In a bid to reduce global electronic waste, Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves. What makes its technology so sustainable?
If so, what’s there to prevent the company from eventually (or even now) prioritizing profits over the longevity of its products? For example, let’s say that their board wants to make higher margins. One way they can accomplish this is to use poor-quality parts in the initial product so that they need to be repaired more often, thus, they sell more replacement parts.
And remember, you can always switch away from Fairphone if they become “evil”. It’s not like Google, Amazon or the influence of Social Media companies that you can’t escape.
“How to convince myself that I can continue to consume from known bad companies.”
Man, as someone who did tons of computer repair and support in my early years, the hoops and loops people go to keep buying stuff from apple, as maybe a bit of an extreme example, is just amazing!
I see it with stuff from amazon, nvidia and ea too, specially frustrating when there are clear less evil alternatives!
They’re a limited liability company, so no stock market pressure. As a Dutch BV voting majority can still lie with the founders.
LLC doesn’t mean it’s automatically better. LLCs can also have investors and a board. Furthermore, it could be less advantageous to be a private company because you can’t see into their financials and there is no transparency.
Most people buy a new phone if it gets damaged from a drop. It happens quite often. Here you can swap the parts cheaply and with only a screwdriver.
But the phone will get repaired (if it still has value) and gets resold. Anecdotally, most of my friends and family just get the screen repaired.
Sorry, who? And what is the message? Not going to watch it.
And remember, you can always switch away from Fairphone if they become “evil”. It’s not like Google, Amazon or the influence of Social Media companies that you can’t escape.
It uses Android, right? So why does it matter? You’re going to get Google influence since it’s Android no matter what.
If you’re going to be obtuse and combative for no good reason, at least have the decency to not ask questions you’re not interested in hearing the answers to.
This is not much of an issue for this type of market, if they stop doing the whole fair thing it’s going to become obvious pretty quick when you can’t get parts. This type of customer will be on the issue quickly and when repairs are too common or expensive they will simply buy other phones.
I agree, that repairability is highly overrated when it comes to e-waste. iFixit did a good job convincing people of that.
But to be fair (no pun intended) Fairphone uses some obscure automotive QCM6490 in their Fairphone so they can offer software updates until 2031. So they did a pretty good job on the in my opinion by far the biggest contributing factor when it comes to smartphone e-waste, offering long software support.
It is not green to repair a phone, it is green to get a case for your phone so you don’t destroy it in the first place.
Also I saw way more phones and laptops go into the trash because I could not buy a replacement part (2,5y old Acer Laptop, according to Acer end of life, could not find a new battery) or because software support ended (Windows 10 support will end 2025, lots of laptops don’t meet the hardware requirement for Win11, or smartphones like Galaxy S20 only getting 3y of security updates) is a WAY bigger factor than „easy repairability“.
I also don’t agree that something is difficult to repair, just because you need some tools or have to peel of some glue that prevented water damage of thousands of smartphones. I also don’t agree with the iFixit conclusion that it is anti consumer that the iOS tells the customer if the screen, battery or something else was replaced, which could potentially be of worse quality. As long as the device does not block these parts (which it does not to my knowledge) I think it is pro consumer because it prevents second hand ripoff’s.
I think I see where you’re coming from, but a few points don’t stick. I think ease of repair, availability of replacement parts and software support are often used in combination to dissuade the continued use of a product. I ended up ditching my (at the time new) Samsung S8 because it was so difficult to repair, well before it’s scheduled end-of-life. It had a case, but shit happens.
And I think the more recent Iphones do actually block certain functionality if a part is replaced by a 3rd party, genuine article nonwithstanding. Having the part identified as genuine, 3rd party or non Apple installed in the settings or something would probably be fine, but that’s not what’s happening.
And for the last point, mostly agreed, but a business profiting from a customer’s desire to do good doesn’t disqualify the good that a business might do while also profiting. It would be great if there was some not-for-profit/governent run rating on device longevity/repairability, as some countries do for electricity/water useage, but I’ll take the imperfect solution until then.
And I think the more recent Iphones do actually block certain functionality if a part is replaced by a 3rd party, genuine article nonwithstanding. Having the part identified as genuine, 3rd party or non Apple installed in the settings or something would probably be fine, but that’s not what’s happening.
I think that is exactly what is happening, but I am very open to new evidence.
but a business profiting from a customer’s desire to do good doesn’t disqualify the good that a business might do while also profiting.
God no, and I hope that my writing did not come off like that. English is not my native language. No, I think they do an excellent job, I just take what they say when it comes to repair regulations with a grain of salt.
I agree with you 95%, but a case can’t stop the battery from eating itself after 500 cycles or 4 years, so that does need to be replaceable (at a workbench, with proper tools, by someone with a modicum of care and patience).
(In fact, to some degree cases make it worse, by holding heat in during charging.)
