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How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

arstechnica.com

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Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#11

Post by jqpabc123 »

thg wrote: post #6
jqpabc123 wrote: post #3

The new $650 Fairphone Gen 6+ is designed both for longevity and easy repairability. I applaud the concept but to see how well this actually holds up in the real world, let's check the Fairphone web site. Where are the parts to repair any version prior to Gen 6? I don't see them listed anywhere. So it would appear that "longevity" is actually pretty limited.

Fairphone 4 (2021) parts: https://www.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?catego... Fairphone 5 (2023) parts: https://www.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?catego... Parts for the Fairphone 2 (2015) and Fairphone 3 (2019) aren't available anymore, but I suppose that's not all that surprising after 11 respective 7 years. Afair, they started running out of some Fairphone 3 spare parts around 2024 and kept…

Afair, they started running out of some Fairphone 3 spare parts around 2024

So "longevity" is actually about 5 years. Or less if you live in the USA.

https://us.fairphone.com/repairs

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#12

Post by colingauvin »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #9
VileSquirrel wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in shop --> "all parts" (under the "spare parts" header) Here are the ones for the fairphone 4: https://www.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?catego... I however couldn't find the ones for the fairphone 3. The fairphone 4 is from 2021, which is not that old.

So "longevity" is actually about 5 years. Or less if you live in the USA.

Early Fairphones were not necessarily designed for repairability. That is a principle that has emerged significantly in the last few iterations. The FP4 was the first that was really designed and marketed as fully modular from what I remember, and parts are still available.

For the American piece, the FP6 was the first available from OEM in the US.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#14

Post by cge »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #3

The new $650 Fairphone Gen 6+ is designed both for longevity and easy repairability. I applaud the concept but to see how well this actually holds up in the real world, let's check the Fairphone web site. Where are the parts to repair any version prior to Gen 6? I don't see them listed anywhere. So it would appear that "longevity" is actually pretty limited.

When I had a Fairphone 4, regulars on the community forum repeatedly reminded everyone that repairability was not a primary goal of Fairphone, ethical consumerism was, and any longevity and repairability was secondary or coincidental.

Yes, that goes against most of Fairphone's own advertising, but it was consistent with my experience of the phone and discussions on the forum: security updates frequently so far out of date that some software could not be run, flimsy components inconsistent with advertising (yes, the battery was nominally swappable, but the snaps on the back would break easily, and support would claim that it was not intended to be removed regularly), parts that were frequently out of stock, and of course, whole new phone designs every generation rather than Framework-like component upgrades.

It seems like they may have improved since then, but those problems, along with the atrocious security (FP4 used AOSP's public test signing keys, with publicly-available private keys, for its firmware) and sketchiness around specs, standards and openness (especially for the camera), generally turned me off the company.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#15

Post by encom »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #11
thg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairphone 4 (2021) parts: https://www.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?catego... Fairphone 5 (2023) parts: https://www.fairphone.com/shop/category/spare-parts-4?catego... Parts for the Fairphone 2 (2015) and Fairphone 3 (2019) aren't available anymore, but I suppose that's not all that surprising after 11 respective 7 years. Afair, they started running out of some Fairphone 3 spare parts around 2024 and kept…

Afair, they started running out of some Fairphone 3 spare parts around 2024 So "longevity" is actually about 5 years. Or less if you live in the USA. https://us.fairphone.com/repairs

That's 5 years longer than Apple.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#17

Post by bigstrat2003 »

I would love a Fairphone, but no headphone jack is a nonstarter for me. Still blows me away that a company saying they are focused on longevity would get rid of a universal audio interface that we've had for decades. In the article they claim it's to fit other features in, but frankly that's not a believable claim. Other manufacturers manage to get a headphone jack in just fine, without any noticeable downside.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#19

Post by squishington »

rpdillon wrote: post #8
jqpabc123 wrote: post #3

The new $650 Fairphone Gen 6+ is designed both for longevity and easy repairability. I applaud the concept but to see how well this actually holds up in the real world, let's check the Fairphone web site. Where are the parts to repair any version prior to Gen 6? I don't see them listed anywhere. So it would appear that "longevity" is actually pretty limited.

This is a good point. Ifixit has guides for all the phones, but it reports that none of the replacement parts are actually sold in the United States. https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Fairphone Reminds me of the cold steel throwing axe that I bought that specifically has replaceable handles in case you break one. No one actually sells the handles though!

I bought a fair phone 2 when I lived in Germany in 2016. Got a software update when I moved back to Australia. Bricked it. The kernel debug interface has no standard header, and required a fine pitch soldering iron header. I rented a German post box to send it to, as you need a European address for support. I tried to send it twice, and it was refused by German customs. I gave up and now I just buy cheap second hand Motorolas and unlock the bootloader, put lineageos on them. I think giving new life to discarded devices is more ethical anyway.
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