Fairphone

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Fairphone B.V.
TypePrivately held company
IndustryTelecommunications equipment
FoundedJanuary 2013; 9 years ago (2013-01)
FounderTessa Wernink Edit this on Wikidata
Headquarters
Amsterdam
,
Netherlands
Key people
  • Bas Van Abel (Co-Founder)
  • Miquel Ballester Salva (Co-Founder)
  • Eva Gouwens (CEO)
ProductsSmartphones
Websitewww.fairphone.com Edit this at Wikidata

Fairphone is a social enterprise company which aims to develop smartphones that are designed and produced with a lower environmental and social impact. The company is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and was supported in its startup phase by the Waag Society, a foundation which aims to foster experimentation with new technologies, art and culture.

Fairphone was founded with the aim to develop a mobile device that does not contain conflict minerals (which in smartphones are typically gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten), has fair labour conditions for the workforce along the supply chain producing it and help people to use their phone longer.

The second version of the company's device is one of the first modular smartphones available for purchase. The modularity is supposed to make the phone more easily repairable and therefore longer lasting.

The latest model from the company is Fairphone 4, announced on September 30 2021, is also modular. This model supports 5G connectivity, IP54 rating, MIL810G drop test certification, and dual 48MP cameras with OIS. This model received a 9.2 out of 10 repairability score on the French Repairability Index and a 10 out of 10 in iFixit's smartphone repairability score.[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 , 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's website states that its mission is to "bring a fair smartphone to the market – one designed and produced with minimal harm to people and planet".[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]

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[]

Fairphone 4 has received generally positive reviews praising its guarantee of software support until 2025 and 5 years of warranty as well as improvements over its predecessor. However, the lack of a headphone jack was criticized along with the occasional sluggish performance and the quality of the camera and fingerprint sensor.[7][8][9]

Recognition and certifications[]

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

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

In 2016, Fairphone's founder and first CEO Bas van Abel was one of the three recipients of the German Environmental Award.[16]

In 2019, Fairphone won the Partnership Of The Year prize at the .[17]

Partnership with the /e/ Foundation[]

For both the Fairphone 3[18] and Fairphone 4[19], the smartphone company partnered with the to ship its phones with its privacy-focussed operating system /e/. 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. While advanced users can attempt to flash the operating system on their existing phones for free, the partnership allows enthusiasts to have the operating system pre-installed for a price increase of 30 euros and 56 euros for the Fairphone 3 and Fairphone 4 respectively, at launch date.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Fairphone 4 Teardown: If Only Apple Made Phones Like This | iFixit News". iFixit. 4 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  2. ^ Homerun.co (27 January 2017). "Fairphone: Calling for Change". Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  3. ^ "Company profile" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 December 2013.
  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.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 B-Impact Report". Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  11. ^ Van Wijhe, Jelle. "Tech5: Fairphone named Europe's fastest-growing startup of 2015". The Next Web. The Next Web. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  12. ^ "Modulares Smartphone: iFixit gibt Fairphone 2 die volle Punktzahl". heise online. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  13. ^ Fairphone 2 Teardown (Technical report). iFixit. 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  14. ^ "iFixit gives modular Fairphone 2 a rare 10 out of 10 for repairability [Updated]". Ars Technica. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  15. ^ "Environmentally Friendly Mobile Phones". The Blue Angel. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  16. ^ Lomas, Charlotta. "Fairphone creator: Success is a signal to industry". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  17. ^ "10th Responsible Business Awards 2019". Ethical Corporation. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  18. ^ "Tweet from @Fairphone". Twitter. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  19. ^ "Murena Fairphone 4 – eSolutions – deGoogled phones and services". https://esolutions.shop/. Retrieved 19 January 2022. External link in |website= (help)

External links[]

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