Fairphone, a company that makes smartphones using sustainable and ethically-sourced materials, has announced it’s ending sales of the Fairphone 3, a phone with a modular, repairable design that was launched in 2019.
But the Fairphone 3 comes with five years of hardware and software support, so while it’s no longer available for purchase, folks who already have one can continue using it for years to come.
Fairphone plans to continue selling spare parts for the phone, allowing customers to replace broken or worn down components including the display, battery, cameras, or other components. You can even upgrade the camera using a module that was released about a year after the phone began shipping.
Software and security updates should also continue to be provided through 2024. Fairphone says it plans to update the phone to Android 11 in 2022.
The phone’s bootloader can also be unlocked, and independent developers have ported alternate operating systems including the Android-based LineageOS and /e/OS to run on the phone, as well as Linux distributions like Ubuntu Touch.
Fairphone does plan to continue selling the Fairphone 3+ for the foreseeable future, but it’s temporarily out of stock due to global component shortages. This model is basically the same as the original Fairphone, but with the newer, higher quality camera module.
A new Fairphone 4 may be coming soon. It’s expected to be the first 5G phone from the company, and it should ship with Android 11, but that’s about all we know about the phone so far.
There’s also no word on whether you’ll be able to buy the new phone outside of Europe, which is the only region where Fairphone has sold its phones so far.
Mobile spare parts need to be taken a little carefully. A small glitch can cause the entire mobile to slow down.
have seen a couple of sites, that offer the best products including Flipkart, amazon, maxbhi, and so on. The boy on the street is xfurbish.com. Check it out for good pricing and raining discounts.
Has anyone used any of these as a daily phone? I’m interested in potentially getting one. Maybe the 4.
Interested too but I’m also wondering about what’s involved in importing one to the US and how well it works with Verizon.
As far as I’m aware, it doesn’t.
Thank you for the response. Darn, that’s unfortunate.
Yeah, Fairphone is doing some pretty cool stuff but unfortunately it’s a pretty small organization. They’re based in Europe and I can’t really blame them for not supporting customers and wireless carriers outside of that region given their limited resources. But it is a little disappointing for those of us who can only watch what they’re doing from afar.
It does look like there might be some limited support for US networks, but I’m not sure I’d want to take the risk: https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/US/fairphone-3
So since 3 and 3+ are virtually identical (you can buy 3 modules, switch them out and make a 3 into a 3+) this isn’t really newsworthy at all?
Pretty sure any software update that’ll ever be made for 3+ will be tested on 3 too. And if not? Just get the upgrade kit!
Also spare parts: Fairphone could “stop” selling FP3 parts right this instant and nothing would change, since any FP3+-part fits the FP3.
Worst case? you’d “need” to upgrade a broken camera from FP3 to FP3+, because the old camera isn’t available anymore. No idea why anyone should choose the old part anyway. (maybe the back cover could be a point – I personally like the newer better, but there might be people thinking that transparent shit would look better)
The FP3 was cheaper up front than the FP3+. So for example, I really don’t care about cameras on my phone, so I would have gone for the cheaper option.
That said, I hope this means that the rumoured FP4 is on the horizon. My current phone has run out of security support, so I am waiting to see if FP can give us some decent specs on the next iteration.