Fair phone is actually a Bad company for sustainability as repair shops asked for mainboard schematics to fix the phone and they refused to give them , so this phone is acually less fixable than Iphones that we have schematics for ... its just matrketing
@@khaledaboizzat They said its not possible to give it aways because they dont make them. They are a small Company they cant do the schematics themselfs. So the Company who makes them doesnt want to share it. But i am sure if they get bigger they will do them self.
Never should have gone away. We have reviewers who worship glass, slim phones, how it feels in the hand, instead of talking about repairability, replaceability of battery, and practicality / convenience to consumers. Most reviewers are guilty of the trend of phones with non-replaceable / non-repairable batteries.
Idea is great - yeah, but what about the insulation ? "no glue" - doesn't that mean it caches the moisture ? drowned in the bathtub is the most likely warranty denial
@@mikusion Galaxy S5 was submersible and had a removable back cover. It is possible, but definitely more of a "accident proof" than a "take pictures underwater" thing.
@@frankandroidz9365 that’s because reviewers (and specially “influencers”) are pressured to say nice things about what they get from corporations or else they’ll stop getting free products
I agree with but sadly it's so good to be true, there is no such thing as nice or saint company it's A SCAM the parts are x3 times their price the phone itself is x3 times it's price. 20€ for a plastic back cover even the galaxy s21 glass back cost less. for LCD 80€ ?? IN MY LIFE and I repaired phones for 15 years now I never seen an LCD go over 35€ and this one should cost 19€ at best even super Amoled for galaxy A and M series cost less I think they offer to recycle your old phone so they can sell it on ebay XD
Regardless of the phone’s downsides, I have to give huge praises to Fairphone for creating a product that is not only sustainable and better for the environment, but a product that gives more power to the consumer. I hope other big tech companies take notice.
Unless we actually stop buying their phones, there's unfortunately not much reason for other companies to take notice. And in this particular case the issue is that instead of getting a FairPhone, you could get an equivalent old, used phone for a much lower price, which would be even better for the environment. So while I applaud them for what they're trying to do, I don't see it as something that could really shake up the market at this point in time.
@Richard Riley Yeah when you compare a small company that is trying to make a change against Giants like Google, Apple, BBK, and Samsung. Come on dude, how's that fair?! at least learn to appreciate good things. They are putting some effort to bring change. Not everyone needs high end specs, performance, and have the money to change their phones every year.
Great review! I watched it on my Fairphone 3. I bought it two years ago. Last year, I installed an upgraded camera. Just a couple of weeks ago, I replaced my damages usb-c port. Looking forward to at least 3 more years of using this phone. Recycling your old devices is a great idea, but also remember that the most sustainable phone you can use is the one you already own. So don't buy the latest if your current phone will do and make an effort to keep your current phone running smoothly. Finally, one thing that wasn't mentioned in the video is that these phones are assembled in Chinese factories, but that Fairphone ensures fair wages and working conditions for factory workers. Cheers everyone!
@@alexhnd552 but why? The whole point is to use the same phone longer. That's why it's repairable and it keeps getting software and security updates. That's why most customers choose to buy it. To buy the latest model as soon as it comes out completely defeats the purpose of the phone! I am aiming for at least 5 years on the FP3, more if I can.
@@Ari-fb5bn well, I cannot promise they will do that again for the FP4, but yes, you can upgrade the camera on the FP3. When they released the upgrade, they also released the FP3+, so new customers can buy the upgraded phone in one go.
My favorite part of the Fairphone is the fact you can replace the display and the USB C. Those two parts are always the first to go, especially the display if you're careless I'd love to see a big case for the phone to make it more rugged and eliminate it's weakness of low water resistance. I don't mind cases, I actually like thicker phones because I feel like I can grip it better. So I see it as an absolute win. I'm definitely switching when my current phone dies
apart from env, the repairability is the greatest point, my pixel battery dead month ago and I can't literally swap it because I can't even open the case ended up send it over to some repair shop just for changing the battery. and now, it's kinda broke again (freezing) and I need to wait the battery drained out just to restart it while if the battery can easily accessed, I just need to remove battery to force shutdown. too bad it's still not available here
Really groovy that there is a company offering this kind of repairability on a phone like this. Not for everybody, some people won't want to do their own repairs anyways, but it is past time for us to have the choice.
