Fairphone 5 announced with solid specs and eight years of guaranteed support

[Shawn Knight]

Bottom line: Dutch smartphone maker Fairphone is now accepting pre-orders for its latest sustainable handset, and it's far more competitive in terms of pure punching power than previous efforts. But, is cost going to be a concern for some prospective buyers?

The Fairphone 5 packs a respectable 6.46-inch, 90 Hz OLED display (1,224 x 2,700 resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 880 nits peak brightness) that's coated in Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It is powered by a 6nm octa-core Qualcomm QCM6490 SoC alongside Adreno 642L graphics, 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of local storage (expandable via microSD card for an additional 2 TB of space).

The rear camera array consists of a pair of 50-megapixel cameras. The primary shooter utilizes a Sony IMX 800 sensor, and affords optical image stabilization, an 84.1 degree field of view and an f/1.88 aperture lens. The ultra-wide camera, meanwhile, is powered by a Sony IMX 858 sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. Both cameras utilize pixel binning to output images with higher dynamic range at 12.5 megapixels.

The front-facing selfie camera, hidden behind a hole-punch cutout, is also 50 megapixels but comes from Samsung (their ISOCELL JN1). It sports a 90 degree field of view, electronic image stabilization, 4K video capture at up to 30 frames per second, pixel binning, and an f/2.45 aperture lens.

Fairphone's latest ships with a removable 4200mAh battery that can recharge up to 50 percent in just 20 minutes and comes pre-loaded with Android 13. It's backed by a five-year warranty, and we've only scratched the surface with hardware specifications.

Fairphone promises its new handset will receive eight years of security updates guaranteed (until 2031) and like its previous offerings, the device is all about repairability and sustainability. Nothing on the phone is glued in place or permanently sealed shut, yet it still comes with an IP55 rating and passed various environmental conditions tests.

The Fairphone 5 is available to pre-order now in your choice of black, blue, or transparent colorways priced at €699.00 ($765). Shipping starts on September 14 and orders will be sent out on a first-come, first-served basis.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/99968-fairphone-5-announced-solid-specs-eight-years-guaranteed.html

 

[Burty117]

Nice, you'd think phones like this would sell well in the business sector, runs Android so you can have work profiles and manage the device through MDM solutions like Microsoft's Intune.

Has replaceable parts if anything breaks, has security updates for 8 years.

 

[return]

$700+ No thanks! I stick to buying cheap & powerful Chinese phones for $200 every seven years or so when something fails.

 

[Burty117]

$700+ No thanks! I stick to buying cheap & powerful Chinese phones for $200 every seven years or so when something fails.

The problem with the cheap Chinese phones, they don't get updates for very long and security isn't always considered.

We recently trialled turning on WPA3 on the guest WiFi at our company, the only devices that just didn't work with it were Nintendo's Switch console and anyone who used a cheap Chinese phones.

That's why I could see the Fair Phone being a bigger hit with businesses rather than individual's, security updates for 8 years is unheard of in the android world. Plus replaceable battery means it might actually last the whole 8 years.

 

[return]

True, but for $200 I'm happy to take the risk as I don't have sensetive information on my phone anyway.

 

[PEnnn]

$765...?? Not far from the big guns already who are selling similarly priced phones for many years.

8 years support you say?? Yeah, everybody loves having an 8 year obsolete smart phone!!

Good luck fighting the big boys in the arena.

 

[mountains]

Actually, I would be very interested in this as a legit alternative to the larger competitors. I am wondering how customizable/hackable/root-able they are. If it is not too locked down (does anyone know?), it could be sweet!

Unfortunately, the article does not mention that they seem to still be available in Europe only (unless I am wrong; their website was unclear). Hope this comes to the US!

 

[nismo91]

Fairphone promises its new handset will receive eight years of security updates guaranteed (until 2031)

probably the best part about this phone. the Fairphone 2 which came out in 2015 received 5 major updates which makes it stands out among the competition. however Fairphone 2 came out with flagship SOC which this one does not have.

it's great running modern OS on a 8 year old phone, but the hardware had to be top notch. I didn't suggest snapdragon 8g2 which is too expensive, maybe the prior gen 8g+1 would be better suited for something that has 8 years of support.

I installed Android 11 based LineageOS on 2014 Samsung Note 4 and while it works great the hardware is a little slow. had it been a midrange device from 2014 I'm sure the experience would be worse.

overall it's a nice device especially for those in europe, but it's a definite no for me who lives faraway. what's the point of having replacable parts if the shipping cost is exorbitant. might as well just pickup any recent samsung which any local technician can fix in a matter of hours.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Nice, you'd think phones like this would sell well in the business sector, runs Android so you can have work profiles and manage the device through MDM solutions like Microsoft's Intune.

Has replaceable parts if anything breaks, has security updates for 8 years.

The business sector uses iPhones, which use JAMF, which IME works FAR better then intune does.

Or they use samsung phone and their Knox software.

Actually, I would be very interested in this as a legit alternative to the larger competitors. I am wondering how customizable/hackable/root-able they are. If it is not too locked down (does anyone know?), it could be sweet!

Unfortunately, the article does not mention that they seem to still be available in Europe only (unless I am wrong; their website was unclear). Hope this comes to the US!

As is, I'm not interested, now if they offer a extended 10000 mah replacement battery, or team up with the likes of zerolemon, NOW you've got my attention.

 

[orondf]

No headphone jack = I'm not buying it

 

[GhostLegion]

Actually, I would be very interested in this as a legit alternative to the larger competitors. I am wondering how customizable/hackable/root-able they are. If it is not too locked down (does anyone know?), it could be sweet!

Unfortunately, the article does not mention that they seem to still be available in Europe only (unless I am wrong; their website was unclear). Hope this comes to the US!

The previous Fairphone is available for sale in the US, there was even an article in TechSpot regarding this. Regarding how rootable they are...very. I know Ubuntu Touch has an image for a Fairphone and I believe it is targeted for LineageOS as well as a few other Android ROMs.

 

[RaXelliX]

$765...?? Not far from the big guns already who are selling similarly priced phones for many years.

8 years support you say?? Yeah, everybody loves having an 8 year obsolete smart phone!!

Good luck fighting the big boys in the arena.

Considering how powerful Smartphone SoC's have gotten I won't be obsolete in 8 years in any way.

I've been using my S10e that has weaker specs for 4 years now and even the battery has been surprisingly keeping up. FP5 has better specs. Also the upgrade from Android 9 > 10 > 11 > 12 has not made the phone slower. Security updates stopped only earlier this year. And it cost me around 700€ 4 years back. Money well spent.

 

[Tams80]

The SoC is decent enough and the replaceable battery is fantastic.

But no camera with a physical zoom at that price...

And most egregiously of all, no 3.5mm socket; mostly so they can sell their very much not so 'fair' wireless earbuds.