards), I caved and bought a Fairphone 3.
Worst decision ever. The stupid thing refuses to break to let me even use the better repairability.
you got me
almost like a toyota, outdated and often too expensive for what it can do but will last forever.
too expensive for what it can do but will last forever
As far as I’m concerned, this is contradictory; if something is going to last forever, and not ridiculously overpriced, then it’s worth the premium.
i think it’s worth the price, but some people don’t think as far. they just compare specs and say “this chinesium phone scores 2 points better in some benchmark and costs 200€” not knowing why it’s that cheap in the first place. old toyotas are still worth something for a reason.
I mean, they’re not even that expensive to begin with.
Agreed. They’re statement was very subjective, so it’s kind of hard to argue with that metric.
You say that but there are Toyotas with 100k miles and 15 years old selling for 4k off MSRP of a brand-new vehicle. Which is to say way above original MSRP.
In pure maintenance consumable items alone - it’s a bad deal. It’s so a bad deal when you take consideration that new cars can have half the interest rate of a new one.
Can confirm, nothing broke yet :(
I was so ready to go hard on this comment, you got me there pal.
Ironically Nokia* now make highly repairable phones** again
* Specifically, the company that bought the Nokia Phones brand
** Only their G series
I had the same thing with the FP2. I even got a cheap spare one from ebay to use for spares. Both are still fine. One is now an alarm clock and the other one is a gps for my bike
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 feel like having to replace charging cords is an Apple issue specifically.
I’m horrified by the amount of time my wife had to replace her Mac charger because the cord was breaking.
I don’t think I ever had to replace the cord on any of my laptop, replacing the charger because the cord is breaking has never been a consideration before.
I’ve found that breaking cables is a personal issue. I still have an old usb Xbox 360 controller for pc gaming from when I owned an xbox. My partner has destroyed cables for laptops, hairdryers, headphones in less than 12 months.
Some cables are objectively worse than others (macbook chargers I’m looking at you) but a modicum of care generally is enough to make sure they last without too much hassle.
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
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!)
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.
Actually, there is at least one other company specializing in sustainable / repairable electronics - besides Fairphone - I’m aware of.
Check out Shiftphone: Their new Shiftphone 8 (still under development / construction) will be a pretty solid deal with a reasonable price-performance ratio - already pre ordered mine and very excited for final delivery in March.
… Their previous models as well as spare parts, etc. are also still available through their shop.
I can’t speak to your other requirements but the Nokia brand has a couple of repairable phones as a result of an ifixit partnership.
As Linux Phones they’re a bit more niche but the Librem 5 and the Pine Phone/Pro are very repairability focussed
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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.
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.
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
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.
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 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)
they certainly don’t care about their customers.
Yes, because if they did they would make sure to provide the security required by GrapheneOS.
I can disagree with this a little. At least the bootloader isn’t locked. But overall, you’re right.
It’s a great thing, and I hope the industry (with motivation by EU) will follow a trend towards repairability and sustainability. However I think the most sustainable way is buying used devices.
Unfortunately you need something with long firmware and software support. Qualcomm is your enemy, they stop updating the firmware of their chips after about two years and that’s why android phones often stop getting updates less than 2 years after you buy them.
That’s true. I use LineageOS to get at least OS updates, but firmware is definitely problematic. I just wished mobile hardware would be more generic like in Desktop PCs, that would solve a lot of problems.
Let’s go back to thicc boi phones like the 80s and we could have some pretty sick homebrew options
Or hell, why not a modern bucket phone? Build it out in a box with a Bluetooth headset and 3.5mm passthrough
We need a phone equivalent of the 80’s BIOS wars.
But it’s not in anyone’s best interest to spend the resources to develop a standardized hardware interface. Though at this point you’d think it would be straightforward to use UEFI.
they’re selling refurbished FP4s now but yeah, buy used phones, or at least B-stock.
Used devices still break and end in landfills, though, used might be better than new for carbon output today, but repairable is gonna win out in that regard long term
even better, a used repairable phone.
Hopefully in the future repairable and used can go hand in hand! Those are not mutually exclusive attributes.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
I tried /e/OS too, and had a great experience. The system has a polished feel and a lot of privacy-oriented settings by default, when compared to stock android.
I see a lot of criticism about that OS on reddit/lemmy, but never objectively stating what they mean, so I don’t know what to think about it.
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.
Lineage OS can (optionally) link to Google services, so that would be a suitable OS for users needing Google
Sadly, their software QA sucks and thus the phone is buggy as hell.
Whitch is really frustrating because otherwise it’s a pretty good (if oversized and overly expensive) phone.
the OS is missing features, i’ll give you that. but it’s never as buggy as the 300€ phones people compare it to. trust me, i owned a Poco X3.
Missing features? It’s more or less stock Android with a different launcher. Which features are missing? 😯
I miss mostly small details. example: an option only have the fingerprint reader activate if the power button is pressed (when screen is off). why? cause the fingerprint sensor is the power button, and it’s the place I happen to hold the phone at when putting it IN my pocket, often unlocking it. it also keeps vibrating with ‘negative detection’ haptic feedback when just handling the phone, and any part of the hand touches the sensor.
there are quite a few options like this missing that area common on other phones.
exactly
Indeed. I own the 3 and it’s ups and downs. In the end it is still good enough plus the aspect of more fairness in the whole process.