I'm not really interested in repair, but I do want a phone where if a battery dies and doesn't charge anymore, it's not the end of the world. Have a Pixel 2 atm, it turns off all the time- even at 70% battery!! I don't care if the Pixel 6 phone can turn things into gold, never getting another one.
If one doesn’t want to repair such phone and I’m sorry full offense, well they’re just pathetic. A modern iPhone or Samsung or whatever I get it. But this ? Dum dum
"repairing" this phone is on the same level as swapping the batteries in a GameBoy. But yeah, I guess even such basic inconveniences are too much for the average user these days. Need an excuse to buy a new phone every few years I guess.
@@konishiwoi honestly even iPhones are insanely easy to physically repair, it's just that the parts are paired to the phone for arbitrary reasons. They're probably the easiest phones to repair otherwise, though.
Foreal. I also love you can DIY save on repair. And also change upgrade etc. i love that you can do it yourself and feel like a total nerd 😂 I hate how tech takes that option out
I think the best use of this phone would be as a company phone. Companies can easily pay for small damages and repair the parts that are needed while supplying their employees with a phone for work. Especially with the 5 year promise of supplying parts, this can go a long way
Also, if enough people get into the value of something like this, the sales increase, and the business grows, surely they could eventually compete on the level of other flagship phones.
I’m not 100% certain, but I seem to remember when project Ara was a thing, reading that the issue was always performance. An integrated design would always out perform a modular one.
Potentially, but you could imagine some cases where what is good for the customer (repairability, for example) is bad for the business and its investors (inability to charge high margins on repairs, less recurring revenue on sales of new models, less participation in the secondary market). Some companies are able to raise capital despite these headwinds and develop their product to catch up to or exceed legacy flagships (e.g., Tesla) while others fail to get customers to value ancillary benefits to get the capital they need to grow and develop their product. Timing and consumer trends matter to form a view on whether they'll be able to "get there".
I’ve been wondering why phones didn’t have user-replaceable modular components like this for years. The fact that this exists is absolutely incredible.
PCs are like that. It would be nice for phones to be like that too. Granted, I hold on to things until not even modernization can keep them viable, but OK.
@@robierahg17 yeah, but when normal phones brake, they go to the trash. the electronic garbage that produces is a lot. with this, you prevent throwing out your phone when a small component brakes. I like this idea. The thing is, it will never reach the mass consumers.
@Joe they legally aren't just another company, their company but a social purpose company which is a completely different legal standing meaning they're a company on a mission.
@@robierahg17 has no standout features? The whole concept behind it is a standout feature. I honestly think with a large enough backing you could minimize the problems and get it fairly close to a regular phone. Give it time
Wow, finally glad to see sustainability taking a step into the tech world. Other manufacturer mention things like reduction in packaging material, or weight of material, or missing components in the phone. But to see a company showing of the modularity of their phone and its components, is pretty fantastic.
I really hope this thing catches up! And heartfelt thanks to MKBHD for pledging to include sustainability for all phone reviews going fwd. This is a big deal, man! Thanks for doing your part
This is actually a huge step. So happy to hear mkbhd will be sinning a light on sustainability as an aspect of reviews moving forward. Definitely my next phone. A small drop in specs for the price is nothing in terms of what you get in return.
This is a huge step forward. Either way, if this company sells a million or two units of the phone. They'd probably change into the corporate greedy smartphone companies. I hope not But, this phone comes with a 5 years of warranty. This is huge for any company
@@puckpuck18 "corporate greedy smartphone companies" Lol, the sole purpose of EVERY company is to make money. They're already a corporate greedy smartphone company. If Fairphone was doing this purely out of the goodness of their hearts, they'd be a non-profit organization. But they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They're doing it to make money. Because they've identified a niche role in the smartphone where they're not directly competing with Samsung or Apple, or really anyone at all for that matter. And they went all-in, gambling that people would see them as the moral and righteous nature-loving "good" company. Their survival depends upon the public not thinking of them as just another samsung or apple. They have to be the "good guys" in order for their company to survive. As you could see in the video, the actual specs and shape of the phone are hugely inferior to the pixel 6. And yet, the fairphone and the pixel 6 are the same price. The only reason anyone would buy the fairphone is because of their sense of morals and values. They want to support the "good" company, fuck google.
I really want this company to grow large enough that they can start building their company in Canada or the US. If i have the budget for a Fairphone when the phone i'm using die, it's what i'll go for.
