A place for quality hardware news, reviews, and intelligent discussion.
Fairphone is a for-profit business, correct?
If so, what's there to prevent the company from eventually (or even now) prioritizing profits over the longevity of its products? For example, let's say that their board wants to make higher margins. One way they can accomplish this is to use poor-quality parts in the initial product so that they need to be repaired more often, thus, they sell more replacement parts.
"How to convince myself that I can continue to consume from known bad companies."
They're a limited liability company, so no stock market pressure. As a Dutch BV voting majority can still lie with the founders.
They're on Fairphone 5 now, which is the first one I'd consider buying if I was in the market for a new one phone right now.
Most people buy a new phone if it gets damaged from a drop. It happens quite often. Here you can swap the parts cheaply and with only a screwdriver.
If you wonder how sturdy it is: https://youtu.be/H1UJ5k3yMvA?si=zQ1VEeA8YqMINUR7
This one dives deeper into the lifecycle: https://youtu.be/lU4vv7qCQvg?si=XiE0QBWP6iNMbQJ_
You can find the Lifecycle Analysis of Frauenhofer institute with a bit of googling.
And here's Louis Rossman on it: https://youtu.be/EAogtqyN22M?si=9slIZEuTbAZhE__Y
And remember, you can always switch away from Fairphone if they become "evil". It's not like Google, Amazon or the influence of Social Media companies that you can't escape.
"How to convince myself that I can continue to consume from known bad companies."
Man, as someone who did tons of computer repair and support in my early years, the hoops and loops people go to keep buying stuff from apple, as maybe a bit of an extreme example, is just amazing!
I see it with stuff from amazon, nvidia and ea too, specially frustrating when there are clear less evil alternatives!
Makes sense because they said they removed the headphone jack because you can use the type c port.
More wear on the type c port means it will break faster.
The software developers don't actually have the phone they develop the software for. When there's bugs, support will just tell you to use a workaround and it will almost never get fixed with the next update.
Ya but everyone sells those they don't have a monopoly also I assume you can wirelessly charge which reduces port wear
It doesn't have that
I agree, that repairability is highly overrated when it comes to e-waste. iFixit did a good job convincing people of that.
But to be fair (no pun intended) Fairphone uses some obscure automotive QCM6490 in their Fairphone so they can offer software updates until 2031. So they did a pretty good job on the in my opinion by far the biggest contributing factor when it comes to smartphone e-waste, offering long software support.
"Highly overrated" how?
It is not green to repair a phone, it is green to get a case for your phone so you don’t destroy it in the first place.
Also I saw way more phones and laptops go into the trash because I could not buy a replacement part (2,5y old Acer Laptop, according to Acer end of life, could not find a new battery) or because software support ended (Windows 10 support will end 2025, lots of laptops don’t meet the hardware requirement for Win11, or smartphones like Galaxy S20 only getting 3y of security updates) is a WAY bigger factor than „easy repairability“.
I also don’t agree that something is difficult to repair, just because you need some tools or have to peel of some glue that prevented water damage of thousands of smartphones. I also don’t agree with the iFixit conclusion that it is anti consumer that the iOS tells the customer if the screen, battery or something else was replaced, which could potentially be of worse quality. As long as the device does not block these parts (which it does not to my knowledge) I think it is pro consumer because it prevents second hand ripoff’s.
I agree with you 95%, but a case can't stop the battery from eating itself after 500 cycles or 4 years, so that does need to be replaceable (at a workbench, with proper tools, by someone with a modicum of care and patience).
(In fact, to some degree cases make it worse, by holding heat in during charging.)
I always charge my phone when it's still over 50% that way the "fast charge" doesn't kick in the temperature is just a little warm, but when I forgot to charge before I leave home and ended up like 20% left, I remove the case and let it fast charge. Otherwise I always opt for slow charge.
The case like he said actually really helped alot, dropped my phone many times it's still fine, no crack no weird malfunction.
Of course batteries do degrade overtime but at least the phone case did the job to prevent many parts replacements.
Yeah, I prevent fast charge by charging from a USB port on my PC. Typically I plug in at 30-40% and stop at 70%. I do have a crack though... in the screen protector, which I will get around to replacing eventually, I swear.
so that does need to be replaceable
Totally agree. But to be fair, it is pretty easy to replace a battery for most phones and laptops. It is way harder to get none Aliexpress battery replacement. Especially if you bought some random Acer or Asus model. Then even iFixit is not able to sell you a battery.
Which major smart phones over the last ten years have not had replaceable batteries?
Even if the iPhone battery can only be replaced by an Apple-certified repair shop, you can just calculate that added tax into the overall price of using the phone over 5-6 years. I don't really see what the issue is. It's not like it's expensive to have your battery replaced, and you only need to do it literally once over the useful lifespan of any phone.
