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In a race to outperform rivals every year, it sure seems like care for the environment and user-repairability have taken a back seat in some of our favorite Android phones. Sure, brands provide a regular supply of tall claims boasting of increased recycled material usage, but removable batteries and wired earbuds, which seemed to last forever, are a thing of the past. Fairphone hasn’t given up on that dream yet, and its latest wireless earbuds, the Fairbuds, could give us the best of both worlds.
Fairphone wants to finally break out of its eco niche
The brand is going global with better phones at lower prices
Fairphone has been around for over a decade, and in that time, the company has made it its mission to produce phones that minimize environmental impact. It's been able to accomplish this daunting task by offering handsets that are the complete opposite of its competition. With sustainability in mind, the brand produces devices with modular designs, allowing for easy repairs and upgrades by its customers. The message from the brand has been quite clear from the start, with an aggressive plan to disrupt the smartphone industry. But there's been one problem — its message hasn't been heard by enough people, and Fairphone's aggressively looking to change this.
Conversations about the best smartphones seldom consider repairability as a factor. However, Dutch phone maker Fairphone has been challenging that notion for a few years with its highly repairable line of midrange phones. The latest entrant in this list is the Fairphone 5, which was launched this August with minor upgrades over its predecessor. But it’s quite a challenge to improve on something that you’re already pretty perfect at, and iFixit’s latest teardown of the Fairphone 5 illustrates that.
Weekend poll: Are you interested in a user-repairable smartphone?
The Fairphone 5 wants to live in your pocket for the next decade. Would you let it?
As IFA 2023 wraps up this week, we've seen all sorts of fascinating gadgets. From concept rollables to eye-catching smart speakers — not to mention a bunch of new pairs of headphones— IFA has become a fascinating land for anyone interested in gadgets. That said, you'll still catch some new smartphones timed to launch around the event every year, and that includes the Fairphone 5 this year. The company's fifth-gen repairable smartphone looks to be its best yet, and it could be the first time this type of device doesn't come at the cost of a powerful, user-friendly experience.
Fairphone Fairbuds XL review: Sustainable hardware, second-rate audio
You could keep these headphones going for years — but would you want to?
Sustainability has become a seriously tired refrain in the world of big tech. It's ostensibly the reason why nothing comes bundled with a charger anymore, and why seemingly every high-profile gadget launch event now includes a self-congratulatory segment about how some components in the device are made partially from reclaimed ocean plastic or recycled aluminum. That's all well and good, but coming from behemoth corporations like Samsung or Apple, it can come across as greenwashing lip-service meant to preempt environmental criticism.
The Fairphone 5 has me looking forward to our repairable future
With right to repair initiatives on the horizon, the Fairphone 5 shows how it's done in our hands-on
The Fairphone 5 is finally official. The Dutch company presented its new phone in an online launch event, and I’ve had the chance to go hands-on with it for a few days. As someone who reviewed the last two generations of Fairphones, including the Fairphone 4, it’s incredible to see how far the company has come and how modern the Fairphone 5 feels, all while being easy to take apart and repair. The fact that Fairphone was able to build a beautiful device like this makes me very hopeful for the future of consumer electronics, with a number of right-to-repair regulations on the horizon that could bring the essence of Fairphone to all the latest and greatest smartphones out there.
The Fairphone 5 is here, and it's the sleekest repairable phone yet
It’s the first Fairphone to look like it’s from the year it’s released in
Two years after the Fairphone 4 and following the release of some audio products like the Fairbuds XL, the Dutch company is back with a new repairable phone: the Fairphone 5. It looks and feels a lot like the Fairphone 4, but it adds choice upgrades across the board, making it the most modular and also most modern-looking repairable phone from the company yet.
Fairphone 4 arrives in the US without Google apps on board
Fairphone partners with Murena to bring a de-Googled phone to the country
Fairphone has always aimed to persuade the entire industry to act more responsibly for consumers and the environment by establishing a market for ethical products. However, its user-repairable smartphones have traditionally been hard to snag outside of Europe without paying hefty import fees. The Dutch company is now selling devices outside of that market with the launch of the Fairphone 4 in the United States, but there's a big caveat.
Fairphone 5 leak reveals a more up-to-date screen design
Fairphone's smartphone line is due for a refresh after a one-year hiatus
Fairphone remains one of the very few companies that continues to sell repairable and sustainable smartphones while other brands have come and gone. Despite its staying power, the Dutch company only ships its handsets in limited quantities, so its modular phones are only available in a few markets. That said, the fact that Fairphone has come this far should be lauded, having held its own on a different battleground than many of the mainstream Android phones, championing sustainability at the expense of staying current. With the Fairphone 5, however, the company is trying to catch up with the latest design trends, as per a new leak.
Fairphone's devices may not make it to the list of the best phones in the business, but their offerings are appealing nonetheless. Whether it's for the company's promise of using recycled materials in the assembly of its smartphones or providing software updates longer than any other modern-day flagship, there are plenty of reasons to love Fairphone's products. We recently came across a few official-looking renders of the company's next venture — sustainably designed and repair-friendly over-ear headphones. The Netherlands-based manufacturer has launched the oddly-named Fairbuds XL, even though it's not an in-ear audio accessory.