Same. Technology can keep speeding away for whatever reason, but I don't actually need my devices to be penis extensions. The hardware will come regardless if we give it time, even with sustainable practices, so I just find myself wanting to put more and more of my money where my mouth is. I'm living at minimum wage and have a ton of debt to clear, but once I get those things out of the way this will be the company I vouch for. For now I buy my phones second-hand anyway. Also, I've read Fairphone's Glassdoor reviews, and though there seem to be issues here and there it's nothing I haven't seen about other companies. For reference on what I mean, I don't count "I can't earn enough to buy a villa by making it to the top of the foodchain" as a good point when we clearly need to change how we live.
Anyone else used the fairphone 1 or 2? This one on the other hand looks like it might be near competetive, which is actually really good! I really like the idea behind fairphone, I hope they’ll get to a point of low range competetiveness. If nothing else it might move the needle for other companies to start making fair’er phones
I had a Fairphone 1, which was quite a bit less capable than other models at the time, but this one looks much better. I'm sure it can't compete on specs, but it looks like a decent phone. I wish I had got one now rather than upgrading to the phone I have now.
I had a Fairphone 1. It was terrible to use (cellular coverage dropped randomly when walking while talking…), but I was proud to be one of the first 100 people to back the project. And kudos to how they‘ve developed over the years!
My Samsung Note 3 is still going strong (thanks to Lineage OS) but when it eventually breaks the Fairphone (probably version 5 or 6) will be one of the top options. I do not need the best specs in a phone (tbh phone-hardware hasn't really improved that much after the Note 3 anyway) but I value ecological, open source and repairability factors quite highly
If the Fairphone company with a few dozen million dollars in R&D can make something like this, it is totally possible for the giants at Apple, Google and Samsung to definitely do better in terms of specs and reliability. Phones are at the point now where we don't need more from them. So, focusing on making parts repairable is a key thing we could be focusing. What they don't realise is that people want to reinvest in the stuff they already own, people will come back for broken parts and upgrades over time and even if the reliability isn't perfect, it ultimately would result in them making more money from the extra parts sales anyway, and economies of scale would lower the cost of each part, making the phones totally marketable.
The problem is that tens of people with advanced degrees already did the math and showed that this would make them less money or it would lead to lower purchases. So that's why they dont do it. Companies only factor in money and sustained income. Thats why Apple always gives shit incremental updates; they're dragging out the upgrades so there's always improvement. By making things repairable, it reduces new phone purchases; people aren't going to buy a phone based on how easily they can repair it. They buy based on quality, status, performance, and familiarity, which is why so many people who know nothing about electronics buy iPhones.
Not surprised by this. Europe has really been pushing the “right to repair” for years now. It’s crazy how they actually care about the customer over there.
When i was taking a seminar about civil law in ger, i was given this tl; dr version at the start of it "there are 3 holy cows in the BGB: minors, employees, and consumers. Everthing else is secondary"
I mean he is kind of exception because his content is based about tech and especially phones new or old. Time from time he uses old phones for his videos so don't expect him to giveaway those phones or recycle. You wouldn't say "damn this Museum is so not eco friendly, they have so much old tech lying around".
To be fair someone has to keep collecting phones for legacy and educational purposes. You wouldn't be able to see a bomb if it never existed in his drawer.
This would be the perfect gift for the older generation who don't really care about gaming or the greatest performance, but rather more about being able to call and text friends and family, especially being able to swap out parts, it'd last many years.
Kudos for the effort! And I'd just add: we do NEED to recycle, but also KEEP our devices for as long as possible. The most sustainable phone is the one you don't need to produce!
Absolutely! I personally don’t replace my computer more frequently than seven years. This time it will be 10 years because of the pandemic. Wiping your device clean every 2 years or so will also keep it running well.
The idea of modular, user repair-friendly is always coming back at different times, in a somewhat better form. I feel like the idea of the end-user actually repairing their own devices will never go away. I used to be a tech savy individual back in the early days of the smartphones, and I'm still one today. User are becoming smarter, and a lot of people like the idea of repairing or upgrading their devices. So I feel this is in some way the future of smart devices. Just like we have many people building or upgrading their own PCs. Hopefully more top tech companies get in the bandwagon and give us what we truly want.
I still feel that'll take a gigantic effort and push from consumers, as you see companies make enormous profits from each new unit sold, I mean take Apple, the biggest example of this.
@@deepeshmathuria yes, unfortunately, the stock market and capitalism currently reward monopolies and closed systems rather than open, repairable systems.
