Fairphone Explained

Fairphone B.V.
Type:Privately held company
Industry:Telecommunications equipment
Hq Location City:Amsterdam
Hq Location Country:Netherlands
Area Served:Western and Central Europe except Malta and Cyprus
Products:Smartphones

Fairphone is a Dutch electronics manufacturer that designs and produces smartphones and headphones. It aims to minimise the ethical and environmental impact of its devices by using recycled, fairtrade and conflict-free materials, maintaining fair labor conditions throughout its workforce and suppliers, and enabling users to easily repair their devices through modular design and by providing replacement parts.[1]

, the company's most recent smartphone is the Fairphone 5, which it plans to provide with security updates and software support, including 5 OS updates, for 10 years.[2] [3] [4]

History

Fairphone was founded by Bas van Abel, Tessa Wernink and Miquel Ballester[5] as a social enterprise company in January 2013, having existed as a campaign for two and a half years.

In April 2015 the company became a registered B Corporation.[6]

Since version two, the Fairphone is produced in Suzhou, China, by Hi-P International Limited.[7]

In November 2021, the Fairphone 4 was made available.

As of February 2022, Fairphone had sold around 400,000 devices.[8]

In 2023 a consortium of impact investors led by new shareholders Invest-NL, the ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund, and existing shareholder Quadia, with its Regenero Impact Fund, invested €49 million in Fairphone.[9]

Products

Name!rowspan=2
Release
date
SoCCPUGPUMemory
(GB)
Storage
(GB)
DisplayCameraInitial
Android
version
Battery
capacity
(mAh)
TypeSpeed
(GHz)
CoresTypeSpeed
(MHz)
Size
(inches)
PPIRearFront
Fairphone 1MediaTek MT6589Cortex-A71.24PowerVR SGX544MP2861164.32568MP1.3MP4.2.22000
Fairphone 2Qualcomm Snapdragon 801Krait 4002.264Adreno 330578232544612MP5MP5.12420
Fairphone 3Qualcomm Snapdragon 632Kryo 250
Gold+Silver
1.8+1.84+4Adreno 5066004645.6542712MP8MP93060
Fairphone 3+48MP (12MP output)16MP10
Fairphone 4Qualcomm Snapdragon 750GKryo 570
Gold+Silver
2.2+1.82+6Adreno 6199506/8128/2566.340948MP OIS,
48 MP Ultrawide,
(ToF + Color) sensor
25MP113905
Fairphone 5[10] Qualcomm Snapdragon QCM6490Kryo 670
Prime+Gold+Silver
2.7+2.4+1.91+3+4Adreno 6438128256
+up to 2TB
6.4650MP OIS,
50 MP Ultrawide,
(ToF + Color) sensor
50MP134200

Social impact and competitors

The phone is modular, which makes it easily repairable and customisable by the user. According to the company, increasing the lifespan of a phone by two years reduces CO₂ emissions by 30%.

The gold and silver in Fairphone 4 has the Fairtrade label, also metals used are said to come from conflict-free mines.[11] The company promises a 5-year warranty period and long-term support for software updating and spare parts.[12] In 2017, Fairphone's founder Bas van Abel acknowledged that it was currently impossible to produce a 100% fair phone, suggesting it was more accurate to call his company's phones "fairer".[13] [14]

In an interview with Will Georgi, Fairphone founder Tessa Vernink mentions:

“There might be a misconception that as a social enterprise, we don’t operate like a ‘normal’ business, but that’s not true. In many ways, most of our choices are the same — we still need to make money and sell phones — but the outcome and the goals are different. Our focus is investing in social innovation, instead of purely technical innovation. When other phone companies design a new phone, they research new technology — we research supply chain improvement.”
A survey conducted by Franziska Verna Haucke in the Journal of Cleaner Production found:
Surprisingly, the findings show that alternative consumption seems to influence the involvement with the Fairphone and social commitment negatively seems to play a minor role in the model. These aspects point to the Fairphone as a technical artifact, centered on a choice for a sustainable lifestyle.
Shiftphone is another small mobile telephone manufacturer with a 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.

Recognition and certifications

thumb|Tessa Wernink (right) receiving the Tech5 award at The Next Web Conference 2015

In 2016, Fairphone's founder and first CEO Bas van Abel was one of the three recipients of the German Environmental Award.[15]

Operating systems

Fairphones can run several operating systems, including CalyxOS, DivestOS, /e/, iodeOS, LineageOS, Ubuntu Touch, and more.[16] Murena, the company associated with the /e/ foundation, also sells Fairphones with /e/ pre-installed and offers a warranty for them.[17] As of 2023 the official /e/ support for FP3 is based on Android 12.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Haucke . Franziska Verena . Smartphone-enabled social change: Evidence from the Fairphone case? . . 2018 . 197 . 1719–1730 . 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.014. 157498710 .
  2. News: Gibbs . Samuel . Fairphone 5 review: could this be the first phone to last 10 years? . The Guardian . 8 September 2023.
  3. Web site: Porter . Jon . The Fairphone 5 is less about what comes in the box and more about what you get over the years . The Verge . en . 29 September 2023.
  4. Hill . Simon . The Fairphone 5 Is a Smartphone for a More Ethical World . WIRED . 22 September 2023.
  5. Web site: Fairphone: Calling for Change . Homerun.co . 27 January 2017 . 2 September 2019 . https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20180922164512/https://interviews.artofwork.co/fairphone-calling-for-change-e4a54db6d90c?gi=c96e28927ae . dead . 22 September 2018 .
  6. Web site: Fairphone - Certified B Corporation - B Lab Global . 2022-09-13 . www.bcorporation.net . en-us.
  7. Web site: The path to finding our new production partner: Hi-P . Hebert . Olivier . 19 February 2015 . 18 January 2021.
  8. News: Schweiger . Francesca . 22 February 2022 . The mobile phones you can take apart and repair yourself . BBC News . Berlin .
  9. Web site: Impact investor consortium invests €49 million in Fairphone . Fairphone . 30 August 2023.
  10. Web site: The Fairphone 5 is here, and it's the sleekest repairable phone yet. Vonau. Manuel. Vonau. Manuel. 2023-08-30. www.androidpolice.com. Berlin, Germany. 2023-08-30.
  11. News: Gibbs . Samuel . 2021-10-15 . Fairphone 4 review: ethical repairable phone gets big upgrade . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-04-19 . 0261-3077 . It includes fair trade gold and silver, ethically sourced aluminium and tungsten, plus recycled tin, copper, rare earth metals and plastic..
  12. Web site: 30 September 2021 . Fairphone's latest sustainable smartphone comes with a five-year warranty . 2023-04-19 . www.theverge.com.
  13. Web site: Douglas Rushkoff . Douglas Rushkoff . 24 July 2018 . How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse . 13 March 2020 . The Guardian.
  14. https://teamhuman.fm/episodes/ep-30-bas-van-abel-fingerprints-on-the-touchscreen/ Bas van Abel 'Fingerprints on the Touchscreen'
  15. Web site: Charlotta. Lomas. Fairphone creator: Success is a signal to industry. Deutsche Welle. 28 October 2016.
  16. Web site: 2022-06-06 . ✏ Operating Systems for Fairphones . 2022-06-29 . Fairphone Community Forum . en.
  17. Web site: Smartphones . 2023-10-26 . Murena - deGoogled phones and services . en-GB.