Fairphone

Fairphone is an electronics manufacturer that designs and produces smartphones with the goal of having a lower environmental footprint and better social impact than is common in the industry. In particular, the company aims to minimize the use of conflict minerals in its devices, maintain fair labor conditions for its workforce and suppliers, and allow users to maintain their own devices. The company was founded in 2013 as a social enterprise with the support of the Waag Society, and is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Fairphone B.V.
TypePrivately held company
IndustryTelecommunications equipment
FoundedJanuary 2013 (2013-01)
FounderTessa Wernink 
Headquarters
Amsterdam
,
Netherlands
Key people
ProductsSmartphones
Websitewww.fairphone.com

As of 2022 the company's most recent model is the Fairphone 4 (announced September 30, 2021), a modular smartphone which supports 5G connectivity, has dual 48MP cameras with optical image stabilization, an IP54 rating and MIL810G drop test certification. The purpose of modularity is to make the phone easily repairable and customisable by the user, and therefore longer-lasting. According to the company, increasing the lifespan of a phone by two years reduces CO₂ emissions by 30%.[1]

History
A Fairphone employee meeting tungsten miners at the New Bugurama Mining Company in Rwanda
Back of a Fairphone 2 with transparent cover, showing its modular design

Fairphone was founded by Bas van Abel, Tessa Wernink and Miquel Ballester[2] as a social enterprise company in January 2013, having existed as a campaign for two and a half years. The company states on its website that it "designs and produces smartphones with minimal harm to society and the environment".[3]

Since version two the Fairphone is produced in Suzhou, China, by Hi-P International Limited.[4]

Fairphone's founder Bas van Abel acknowledged in 2017 that it was currently impossible to produce a 100% fair phone, suggesting it was more accurate to call his company's phones "fairer".[5][6]

As at February 2022, Fairphone has sold around 400,000 devices.[1]

Products
Name Release
date		 SoC CPU GPU Memory
(GB)		 Storage
(GB)		 Display Camera Initial
Android
version		 Battery
capacity
(mAh)
Type Speed
(GHz)		 Cores Type Speed
(MHz)		 Size
(inches)		 PPI Rear Front
Fairphone 1 Dec 2013 MediaTek MT6589 Cortex-A7 1.2 4 PowerVR SGX544MP 286 1 16 4.3 256 8MP 1.3MP 4.2.2 2000
Fairphone 2 Dec 2015 Qualcomm 801
(MSM8974AB)		 Krait 400 2.26 4 Adreno 330 578 2 32 5 446 12MP 5MP 5.1 2420
Fairphone 3 Sep 2019 Qualcomm 632 Kryo 250
Gold+Silver		 1.8+1.8 4+4 Adreno 506 600 4 64 5.65 427 12MP 8MP 9 3060
Fairphone 3+ Sep 2020 48MP 16MP
Fairphone 4 Sep 30, 2021 Qualcomm 750G Kryo 570
Gold+Silver		 2.2+1.8 2+6 Adreno 619 6/8 128/256 6.3 410 48MP OIS,

48 MP Ultrawide,

(ToF + Color) sensor

25MP 11 3905

Reviews

The Fairphones focus on sustainability and repairability rather than performance. Chris Hall of Pocket-lint.com describes the Fairphone 4 as a solid mid-range device that "offers reasonable performance, it's never going to be a power house when it comes to sheer performance".[1]

Fairphone 4 (released in September 2021) received generally positive reviews praising its guarantee of software support until 2025, 5-year warranty, and improvements over its predecessor. Points criticised include occasionally sluggish performance, the quality of the camera and fingerprint sensor, and the omission of a headphone jack.[7][8][9]

Price

The Fairphones are priced in the middle of the range of mobile phone prices; for example, the Fairphone 4 in 2022 was priced from €579.[10]

Similar products

The Shiftphone is another small mobile telephone manufacturer with focus on sustainability, and also developed a modular smartphone. The founder of Shiftphone considers that the two companies working in collaboration could have more influence on bigger competitors.[1]

Recognition and certifications
Tessa Wernink (right) receiving the Tech5 award at The Next Web Conference 2015

In 2015, Fairphone – a certified benefit corporation[11] – won the award for fastest-growing European tech startup at The Next Web conference.[12] Fairphone 2 was the first[13] smartphone to be awarded with a 10/10 score at iFixit for repairability[14][15] and the first mobile phone to receive Blue Angel certification.[16]

In 2016, Fairphone's founder and first CEO Bas van Abel was one of the three recipients of the German Environmental Award.[17]

In 2019, Fairphone won the Partnership Of The Year prize at the Responsible Business Awards.[18]

Partnership with the /e/ Foundation

The Fairphones are normally supplied with the Android operating system. The Fairphone 3 and Fairphone 4 can be supplied, branded Murena, by the /e/ Foundation with its privacy-focussed LineageOS-based operating system /e/ installed.[19] This operating system is designed to include as few Google services as possible, and allows the user to control a variety of privacy-related settings. The operating system can be flashed on a supported phone without payment.[20]

See also

References
  1. Schweiger, Francesca (22 February 2022). "The mobile phones you can take apart and repair yourself". BBC News. Berlin.
  2. Homerun.co (27 January 2017). "Fairphone: Calling for Change". Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  3. "The Circular Phone – Legal, operational and financial solutions to unlock the potential of the 'Fairphone-as-a-Service' model" (pdf). Circle Economy. 2016. p. 5. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  4. Hebert, Olivier (19 February 2015). "The path to finding our new production partner: Hi-P". Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  5. Douglas Rushkoff (24 July 2018). "How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  6. Bas van Abel 'Fingerprints on the Touchscreen', March 2017
  7. Hands on: Fairphone 4 review TechRadar. 2021.
  8. Fairphone 4 review: the price of sustainability The Verge. 2021.
  9. Fairphone 4 review: ethical repairable phone gets big upgrade The Guardian. 2021.
  10. "Fairphone 4". Fairphone Shop. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  11. "Fairphone B-Impact Report". Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  12. Van Wijhe, Jelle. "Tech5: Fairphone named Europe's fastest-growing startup of 2015". The Next Web. The Next Web. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  13. Christian Wölbert, Christian Wölbert (19 November 2015). "Modulares Smartphone: iFixit gibt Fairphone 2 die volle Punktzahl". heise online. Archived from the original on 4 July 2017.
  14. Fairphone 2 Teardown (Technical report). iFixit. 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  15. "iFixit gives modular Fairphone 2 a rare 10 out of 10 for repairability [Updated]". Ars Technica. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  16. "Environmentally Friendly Mobile Phones". The Blue Angel. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  17. Lomas, Charlotta. "Fairphone creator: Success is a signal to industry". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  18. "10th Responsible Business Awards 2019". Ethical Corporation. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  19. "Products – eSolutions – deGoogled phones and services". esolutions Shop. e Foundation. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  20. "/e/OS – deGoogled unGoogled smartphone operating systems and online services". e Foundation. Retrieved 22 February 2022. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)

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