Fairphone's repair-friendly over-ear ANC headphones have leaked in detailed renders
These headphones could utilize the same recycled materials as the Fairphone 4
Fairphone is rated among the most user-friendly smartphone companies in the world, with the manufacturer's Fairphone 2 outliving itself and receiving more security updates than Samsung or Google flagships. Not to mention the company's Fairphone 4, which launched back in 2021 and continues to be a favorite for those who prefer robust repair support. Last month, leaks pointed to the imminent launch of the Fairbuds XL, Fairphone's unannounced over-the-ear headphones. We're now being treated to renders of these ANC headphones, outfitted in green and black.
This company makes buying replacement earbuds as simple as getting a new set
Fairphone acknowledges that you usually don’t break or lose both your wireless earbuds
As great as all the best true wireless earbuds are, their small size does come with a disadvantage. You tend to lose or break one of the two earbuds they own, but to replace them, most companies will force you to buy a full set as a replacement — but not Fairphone, at least anymore. The business noticed this issue and has now started selling individual left and right replacement buds in its shop.
Fairphone launches an eco-friendly phone subscription program you'll actually want
It covers repairs and is meant as a contribution to circular economy
These days, subscriptions are available for almost every consumer product we could imagine, replacing classical ownership more and more. You can not only subscribe to own the latest and greatest Android phones, but also cars, bicycles, tablets, heck, even products as silly as earbuds or game console controllers. While Samsung, Apple, and Google all offer subscriptions for their phones already, the latest company to jump on the bandwagon might be slightly unexpected. Fairphone now offers its latest product as part of a “Fairphone Easy” subscription to those living in its domestic market, the Netherlands. While this might probably not be available to you, it’s still an interesting approach.
This 2015 smartphone just got its fifth official Android version bump
Fairphone here embarrassing the rest of the Android landscape
Fairphone has just updated its six-year-old Fairphone 2 to Android 10, making it the longest officially supported Android phone out there. While it might not sound too impressive given that we’ve moved on to Android 12 last year already, it’s an engineering achievement given that Qualcomm doesn’t support or update the software for its 2015 processors any longer, forcing the company to develop and test everything on its own.
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Fairphone has always been a brand with a laser-focused mission. It’s among only a few companies in the industry lobbying for fairer supply chains and easily repairable devices. Many of its products excel at these points, but they’ve historically been plagued by compromises such as wonky build quality, bad battery life, and subpar performance. The company is looking to break that habit with the Fairphone 4, and I have to say, it has mostly succeeded.
The Fairphone 2 celebrates 6 years of support with an Android 10 beta
Didn't get up to an upgrade every year, but we'll take it
Imagine what it would be like if Android OEMs could or would update software for as long as Apple does with its products? There's no need to for owners of the Fairphone 2 as they are set to test and receive Android 10.
The Fairphone 4 is a sustainable smartphone that doesn't look like complete crap
It's still not the most attractive phone around, but the five-year warranty makes up for it
Manufacturers are in a constant battle to create the fastest, sleekest, and most beautiful phones. This race to the top makes other things fall by the wayside, like fair resource sourcing and living working conditions for everyone involved in the supply chain. This is the niche Fairphone has always been striving to hit, and today, after 18 months of development, the company is releasing its latest product: The Fairphone 4, which the manufacturer calls “probably the most sustainable phone in the world.”
Fairphone 4 leaks reveal even more upgrades, including 5G
The ethical smartphone is back and better than ever
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Fairphone devices have a pretty beautiful concept behind them — they're designed to be "fairer" than the competition. This means a lower environmental impact than your average smartphone and decent working conditions for the people making them throughout the supply chain. The Fairphone company is also a heavy proponent of right-to-repair and the phones feature a modular design to make it easier and less costly to fix. The follow-up to 2019's Fairphone 3 has now leaked, showing off several improvements over its predecessor.
LineageOS 18.1 comes to a bunch of phones from Samsung, Xiaomi, and more
While support for the OnePlus 2 has been dropped
LineageOS 18.1 has been with us for some time now. I've always liked the LineageOS project a lot, starting back from the days when its predecessor, CyanogenMod, was still a thing. It allowed you to take almost any Android phone, new or old, and get it running a clean version of the latest flavor of Android. Now LineageOS 18.1 is landing for a handful of new Android smartphones, including devices from Samsung, Xiaomi, and BG.
LineageOS comes to the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Note10 families
Other newbies include the Razer Phone 2, FairPhone 2, and various flavors of Xiaomi and Poco
LineageOS is the custom ROM version of Android for when you throw your phone's original software away and say "screw it, I'm gonna load my OWN Android, with blackjack and hookers." We keep an eye on Lineage to let you know when it's come to new devices, but these are frequent enough (and sometimes inconsequential enough) that ain't nobody got time to do them one by one anymore. Here's a bunch of new devices that have received their first builds over the last six weeks.