The modular smartphone Fairphone 2

These days even the electronics industry is trying to use fair trade products. The challenge here is not only to manufacture them under truly fair conditions, but also for the raw materials for electronic circuits and batteries, such as tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold, to be purchased without indirectly financing conflict areas.

Currently there are no such initiatives in the industry overall, but the Fairphone company [1], which is based in the Netherlands, is leading the way with their second-generation smartphone, the Fairphone 2, available from their online store [2]. The first model Fairphone FP1U (as well as a slightly revised version of the same) sold out with more than 60,000 units purchased; the Fairphone Company hopes to beat this success with their second model [3].

Fairphone

The first-generation Fairphone was produced under license, but the new model was developed independently. Fairphone claims this gives them greater influence over production conditions, materials used, and the supply chain. In addition, the developers paid particular attention to durability when designing the phone. Many components can be swapped out.

Technically, the Fairphone 2 is based on the Qualcomm SoC MSM8974AB, which also powers devices from established manufacturers, such as the HTC One M8 or the Samsung Galaxy S5 (see Table 1). In combination with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory space (which can be upgraded via a microSD card slot), the device is suitable for everyday use despite the already slightly antiquated processor. The exchangeable battery will last at least a full day.

Modular

While most smartphones have to be repaired or even thrown away after minimal damage due to integrated batteries and glue-on housing, the Fairphone 2 can be fully dismantled easily. On the iFixit Repairability Scale, the device is the only smartphone to score 10 out of 10 points [4]. Spare parts such as batteries and displays, as well as building blocks such as the camera module, are available from the Fairphone store from EUR20 upwards [5]. The display is about EUR85, which is the most expensive spare part. Fairphone plans to offer new components in the future [6].

The device is shipped with Fairphone OS, which is installed after downloading the updates for version 1.11.1. The system is based on Android 5.1 "Lollipop" and has only been slightly modified. For example, when launching apps, it indicates whether they affect your privacy (Figure 1). Fairphone promises to continue supporting the software for two years by releasing updates [7] to fix blatant errors or security gaps.

Figure 1: The Fairphone OS has no superfluous applications.

So far, device owners have waited in vain for an update to Android 6 "Marshmallow" (or newer). The community manager of the Fairphone project, Douwe Schmidt, wrote last November that the update should be "ready in the coming months" [8]. In January, Fairphone's Twitter channel announced the long awaited update would be available "in weeks" [9]. There have been no further announcements since then.

As an alternative to the preinstalled system, there is an open source version of the operating system (OS) called Fairphone Open [10]. It uses no proprietary components (except the binary blobs required for hardware support) and is aimed at users who prefer a free and open system unassociated with Google. Apps can be installed using the open source market F-Droid [11].

Alternatively, applications such as YalpStore [12] or Raccoon [13] provide the ability to download applications in the form of APK files from the Google Play Store without installing the complete Google framework on your phone. The Open version of the Fairphone OS also can be rooted directly from the Settings menu and is updated monthly.

If necessary, Fairphone Open can also install Google Apps using Open GApps [14], making it a "fully featured" Android system with root privileges.