I love it but realistically in the current way of how society is, this business model wouldn’t make them go big and comparable to the big company, its a noble cause but unfortunately it wouldn’t go anywhere. Im sad too cause i love this concept
I have an old (2010 something) Sony-Ericsson smartphone lying in a drawer. That is the phone I fall back to when something goes wrong with my current generation phone. Yep, it still works. It also has a removable rear lid and battery and most other parts. How do you think we repaired our tech? This used to be the norm, you know?
Hehe. I also have my old sony ericsson k850i and xperia z in my drawer 😂. Still functioning. I.m not gonna recycle them, i.m a horder 😂. I loved those phones
Still, this "fairphone" doesn't have a headphone jack. With my heavy use one pair of wireless earbuds lasts me like 5 months before battery life becomes too short, so I have to buy a new one. They are fake company trying to profit from the ecovegan crowd, even selling their disposable generic buds for $99.
@@rgb2296 On the earbuds, manufacturing cost is $10 at most. (I have seen generic ones on AliExpress for 3.97 when bought in bulk, but they may have added some fairness to it) That means $89 is profit. The whole phone is bad proposition- budget specs for flagship price. They could have built a flagship and ask idk $1500 for it, but this phone is outdated at launch so keeping it for 5 years would be a horror. (Maybe sufficient for grandparents, but definitely not tech savvy people) I don't know what the market is- the eco-commies usually use an iPhone.
Being able to remove so easily the USB C port is just awesome When it breaks you must change the motherboard since it’s soldered to it (or you can remove it if you have the courage and tools for it) but here it’s really easy to open the phone and change to tiny little piece that can be broken so easily
Actually, most phones soldered thier usb C to their daughter board, not to their mother board. It's commonly paired with bottom firing speaker on its daughter board.
Fairphone already winning a point, simply in the fact that Marques now puts sustainability and repairability in his review. Making people aware is step 1 in making changes for the better.
@@ReddRubble @10.31: "So from here on out I want to make a pledge to include some section in ALL off my future smartphone reviews on repairability and sustainability.."
Would appreciate a repairability and sustainability section on each review. I'd like to see all phone makes have a take back when broken or dead scheme.
The way marques compared this to samsung a series and other midrange phones was disgusting. This is worse then 2021 budget phones, and those are repairable as well with plastic backs. There is a reason why this was only launched in Europe, to sell to people living in an oblivion buying their 'sustainability' crap
YES MARQUES!! I've been hoping you might include a sustainability segment to your reviews and repairability is definitely crucial there too. Thank you for shining a light on this
Always quality content by Marques. I love his honesty and how he makes videos considering other perspectives than just silicon valley's definition of progress.
You've got to appreciate brands like these introducing new ideas despite being on a tight budget, can't wait for other industry giants to emulate the same.
This idea is amazing! Being sustainable and easily repairable. Providing actual parts to repair the phones. No more salvaging for parts. Specs are okay but as long as it's able to get the job done. Hopefully, the bigger companies will do this in the future.
MAD RESPECT for including a rapir and sustain part in EVERY phone review. man you did have to do it and companies will hate you for it but you did it anyway.
I like everything about this phone, including the design. It actually makes the camera bump look good. Its thickness is a plus IMO. It would be nice to be able to upgrade and/or mod the phone, but I expect that would require a giant user base. It would be great/better if Google, Qualcomm et al were leading the charger here, as they ought to, but this is great.
Funnily enough, there's an ipod community based on modding old ipods, like give them Bluetooth, give them bigger batteries, and even give them usb-c! My point of this is that no matter how little a community is, they will always find a way to make their stuff better
In the fairphone 3 when they made a fairphone 3+ you could upgrade the phone just by buying a camera part. They may be planning something similar for the fairphone 4+ (like a better screen for example)
Absolutely love this phone, and what the company stands for, there really needs to be much more pressure on the big companies to make/sell more sustainable electronics
Apple has been working hard on the issue. Their choices are different, but important to consider too. e.g. Making a durable phone. Provide updates for a long period of time. Sustainability in data centers, offices. Removal of plastic. Suppliers audit. New ability or order parts. removing the charger, etc... enough is never enough, but Apple is a leader in pushing sustainability goals.
