Fairphone’s newest sustainable smartphone comes with a five-year guarantee

Fairphone, the producer targeted on making simple to restore smartphones made out of ethically sourced supplies, simply took the wraps off its fourth-generation handset. The Fairphone 4 makes use of a modular design that’s much like the corporate’s earlier telephones, solely now with extra highly effective internals, a five-year guarantee, and a promise of two main Android updates and software program assist till the top of 2025. Prices begin at €579 / £499 for the telephone, which can ship on October twenty fifth.

I’ve been utilizing the Fairphone 4 for a few days as my main telephone, and whereas I’m not prepared to present a last verdict simply but, it appears like an enormous step ahead in comparison with the dated designs and low-power elements discovered within the firm’s earlier telephones. Stay tuned for my full overview.

Fairphone’s ambition is to provide a extra moral various to trendy smartphones. That means making a tool that’s ethically sourced utilizing sustainable supplies earlier than offering the software program assist and guarantee to make it useable for so long as doable. Although Fairphone is barely guaranteeing software program assist till the top of 2025, it has ambitions to increase this so far as 2027. In a super world, Fairphone would additionally wish to finally launch 2024’s Android 15 as an replace to the telephone.

Normally, the specs of Fairphone’s units are secondary to its moral concerns, however in contrast to its earlier telephones, the Fairphone 4 is aggressive with different mid-range Android handsets. The 5G handset is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 750G processor, and that’s paired with both 6 or 8GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of inner storage, expandable by way of microSD. It’s powered by a 3,905mAh detachable battery, and the show is a 6.3-inch 1080p LCD panel.

There are two rear cameras — a 48-megapixel essential digital camera and a 48-megapixel ultrawide — and a single 25-megapixel selfie digital camera. The essential rear digital camera is supplied with optical picture stabilization and may report at as much as 4K / 30fps.

A notable draw back in comparison with earlier Fairphones is that the Fairphone 4 not features a 3.5mm headphone jack, a alternative that feels at odds with the corporate’s in any other case customer-first method. Fairphone tells me it made this resolution so as to have the ability to provide an official IP ranking for mud and water resistance, which was lacking from the corporate’s earlier telephones. It’s solely IP54, which suggests it’s shielded from mild splashes fairly than full submersion, however that’s spectacular in mild of its detachable rear cowl and modular design.

Regarding its modularity, Fairphone is promoting eight restore modules for the telephone, which embody alternative shows, batteries, again covers, USB-C ports, loudspeakers, earpieces, rear cameras, and selfie cameras. All of those are simply detachable utilizing a normal Philips head screwdriver, which suggests prospects ought to be capable to perform a variety of repairs themselves. But, if you might want to flip to an expert, Fairphone says its spare elements are available for native restore retailers to purchase and use themselves.

Fairphone’s earlier two telephones are the one units to have acquired excellent repairability scores from iFixit, and the corporate tells me it believes the Fairphone 4 is much more repairable.

The hope is for these spare elements to be obtainable till a minimum of 2027. Fairphone has a very good monitor report with earlier units, telling me it nonetheless has elements in inventory for the six-year-old Fairphone 2, two years after the final handset was bought. But product supervisor Miquel Ballester concedes that the corporate has run out of sure elements for that mannequin.

Image: Fairphone

So too does Fairphone have a stable report on the software program aspect of offering main Android updates for its telephones… finally. Earlier this 12 months, the corporate formally launched its Android 9 replace for the Fairphone 2, a tool that initially launched with Android 5. It might have come nearly three years after Android 9’s unique launch, but it surely implies that the telephone continues to run an formally supported model of Google’s working system. It bodes nicely for Fairphone’s assist aspirations for the Fairphone 4, though it should cope with the truth that Qualcomm solely formally helps its chipsets for 3 main OS updates and 4 years of safety updates, Ars Technica reports.

In phrases of supplies, the Fairphone 4 is made utilizing Fairtrade-certified gold; responsibly sourced aluminum and tungsten; and recycled tin, uncommon earth minerals, and plastic (together with its rear panel, which is 100% recycled polycarbonate). The firm has varied initiatives to enhance the working circumstances of miners and manufacturing unit staff concerned within the provide chains for its units. Fairphone additionally claims that the Fairphone 4 is the “first electronic waste neutral handset” as a result of it’ll recycle one telephone or an equal quantity of e-waste for every gadget bought.

The Fairphone 4 is obtainable to preorder at this time in Europe and will ship beginning October twenty fifth. The mannequin with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage prices €579 / £499, whereas the step-up mannequin with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage retails for €649 / ￡569. Unfortunately, there’s no signal of a US launch: Fairphone says it’s however that it’s specializing in Europe in the meanwhile.