10 years ago Fairphone started a great project: to make a sustainable mobile phone available to people, to provide a “more equitable” device for everyone, from those who obtain the materials necessary for its manufacture to users who gain access to a modular and especially recyclable device. and repairable smartphone.

This bet has now reached a new milestone: fair phone 5A relevant evolution of its predecessor but continuing to stand out with ethical values ​​that no other manufacturer in the industry can boast. It won’t win performance or photography wars, but it was never made for that purpose either. Its reason for existence is different.

Fairphone 5 datasheet

A simple but modular design

The Fairphone 5 uses the same casing as its predecessor, and does so in three different finishes: matte black, sky blue and translucent; the second option is a real inheritance; e.g. they already did this in Fairphone 3) obsessed with always communicating the transparency of the project.

The camera module, side fingerprint sensor and back cover are protected, which can be easily removed and provide quick access to the interior of the mobile phone. What has changed significantly is the front: although the dimensions of the chassis are the same, the screen diagonal is getting a little bigger From 6.3 inches to 6.46 inches: therefore, the bezels have been reduced and the use of the front has gained integrity in this new generation.

There is no particular effort here to make the Fairphone 5 easily recognizable to non-expert eyes: only the triangular camera module stands out in these modest lines, almost more typical of less ambitious terminals in this sense, both in terms of lines and materials. . .

In contrast, yes, Fairphone once again outdoes them all in one single area: modularity and repairability. Like its predecessors, this mobile is designed in such a way that in case of problems, it can be easily repaired as well as updated with new components.

Thus, when opening the case, we will have instant access to the replaceable battery, as well as the display, USB-C port, speaker or camera module. It will cost us 99.95 euros to repair this screen; that’s less than half what it would cost us on a Samsung terminal and a third on iPhones.

Not the strongest (and not looking for it)

This offer also validates your values ​​in the internal components list. The spec sheet is very good, but in some areas it lags behind both higher-end offerings and more affordable competitors.

The most affected factor is probably the processor. we’ve been here before Qualcomm QMC6490An octa-core SoC with Qualcomm’s focus on the Internet of Things rather than the world of smartphones.

The performance is clearly more modest than that of the current big players and is compatible with, for example, the Apple A13 Bionic or Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. Even so, we’ll have more than enough room to maneuver for any scenario (including the Hexagon processor to speed up AI processes), and we also have 5G connectivity as well as Wi-Fi 6E support.

The processor is accompanied by 8 GB of RAM and a very generous storage capacity: 256GB actually we can go even further Thanks to the microSD slot, which allows you to expand this parameter with a card up to an additional 2 TB.

The screen is increasing not only in size, but also in quality: We are switching to a POLED panel with a maximum brightness of 880 nits and also supports refresh rates of 90 Hz. The nanoSIM slot also houses an eSIM card.

battery too Significantly grows up to 4,200 mAhIt is possible to enjoy 30 W fast charging: we will reach 50% charge in just 20 minutes. Those in charge explain that they don’t include a USB cable, charger or audio adapter “because you probably already have it in your home. We don’t want to create unnecessary waste by giving you more of what you don’t need.”

Promising cameras and almost endless updates

There is also interesting news in the field of photography. Both the two rear sensors and the front sensor have a resolution of 50 Megapixels, raising the level already offered by the Fairphone 4.

The main sensor is actually a Sony IMX 800 It has an aperture of f/1.88. We’ve seen this working on recent mobile phones like the Xiaomi 13, and the photo section of this model convinced us: It wouldn’t be strange if its behavior on this Fairphone 5 was just as remarkable.

The ultra-wide-angle sensor has a 117° field of view and we have 4K video mode with HDR, EIS and slow motion up to 240fps. The third “sensor” of this rear camera module is non-photographic and dedicated to Time-of-Flight, which allows us to accurately measure the distance to the objects we want to photograph, and is therefore very helpful in photographic tasks. approach. The selfie camera has super-fast autofocus, and the 50 MP sensor is also promising.

These devices have one more important advantage and that is the availability of a very clean, almost “stock” version of Android 13. The manufacturer does not guarantee anything less than that “at least five OS updates”when other manufacturers warrant three (hopefully).

Thus, the Fairphone 5 will remain up to date until at least 2028, while the security improvements will be available until 2031. It wouldn’t be surprising if there were actually more than five Android updates – the mobile is guaranteed for five years – dear readers, because we’ve already seen how the Fairphone 2, which was released in 2015, was updated to early 2023. So it has been updated for over seven years, something that is surprising and has left the rest of the manufacturers in a very bad shape. place.

That’s why we are here with a striking renewal of the concept, which was born 10 years ago and remains the perfect option for those looking for a mobile phone that is above all sustainable but that adapts to new times with pleasure.

Fairphone 5 availability and versions

The Fairphone 5 can be booked from the company’s website from August 30. As of September 14, it will begin to reach users and requests will be handled in order of arrival.

There is only one version of the mobile device with 8GB RAM and 256GB capacity. This model of Fairphone 5 It has a price of 699 euros.

More info | Fairphone