I think I see where you're coming from, but a few points don't stick. I think ease of repair, availability of replacement parts and software support are often used in combination to dissuade the continued use of a product. I ended up ditching my (at the time new) Samsung S8 because it was so difficult to repair, well before it's scheduled end-of-life. It had a case, but shit happens.
And I think the more recent Iphones do actually block certain functionality if a part is replaced by a 3rd party, genuine article nonwithstanding. Having the part identified as genuine, 3rd party or non Apple installed in the settings or something would probably be fine, but that's not what's happening.
And for the last point, mostly agreed, but a business profiting from a customer's desire to do good doesn't disqualify the good that a business might do while also profiting. It would be great if there was some not-for-profit/governent run rating on device longevity/repairability, as some countries do for electricity/water useage, but I'll take the imperfect solution until then.
And I think the more recent Iphones do actually block certain functionality if a part is replaced by a 3rd party, genuine article nonwithstanding. Having the part identified as genuine, 3rd party or non Apple installed in the settings or something would probably be fine, but that's not what's happening.
I think that is exactly what is happening, but I am very open to new evidence.
but a business profiting from a customer's desire to do good doesn't disqualify the good that a business might do while also profiting.
God no, and I hope that my writing did not come off like that. English is not my native language. No, I think they do an excellent job, I just take what they say when it comes to repair regulations with a grain of salt.
This is not much of an issue for this type of market, if they stop doing the whole fair thing it's going to become obvious pretty quick when you can't get parts. This type of customer will be on the issue quickly and when repairs are too common or expensive they will simply buy other phones.
Nice to have, except I believe they are not available in the US.
Regardless, it's not the phone for me. I never had to get any of my phones repaired, and once I was done with them after 2 to 3 years, I just handed them off to my parents to use.
If you are careful with your phone and not breaking them, this phone isn't for you.
I apploud what they do, at the same time - I just don't care to use thee devices myself. Generally I swap out phones every 2-3 years, what happens to the old one varries. If I have to heavily compensate on a device, I just quite simply won't.
I just really love actually good devices, whether it's a android top model, base spec MacBook air or a top specceed PC.
Honestly, modern phones last 4-5+ years. The two-year upgrade cycle made more sense when the technology was rapidly improving and there were significant changes in user experience from year to year.
The only thing is you may have to replace your battery halfway through the life-cycle of your phone, but that's not a big deal.
I genuinely don't get the appeal of the Fairphone. Just keep your normal smartphone (be it Android, iPhone, or whatever) as long as you can then recycle it once you're ready to upgrade.
This is not the phone for phone enthusiasts who wants the best everything. But this is the phone for the average joe who asks the tech enthusiast.
Having a phone that's they won't need to change for >5 years can be a nice thing. My parents refuse to switch from their mi mix 2 because it still runs well (except for the battery) and they dread transferring datas
Can't unlock it, can't root it - without losing the 5 (!) years of warranty. Great phone, but it's horribly locked down. Useful for a grandma maybe. But a grandma can also just use a Samsung Galaxy A-series for 5 years without any problems.
I rate PoopPhone a Meh out of 10.
Ps.: You can also buy a Pixel 8-series, get 7 years of updates and you can unlock it any time without losing warranty.
Yes, one small company will definitely change global e-waste problems. /s
I love the idea, but unless everyone does the same it's unfortunately pointless.
My only issue with fairphone is that the phones simply haven't been high end enough. But they're slowly solving that, each new phone has been a lot better.
I love what Fairphone is doing, but I would still be more likely to buy a Google Pixel 8 as my next phone, due to the better hardware security and long-term support provided by GrapheneOS. I wish Fairphone would have better HW security as well someday.
When considering the entire supply chain, some early electric vehicles were actually a net negative for the world around us. That's not why people bought them anyway, it was the fuel and maintenance cost savings. Equally true then, nobody is buying a Fairphone for "sustainable living", it's just a device that's easier to repair and the truth is consumers could care less how it's manufactured. The greenwashing stinks.
I would buy one but to quote them the most sustainble phone is the one you currently use ! got mine two years ago and I will keep using it until it dies
For anyone wondering, I'm typing this comment on my Fairphone 4s, almost a year old now and still works as new, honestly haven't had a single issue. I've had various androids before but none lasted more than a couple years, after a year or so they all started getting slower and developing other problems, the main reason I bought this one is because I want one that actually lasts longer.
I kind of don’t get this phone. Wouldn’t buying a used iPhone 11 be better for the planet plus, perform better and cost a fraction of the fairphone?