Which major smart phones over the last ten years have not had replaceable batteries?
Even if the iPhone battery can only be replaced by an Apple-certified repair shop, you can just calculate that added tax into the overall price of using the phone over 5-6 years. I don’t really see what the issue is. It’s not like it’s expensive to have your battery replaced, and you only need to do it literally once over the useful lifespan of any phone.
Totally agree. But to be fair, it is pretty easy to replace a battery for most phones and laptops. It is way harder to get none Aliexpress battery replacement. Especially if you bought some random Acer or Asus model. Then even iFixit is not able to sell you a battery.
I always charge my phone when it’s still over 50% that way the “fast charge” doesn’t kick in the temperature is just a little warm, but when I forgot to charge before I leave home and ended up like 20% left, I remove the case and let it fast charge. Otherwise I always opt for slow charge.
The case like he said actually really helped alot, dropped my phone many times it’s still fine, no crack no weird malfunction.
Of course batteries do degrade overtime but at least the phone case did the job to prevent many parts replacements.
Yeah, I prevent fast charge by charging from a USB port on my PC. Typically I plug in at 30-40% and stop at 70%. I do have a crack though… in the screen protector, which I will get around to replacing eventually, I swear.
Makes sense because they said they removed the headphone jack because you can use the type c port.
More wear on the type c port means it will break faster.
The software developers don’t actually have the phone they develop the software for. When there’s bugs, support will just tell you to use a workaround and it will almost never get fixed with the next update.
There is a lot more to e-waste than just repairability. There is the recycled materials in the initial phone. Quality of the components. Sturdiness of the phone. Do people trade in their phones so they can be recycled? Is there even a trade-in program for this phone? What percentage of the phone is recycled after use?
This doesn’t matter. E-waste is a crock of shit. All of the phones you will ever use over your lifetime will fit in your coffin with you, there’s nothing seriously poisonous in there else it wouldn’t be safe to carry phone around in sweaty pockets, and the recoverable raw material value is approxmiately 0% of the manufacturing cost of a phone.
Apple’s “recycling” program is half virtue signal, half sneaky way of keeping devices off the used market. Which, by the way, is the only way real value is ever recovered from old phones. Recycle is the last R for a reason.
Fairphone is a for-profit business, correct?
If so, what’s there to prevent the company from eventually (or even now) prioritizing profits over the longevity of its products? For example, let’s say that their board wants to make higher margins. One way they can accomplish this is to use poor-quality parts in the initial product so that they need to be repaired more often, thus, they sell more replacement parts.
“How to convince myself that I can continue to consume from known bad companies.”
They’re a limited liability company, so no stock market pressure. As a Dutch BV voting majority can still lie with the founders.
They’re on Fairphone 5 now, which is the first one I’d consider buying if I was in the market for a new one phone right now.
Most people buy a new phone if it gets damaged from a drop. It happens quite often. Here you can swap the parts cheaply and with only a screwdriver.
If you wonder how sturdy it is: https://youtu.be/H1UJ5k3yMvA?si=zQ1VEeA8YqMINUR7
This one dives deeper into the lifecycle: https://youtu.be/lU4vv7qCQvg?si=XiE0QBWP6iNMbQJ_
You can find the Lifecycle Analysis of Frauenhofer institute with a bit of googling.
And here’s Louis Rossman on it: https://youtu.be/EAogtqyN22M?si=9slIZEuTbAZhE__Y
And remember, you can always switch away from Fairphone if they become “evil”. It’s not like Google, Amazon or the influence of Social Media companies that you can’t escape.
Man, as someone who did tons of computer repair and support in my early years, the hoops and loops people go to keep buying stuff from apple, as maybe a bit of an extreme example, is just amazing!
I see it with stuff from amazon, nvidia and ea too, specially frustrating when there are clear less evil alternatives!
The issue is when “less evil” also means “worse product”. If “evil” is even an applicable word here
LLC doesn’t mean it’s automatically better. LLCs can also have investors and a board. Furthermore, it could be less advantageous to be a private company because you can’t see into their financials and there is no transparency.
But the phone will get repaired (if it still has value) and gets resold. Anecdotally, most of my friends and family just get the screen repaired.
Any drop test?
Sorry, who? And what is the message? Not going to watch it.
It uses Android, right? So why does it matter? You’re going to get Google influence since it’s Android no matter what.
If you’re going to be obtuse and combative for no good reason, at least have the decency to not ask questions you’re not interested in hearing the answers to.
How was I combative? Just curious.
This is not much of an issue for this type of market, if they stop doing the whole fair thing it’s going to become obvious pretty quick when you can’t get parts. This type of customer will be on the issue quickly and when repairs are too common or expensive they will simply buy other phones.
I agree, that repairability is highly overrated when it comes to e-waste. iFixit did a good job convincing people of that.
