Shiftphone is a modular, easy-to-repair

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 ...

brand created by the company SHIFT in Germany. The company emphasizes fair trade and ecology, similar to

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 ...

. Instead of tantalum capacitors made from coltan, ceramic capacitors are used for their manufacturing. So far, eleven model series have been released. The most recent release was the SHIFT6mq (successor of the Shift6m) in June 2020. The upcoming device will be the SHIFTphone 8, scheduled for release in 2024.

Names

The official company name is SHIFT GmbH.

Model names

The names of models start with the string "SHIFT" in upper case letters. Except for the SHIFTphone 8 this is followed by the length of the display diagonal rounded to full inches. After that * the name ends - for the oldest models * a dot follows, in turn followed by a number - some newer models until around 2017 * an m follows - this is for the new modular line

OS name

The OS is named either SHIFT-OS or ShiftOS.

Devices

Operating system

There are two different operating systems. The SafetyNet based SHIFT-OS-G/ShiftOS-G with

Google services The following is a list of products, services, and apps provided by Google. Active, soon-to-be discontinued, and discontinued products, services, tools, hardware, and other applications are broken out into designated sections. Web-based products ...

or the AOSP-based ShiftOS or ShiftOS-L without Google services. Furthermore, flashing the device with a custom ROM is allowed; ShiftOS developers are also partly involved in the development of certain custom ROMs.

Characteristics

Sustainability

Shiftphones are built modularly to allow customers to change parts and repair the device without voiding the warranty. Videos support the user in repairing their device, explainin
how to open it and how to change certain modules

Circular economy

Customers have the option, to upgrade their device to a different model. Shiftphone partners with Closing the Loop.

Privacy aspects

The operating system can be replaced with a custom ROM based on

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

( Mobian) or a de-googled Android. Different from the competitors PinePhone and Librem, the motherboard and peripherals are not

open-source hardware Open-source hardware (OSH, OSHW) consists of physical artifact (software development), artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by th ...

. This makes hardware backdoors still possible. The SHIFTphone 8 does include hardware kill switches, for example for the microphone and camera.

Workers' care

Shift employees in China
do not work more than 50 hours a week, while it is common for people to work up to 90. Compared to the average Chinese worker in the manufacturing business, the staff is provided with insurances.

Criticism and controversies about conflict minerals

In 2016 c't described the Shift5 as a typical cheap smartphone. Besides, the journal argued that there was no evidence that coltan is not used in Shiftphones and thus criticized the transparency of SHIFT. SHIFT and further secondary sources claim that coltan is not in use for their manufacturing. However, according to c't, the SHIFT partner company "Vstar and Weihuaxin" did not provide information about conflict-free material used in Shiftphone. Unlike Shiftphone,

provides detailed audit reports about component suppliers through a Chinese agency, and also facilitates detailed information on problems and compromises in the supply chain. Coltan is used to make components for mobile phones and other electronic devices. A huge part of the ore is from mines in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). "Much mining has been done in small artisanal mining operations, sometimes known as Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM). These small-scale mines are unregulated, with high levels of

child labor Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation w ...

and workplace injury." Some 50,000 children, some just seven years old, work in Congo's coltan mines. Workers often have little or no protection and often work underground in self-made shafts. Recent reports paint a clear picture: articles by many magazines were able to capture the statements of Carsten Waldeck and prove their credibility accordingly. For example, '' golem.de'' reported in detail on the company and its efforts in terms of sustainability and fairness in June 2018. The ''

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

'' magazine ''

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

'' tested the newly released smartphone '' Shift6m'' and illuminated, in the form of video recordings, the production conditions of the in-house manufactory located in China in June 2018. '' N-tv'' described the initial efforts for fairness and sustainability as well as the history of the Shiftphone, in September 2018. In August 2018, the ecology portal ' no longer reported any lack of transparency regarding Shift's Chinese hardware manufacturing process. In the issue 15/2018, the computer magazine ''c't'' showed a more positive approach on the topic of German smartphone manufacturer Shift, although the report itself was rather short in comparison to other European hardware providers.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site
of SHIFT GmbH Mobile phone manufacturers Mobile phone companies of Germany Modular smartphones Fair trade brands Right to repair Electronics companies established in 2014 German companies established in 2014 Android (operating system) devices Companies based in Hesse German brands