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Fair phone - an ethical mobile phone?

ChrisD

ChrisD

.
 
depends on the specs, €325 (about £290?) isn't far off the mark for a sim-free midrange android smart phone.

tbh, I'm the kind of person who would buy one, I've had an S2 for about 18months but I'm considering not bothering to upgrade, try and get a cheaper data deal instead,

the fair phone would have to beat the specs of my s2 by a reasonable amount for me to consider replacing it any time soon, but it'd definately be on my list if mine broke and needed replacing
 
It's a start - all a bit too fair tradeish for my liking - but the kind of direction we ought to be moving towards.
 
Yeah, but you dont buy it for the spec. Neither of us want or need a top spec phone.
im waiting for the nokia 8.3 with its average performance and large expandable memory.
 
Their website seems very light on detail given the ethics they’re claiming. e.g. “Fairly sourced & recycled materials - Fairtrade gold, recycled plastics and more” doesn’t actually link to any specifics. Even Apple will tell you how they’re now using recycled rare earth metals.
 
I nearly got one of these but I kinda needed good specs for doing shitty social media stuff.

I have half a mind to build my next phone from an SOC and ending up with some kind of semi-cyberdeck nightmare. At least I'll be able to replace bits if I've built it.

Seems like Linux mobile os's aren't quite there yet or I'd jump from android like a shot too.
 
This thread reminds me I’ve been thinking of getting one for over 7 years. Still haven’t yet. Current phone is a oneplus 5. I live in hope.
 
Here is a teaser I have just received from Fairphone about their latest product. Mrs Tag is running a Fairphone 3, does lots of stuff on it and is very happy with it.

Made with fair materials
Our new design is made with more than 70% fair and recycled focus materials. We are breaking new ground for the electronics industry and we’re doing it responsibly.

Under fair working conditions
We are now actively supporting over 2000 people at external factories with a living wage bonus. This helps us close the gap between minimum wage and a decent salary.

And is 100% e-waste neutral

Our newest product adds zero e-waste to the world. For every unit we make, we recycle 212 grams of electronic waste. That’s how much our latest device weighs.
 
The spec looks great ( I am not up with current specs as it is years since I bought my last phone ).
50%rRecharge in 20 minutes, 32 hrs battery life, 2 TB expandable memory...
Shame I have just had a birthday, still, it is never too late.
  • 6.46-inch FullHD+ (1,224-by-2,770) 90Hz OLED touch screen
  • 2.7GHz Qualcomm QCM 6490 64-bit octa-core processor
  • 812MHz Qualcomm Adreno 642L GPU
  • 8GB RAM
  • 256GB internal storage
  • 4,200mAh Li-ion battery
  • 50MP hole punch selfie camera
  • Dual 50MP rear cameras
  • Wi-Fi (2.4GHz + 5GHz 6GHz)
  • Bluetooth 5.2 + LE and NFC
  • MicroSD card slot (up to 2TB)
  • Dual SIM (both 5G enabled)
  • USB-C port
 
hash tag said:
The spec looks great ( I am not up with current specs as it is years since I bought my last phone ).
50%rRecharge in 20 minutes, 32 hrs battery life, 2 TB expandable memory...
Shame I have just had a birthday, still, it is never too late.
  • 6.46-inch FullHD+ (1,224-by-2,770) 90Hz OLED touch screen
  • 2.7GHz Qualcomm QCM 6490 64-bit octa-core processor
  • 812MHz Qualcomm Adreno 642L GPU
  • 8GB RAM
  • 256GB internal storage
  • 4,200mAh Li-ion battery
  • 50MP hole punch selfie camera
  • Dual 50MP rear cameras
  • Wi-Fi (2.4GHz + 5GHz 6GHz)
  • Bluetooth 5.2 + LE and NFC
  • MicroSD card slot (up to 2TB)
  • Dual SIM (both 5G enabled)
  • USB-C port
Click to expand...
It's not going to set the world afire, but it's decent enough. (I think "great" is a stretch - it compares well with a £250 Xiaomi and it's going to cost twice that for sure)
I'd probably still take the Pixel 7 over it, but that's entirely about the camera. The SoC is an industrial variant of the SD778G that powered a lot of mid-range phones the past couple of years, so it's in better standing than previous Fairphones, I think. It's truly Fast Enough, even for more demanding users, which isn't something I'd have accused the past ones of.

Not sure why FullHD+ on a screen that size. It's basically wasting battery for something invisible to the naked eye. Standard 1080x2400 would be enough. Hopefully there's a 128GB version for the more thrifty consumer, since they allow SD cards. 128 is enough for me without an SD card. But yeah, overall pretty nice if they can keep it at the £500 that the FP4 was.

Edit: Looks like up to £600 this time around. That's a hard no from me, even if I hadn't bought a Pixel 7 recently.
 
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Yeah - decent enough spec - there's always a 'doing good' premium, though with these kinds of products.

What does appeal to me is the 5 yr warranty, a commitment to 8 years of support/updates, the fact nothing is glued shut and it is modular so it is in theory punter repairable, and the fact that 70% of it is recycled or fairly sourced - including the cobalt.

If these things matter to companies and customers, and they should, to both, then you're good. Unfortunately, as with cars and clothes, most of society is on the 'new model' hamster-wheel. Which is shit.
 
The ethics of many phone manufacturers is questionable to say the least. The highest latest spec doesn't bother me which is why I'm running a Nokia. Now that fairphone has upped it's game, I may well switch, if only someone will buy me one.
 
Chz said:
Yeah, I'd take that as a Christmas present!
Click to expand...
Same.

No 3.5mm jack on the 4 - it'll be same on the 5 I'm sure. Well, someone's gotta buy their Fairbuds innit.

It's a shame that they haven't extended the subscription service outside of the Netherlands as I am sure it'd increase uptake a fair bit. Maybe that's for next year, eh?
 
No one else I know has had any problems with theirs afaik, but I got a fairphone 4 earlier this year (on contract - worked out very slightly than just buying the handset) and it's just slightly shonky in exactly the same ways as the 3 I had before. Minor stuff like the screen oriental changing even though auto-rotate is switched off and having to then switch it on to get the screen to go back to how you want it, or randomly going really dark even when adaptive brightness is switched off.

And it's impossible to get rid of the fucking google assistant searchbar thing from the home screen.
 
iona said:
No one else I know has had any problems with theirs afaik, but I got a fairphone 4 earlier this year (on contract - worked out very slightly than just buying the handset) and it's just slightly shonky in exactly the same ways as the 3 I had before. Minor stuff like the screen oriental changing even though auto-rotate is switched off and having to then switch it on to get the screen to go back to how you want it, or randomly going really dark even when adaptive brightness is switched off.

And it's impossible to get rid of the fucking google assistant searchbar thing from the home screen.
Click to expand...
I assume you could install an alternative launcher that would allow you to not have the search bar?
 
lazythursday said:
Basically you can swap out the whole 'desktop' on android for alternatives. So you don't have to stick with the manufacturer's version of Android. I use Lawnchair. Its worth trying alternative launchers, you can easily uninstall.
Click to expand...
Yeah nah, I don't do tech stuff and ignoring something on a small bit of the phone screen I never look at anyway is easier than trying to work it out. Cheers for trying to help though :)
 
iona said:
Yeah nah, I don't do tech stuff and ignoring something on a small bit of the phone screen I never look at anyway is easier than trying to work it out. Cheers for trying to help though :)
Click to expand...

I use Nova launcher and I'm not a techie, you just install in and choose some settings and then it gives you a clean screen with what you want and a few nice customisation options and then you never have to do anything else. Makes using a phone much easier.
 
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