But to be fair (no pun intended) Fairphone uses some obscure automotive QCM6490 in their Fairphone so they can offer software updates until 2031. So they did a pretty good job on the in my opinion by far the biggest contributing factor when it comes to smartphone e-waste, offering long software support.
“Highly overrated” how?
It is not green to repair a phone, it is green to get a case for your phone so you don’t destroy it in the first place.
Also I saw way more phones and laptops go into the trash because I could not buy a replacement part (2,5y old Acer Laptop, according to Acer end of life, could not find a new battery) or because software support ended (Windows 10 support will end 2025, lots of laptops don’t meet the hardware requirement for Win11, or smartphones like Galaxy S20 only getting 3y of security updates) is a WAY bigger factor than „easy repairability“.
I also don’t agree that something is difficult to repair, just because you need some tools or have to peel of some glue that prevented water damage of thousands of smartphones. I also don’t agree with the iFixit conclusion that it is anti consumer that the iOS tells the customer if the screen, battery or something else was replaced, which could potentially be of worse quality. As long as the device does not block these parts (which it does not to my knowledge) I think it is pro consumer because it prevents second hand ripoff’s.
I think I see where you’re coming from, but a few points don’t stick. I think ease of repair, availability of replacement parts and software support are often used in combination to dissuade the continued use of a product. I ended up ditching my (at the time new) Samsung S8 because it was so difficult to repair, well before it’s scheduled end-of-life. It had a case, but shit happens.
And I think the more recent Iphones do actually block certain functionality if a part is replaced by a 3rd party, genuine article nonwithstanding. Having the part identified as genuine, 3rd party or non Apple installed in the settings or something would probably be fine, but that’s not what’s happening.
And for the last point, mostly agreed, but a business profiting from a customer’s desire to do good doesn’t disqualify the good that a business might do while also profiting. It would be great if there was some not-for-profit/governent run rating on device longevity/repairability, as some countries do for electricity/water useage, but I’ll take the imperfect solution until then.
I think that is exactly what is happening, but I am very open to new evidence.
God no, and I hope that my writing did not come off like that. English is not my native language. No, I think they do an excellent job, I just take what they say when it comes to repair regulations with a grain of salt.
I agree with you 95%, but a case can’t stop the battery from eating itself after 500 cycles or 4 years, so that does need to be replaceable (at a workbench, with proper tools, by someone with a modicum of care and patience).
(In fact, to some degree cases make it worse, by holding heat in during charging.)
Which major smart phones over the last ten years have not had replaceable batteries?
Even if the iPhone battery can only be replaced by an Apple-certified repair shop, you can just calculate that added tax into the overall price of using the phone over 5-6 years. I don’t really see what the issue is. It’s not like it’s expensive to have your battery replaced, and you only need to do it literally once over the useful lifespan of any phone.
Totally agree. But to be fair, it is pretty easy to replace a battery for most phones and laptops. It is way harder to get none Aliexpress battery replacement. Especially if you bought some random Acer or Asus model. Then even iFixit is not able to sell you a battery.
I always charge my phone when it’s still over 50% that way the “fast charge” doesn’t kick in the temperature is just a little warm, but when I forgot to charge before I leave home and ended up like 20% left, I remove the case and let it fast charge. Otherwise I always opt for slow charge.
The case like he said actually really helped alot, dropped my phone many times it’s still fine, no crack no weird malfunction.
Of course batteries do degrade overtime but at least the phone case did the job to prevent many parts replacements.
Yeah, I prevent fast charge by charging from a USB port on my PC. Typically I plug in at 30-40% and stop at 70%. I do have a crack though… in the screen protector, which I will get around to replacing eventually, I swear.
Makes sense because they said they removed the headphone jack because you can use the type c port.
More wear on the type c port means it will break faster.
The software developers don’t actually have the phone they develop the software for. When there’s bugs, support will just tell you to use a workaround and it will almost never get fixed with the next update.
Ya but everyone sells those they don’t have a monopoly also I assume you can wirelessly charge which reduces port wear
It doesn’t have that
This doesn’t matter. E-waste is a crock of shit. All of the phones you will ever use over your lifetime will fit in your coffin with you, there’s nothing seriously poisonous in there else it wouldn’t be safe to carry phone around in sweaty pockets, and the recoverable raw material value is approxmiately 0% of the manufacturing cost of a phone.
Apple’s “recycling” program is half virtue signal, half sneaky way of keeping devices off the used market. Which, by the way, is the only way real value is ever recovered from old phones. Recycle is the last R for a reason.
This, on the other hand, is very important. The real reason disposable and unreliable phones are bad is that getting a new phone sucks. Search costs suck, transaction costs suck, the “features” that the new phone comes with inevitably suck, and migrating data to a new device sucks. Which is at least partly intentional. Observe one scumbag Android developer cheering about the prospect of users no longer being in control of their own data.