The Fairphone 3 and 3+ are

touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

-based

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s made by

Fairphone Fairphone is a Dutch electronics manufacturer that designs and produces smartphones and headphones. It aims to minimise the ethical and environmental impact of its devices by using recycled, fairtrade and conflict-free materials, maintaini ...

. The phone has a

modular Module, modular and modularity may refer to the concept of modularity. They may also refer to: Computer science and engineering * Modular design, the engineering discipline of designing complex devices using separately designed sub-components ...

, repairable design and is "constructed out of responsibly-sourced, conflict-free, and recycled materials where possible". It went on sale on 3 September 2019. It comes with Android 9 "Pie" installed. The phone has a FullHD+ screen (2160 × 1080 pixels) with

Gorilla Glass Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning Inc. Currently in its ninth generation, it is designed to be thin, light, and damage-resistant. Its surface strength and crack-resistance are achieve ...

, 12 MP rear camera, 3,000 mAh battery, 64 GB storage with microSD,

Qualcomm Snapdragon Snapdragon is a suite of system-on-chip (SoC) semiconductor products for mobile devices designed and marketed by Qualcomm, who often refers to these SoCs as "mobile platforms". They typically integrate central processing units (CPU) based o ...

632 processor, 4 GB RAM, 8 MP front camera (16 MP on Fairphone 3+),

NFC NFC usually refers to: * Near-field communication, a set of communication protocols for electronic devices * National Football Conference, part of US National Football League NFC may also refer to: Psychology * Need for cognition, in psychol ...

and

dual SIM Some mobile phones support use of two SIM cards, described as dual SIM operation. When a second SIM card is installed, the phone may allow users to switch between two separate mobile network services manually, have hardware support for keeping bo ...

. At launch the Fairphone 3 retailed at £408. The Fairphone 3+, launched in August 2020, has upgraded front and rear cameras and speaker modules. The camera modules are compatible with the FP3. However, the improved audio primarily comes from the new core module in the FP3+ and is not upgradable as this is IMEI related. The Fairphone 3+ shipped with

Android 10 Android 10 (code name, codenamed Android Q during development) is the Android version history, tenth major release and the 17th version of the Android (operating system), Android mobile operating system. It was first released as a developer pre ...

and an increase in the amount of recycled plastic it contains, now 40%.

Ethical manufacturing and sustainable materials

Fairphone 3 "has been manufactured in a factory that pays the local living wage". "The tin and tungsten used in its construction is conflict free, the gold is

Fairtrade A fair trade certification is a product certification within the market-based movement of fair trade. The most widely used fair trade certification is FLO International's, the International Fairtrade Certification Mark, used in Europe, Africa ...

, and the copper and plastics are recycled."

Modular design

The phone's modular design is constructed out of seven modules, making it easier to repair than most smartphones. The rear of the phone can be removed without using tools. Having removed the rear, the battery can be lifted out and replaced. Using a regular Phillips #00 screwdriver, the display is easily removed, and the modules are held in using only

press fit An interference fit, also known as a pressed fit or friction fit, is a form of fastening between two tightfitting mating parts that produces a joint which is held together by friction after the parts are pushed together. Depending on the amoun ...

sockets. The

motherboard A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see #Nomenclature, "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It ho ...

, containing the

system on a chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or Electronics, electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with computer memory, ...

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

and storage, can also be easily removed. Still, the motherboard's individual components can not be easily replaced.

Reception

Sophie Charara, writing in ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'', said that the phone's technical specification is "almost identical to the

Moto G7 Moto G7 (stylized by Motorola Mobility, Motorola as moto g7) is a series of Android (operating system), Android smartphones developed by Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Lenovo. It is the seventh generation of the Moto G family and was first r ...

, our current recommendation for the best budget phone." She considered it "important" that "the premium for choosing an ethical phone had dropped to below £200" "for the first time".

iFixit iFixit ( ) is an American e-commerce and how-to website that publishes free wiki-like online repair guides and tear-downs of consumer electronics and gadgets. It also sells repair parts, tools, and accessories. It is a private company in San Luis ...

gave it a 10 out of 10 repairability score; 10 is easiest to repair.

Fairphone 3+

The Fairphone 3+ was launched in August 2020. It has upgraded front and rear cameras, improved audio, an increase in the amount of recycled plastic it contains (40% rather than 9%) and

. The rear camera has a larger sensor, intelligent scene detection, and a higher

dynamic range Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' " power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics), the study of forces and their effect on motion Brands and ent ...

. The front camera has a bigger sensor and a higher dynamic range. The new cameras and speaker are alternatively available as modules that can be swapped in the original Fairphone 3. The audio improvements cannot be achieved purely by a speaker module upgrade. The speaker module is only for the rear/side speaker, and output is only improved if the new core module for the FP3+ is used.

References

External links

*
Fairphone 3 Teardown
by