Own a fp4, dont have any issues. But i am running lineageOS on it :')
I believe the concept behind Fairphone sounds interesting, but I think this thing about being environmentally friendly shouldn’t be focused on high-end devices, if the Fairphone 5 costs the same as 10 cheap devices(considering cheap devices have a lifetime of 1.5 years) and a biggest % of people would be able to afford a 60 bucks device vs a 600 bucks one I don’t see the point here, maybe they should make a device focused on the cheap budget pocket to really fight with the devices consumerism who are the ones what mainly create the e-waste problem. I’m not an expert but this is my humble POV.
I wonder if its just cheaper to make the crappy disposable devices, either because just gluing shit together is easy, or because the existing business model & supply lines based on planned obsolescence are established and optimised.
Ultimately any business model based on chasing anything but the most money is going to be at a disadvantage under capitalism. Want to prioritise good products, less waste, human dignity, not destroying the ecology? Well, you’re going to make less money, so you can spend less on capturing market share and you will always have a more niche and more expensive product that will be left behind by products that focus on money above all else.
I believe anything don’t cost by itself, I mean money and prices are a man-made concept englobed into economy, so I believe making cheap stuff and making expensive stuff are just two concepts englobed into capitalism.
My point would be, to get rid of e-waste we don’t need eco-friendly corporations, we need to get rid of the mayor problem which it’s capitalism by itself and it’s consumerism practices.
Yeah, in a better world where the people have control of the means of production, we wouldn’t care at all about financial return when making something. We’d make it to work well and to last and to be repairable, just like current open source hardware is. We’d make it for us.
True dat folk! ✌️🤞
Needs indefinite software support too. It has 8 years software support, which is the best that exists I think, but that means I’ll have to trash it in 8 years for no good reason. The only reason I’ve had to get rid of old phones is because they weren’t providing security updates anymore.
Security updates are good but the major of the weakness it’s the human using the device, there wouldn’t be any security update which can fight a dumb user, my humble POV.
I’m not saying you are dumb, what I’m saying it’s from my POV security updates are redundant.
According what I know about devices security updates are meant to protect corporations interests they usually are not to protect you from being hacked it’s more like to protect the corporations devices from you hacking it.
There’s vulnerabilities like the recent iMessage exploit that are executed remotely through no interaction by the user. In combination with the ability to self-spread you get mass exploits like WannaCry which spread to 300k+ computers in 7 hours. All you need is a network connection.
The problem is that, apparently the software support is lacking.
It seems security updates are (very) slow to come.
It’s a shame because the concept is very interesting and was thinking of taking the fairphone 5 as my next phone. However the bad feedback regarding updates made me look into another model
Imo, paying a small extra for the device makes sense because it’s not a huge company, and the r&d must be expensive.
Yeah I mean for people who can afford any phone out there it’s not a big problem, but if you are from IDK maybe the 80% who cannot do it I believe it’s better if they focus or at least have a line of products for the people who would be interested in a budget price phone, people who don’t need the most great-eco-friendly phone with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of ROM, maybe something optimized for work with 4GB/64GB configuration and could last 5 years it’s a better idea for me but anyway I’m really not interested into having 24 cores CPU and 350 megapixel camara just to watch porn and news in Lemmy haha. It depends of the needs of the user but maybe focusing too into a more practical phone for the 80% of users could be good for the business.
It’s a very neat idea (I myself would get a mid range phone like that), but I wonder if they can actually do that… Has anyone ever asked them?
The problem I think it’s about the production and costs, all corporations nowdays manufacture in China so I believe if there would be a great budget/eco-friendly phone or another products what can actually fight in the global market it have to be a Chinese company who make it. But I believe the Chinese are not interested in it if they can keep making cheap stuff and sell it like hamburgers for the hungers. So for Fairphone being an European company I think it’s better to stick in the high-end niche. At least that way they can sell their stuff to eco-friendly wannabes and keep making a good profit in the side.
When are we going to get worldwide shipping Fairphone? Next year maybe?
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+
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
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.
Technically you can buy one in the US, but spare parts (especially the battery) might pose some issues
But it’s deGoogled running something called /e/OS, and it’s only compatible with T-Mobile and stuff that uses their network
I’d love a fully featured one here in the states that can be brought to any carrier over here
/e/ was a fork of Lineage a couple years ago (not sure if it still is).
Their approach is to use their own cloud system instead of Google’s. I think they promote it as more secure (as in they don’t see your data), but I don’t recall for sure.
You can run their OS without using their sync system too. You could flash something like MicroG or even authentic Google Play Services (it’s available from Google as a couple packages).
Don’t trust me on this, my memory is a bit suspect, but I played with /e/ a couple years ago. And they need to change that name - they said they were going to.
Well they don’t ignore that market. They decided to not sell there yet. Because going to a new large market far away from all your warehouses and with a potential large demand cause a lot of headaches. Not to mention all the regulations and rules they need to abide by.
