Fairphone has been producing smartphones with a focus on repairability and sustainability, and more recently, has branched out into other categories like headphones. Today the company announced the Fairphone 5, a mid-range Android smartphone built to last as long as possible.
The Fairphone 5 looks like your typical Android smartphone on the surface. It has a 6.46-inch OLED screen, with a 20:9 aspect ratio, 90Hz refresh rate, and Gorilla Glass 5 coating — this is the first time a Fairphone has used an OLED panel instead of LCD screens. There are two cameras on the back: a 50MP primary lens and a 50MP ultra-wide camera. There’s also a 50MP front-facing camera.
Powering the phone is a Qualcomm QCM 6490 chipset, which was primarily designed for enterprise and Internet-of-Things devices, not traditional smartphones. Qualcomm provides longer support for that chip than with most chipsets designed for smartphones, which is probably why Fairphone picked it. The company is planning to provide at least five years of major Android OS updates, after shipping with Android 13, with security patches until 2031. That’s certainly possible with the company’s track record — the Fairphone 2 from 2015 received its final software update in March 2023, seven years after the phone was first released.
The other internal hardware includes 256GB of internal storage, 8GB RAM, a microSD card that supports up to 2TB, 5G support, Bluetooth 5.2 (with Bluetooth LE), NFC, dual-SIM, and USB 3.0 support on the Type-C connector. Fairphone opted for a 4,200mAh battery with support for 30W fast charging, and it’s also fully removable and user-replaceable. The entire phone has an IP55 rating, which means it should handle some splashes of water and dust and short submersions, but it’s not on quite the same level as modern iPhones or Samsung Galaxy devices.
Fairphone is also focused on sustainability in manufacturing, not just in the final product. The company says “more than 70%” of the Fairphone 5 is made from recycled or “fair” materials, including 100% post-consumer recycled plastics for the back covers, 75% recycled plastics in the battery frame, and 80% recycled steel and nickel alloy in the device. Fairphone defines fair materials as minerals produced to a higher ethical standard than some other manufacturing chains — there’s a document explaining its material sourcing if you’re interested in the details.
The Fairphone 5 is available from the company’s online store for €699 in Europe, or £619 in the UK. Sadly, there are no plans for a release in the United States right now. The Fairphone 4 arrived in the US last July, much later than the phone’s initial late 2021 release in Europe.
Via: The Verge