With the smartphone market increasingly moving to handsets you can't repair or even change the battery on yourself, the Fairphone 3 will come as a welcome breath of fresh air, and it's now available to pre-order.
Fairphone is a company that's been around since 2013 and focuses on making a positive impact on where we get the minerals used to make phones, how devices are designed and manufactured, as well as making them easy to maintain. The end result is the Fairphone handset, with the Fairphone 3 being the first new model to arrive since the Fairphone 2 in late 2015.
Inside the Fairphone 3 you'll find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 system-on-a-chip, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and a 3,000mAh Li-ion battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support. It sports a 5.65-inch 18:9 FHD+ touchscreen, 12MP rear camera, 8MP front cameras, and is 4G LTE ready for Europe. External ports include a headphone jack, microSD card slot, and a USB-C port. There's also a fingerprint scanner and NFC support as standard.
So far, so mid-range, but then you discover the battery can easily be replaced, as can the camera, speaker, display, and top and bottom electronic modules. In other words, you can repair most of this smartphone yourself. It runs Android 9.0 Pie and has full access to the Google Play store.
Fairphone claims to be the first smartphone company to integrate Fairtrade gold into its products. Recycled and fair materials have been used wherever possible, which in turn has led to better working conditions and a reduction in e-waste.
In the box there's the phone, a bumper protector, a mini screwdriver for changing parts, quick start guide, and a two-year warranty as standard. It's up to you to supply a USB-C cable, charger, and earphones/headphones if you want them. This isn't unreasonable considering how many cables and charger plugs many of us have lying around.
If you need a further incentive to pre-order the Fairphone 3, there's also the offer of cash back for trading in your old phone to be recycled. Up to 40 Euros ($45) can be claimed depending on the handset you are trading in. As for the phone itself, the pre-order price is 450 Euros ($500).
For now, the Fairphone 3 is only for Europe and there's no plans yet to launch in the US. If it sells well, though, the situation could change quickly. Anyone in the US who'd definitely buy a Fairphone 3 should contact them and state as much.