They need to make something for the high end market (which is also the most wasteful market) Nobody is going to fork over nearly $1000 for a phone with mid range specs and performance
@@rainbowofsoups8570 My dude excuse me but what ? Apple is exactly one of those companies that are the biggest problem. All of their eco talk is just PR and an attempt to look good for the congress. They had this repairability program but it was so limited that it was absolutely useless in practice and was just a PR stunt. Apple is the company that is purposefully designing their devices to break and to be as irepairable as possible. iPhones 12 and 13 have parts locked in software ffs. Even if you swap identical original parts between two phones it won't work. Apple even went as far as to create fake glitches for these parts that won't pass the software checks. They bully their parts suppliers not to sell the parts to anyone but them so no repair shop can work on your device and they won't ever release any schematics.
My wife and I both have the Fairphone 3, it's been absolutely brilliant up-to now.. I decided to go this way after been really frustrated that nobody would replace my HTC 10's battery. The phone is in perfect order but the battery is dead.. I'll never buy a phone without a removable battery ever again. I also just picked up a refurbished LG V20 for my son. One of the last smartphones from a main company that has a removable battery. Beautiful metal build, shoots Raw format photos and even comes with a really useful IR blaster.. I hope other companies start doing this.
Holy crap, this is actually kind of awesome. Proving yet again that huge companies with unlimited resources like Samsung, Apple, and Google have NO excuse for not doing the same.
@@sys-administrator But no one really cares. I'd need to swap a battery long before I ever dropped this in water. I have never, in 20 years of smart phone ownership, dropped a phone in water.
Last week there was a dutch podcast called "met nerds om tafel" where the SEO of fairphone talked about the company. It was really interesting and told about what they all wanted to do in the future. One tf there biggest things they were working on was bringing the phone to more people all around the globe instead of in only Europe. But that it's hard to achieve for a company only has around 80 employees (if i remember correctly) so first thing i thought was dammmm small company big steps… But I love to see it work. I think the idea is great, and their goal to not only sell but also to inspire and inform the market that it can be achieved is a step in the right direction.
Honestly im drooling right now. I'm a diesel mechanic and also I work on cameras and the market for modern-day smartphones is absolutely insane. My Samsung s22 I'm currently typing this on had its back glass broken at some point. The company said it would cost me $100 to send me a complete replacement phone, when back glass is only $9 from Amazon with the OEM adhesives. Also the speakers in this phone have been going out so I've been on the market for either a dumb phone or a really good repairable phone and this has filled the slot perfectly! I'm so excited to see a company dedicated to their customers and the fact that they genuinely care about repairability.
@@fimarb292 No excuse at all he's always in this progressive democrat theme, recycle environment, all this hypocrite BS and he does not lead by example at all. remember his fancy electric vehicle is also a joke it uses coal fired plants to charge and also there is no clear clean way to "dump" old lion batteries they are very toxic so where does this al lead to? garbage theory that you are doing something good...
Congrats for adding repairability and sustainability sections in smartphone reviews from now on 👏 With you making it more visible to the public's eye, companies should pay more attention to this in the future and hopefully we will see a change in the whole industry soon after.
The next iPhone review is gonna be hilarious. Yeeeah it will brick itself if you change anything on it yourself and as a side note it was assembled by people in India making 5 dollars a week but more importantly look it has the apple logo on it so the best phone out there
This phone is most likely to win the category for easiest repairable phone, with the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro as a runner up. For sure Jerryrigeverything will even argue the Fairphone will be the winner in his durability awards
@@lilPopper, the Shiftphones would probably be close to the Fairphone(s), but Pixel might come after that. And if these companies are successfull, some larger brands might feel the need to offer something similar as well.
IMO give it 2 years or so before giving "awards" to the brands, do some honorable mentions to hype it up a bit. after that "grace period" hit them on the nail for not sustainable enough Vs cost benefits and features.
.My buddy has one of these and it's really great. Marques, I'm so thrilled that YOU posted this! Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone and there's some incredible Android phones out there, but this is really the way that ALL the big manufacturers need to be thinking. It's not just about having the right to repair it but taking a more emotionally educated and environmentally responsible approach. It's not just up to the manufacturers to change or for government to legislate, we need to be responsible for our own choices. Great video.
"We only have one earth. Hot take: we should be taking better care of it." HELLS YES! I'm grateful for the review and the willingness to include reparability. I would also love to hear anything other head-to-head comparison (are others using child labor? What about mining practices?). You are the kind of content producer who could push the industry in a better direction. Thank you and keep up the good work! :)
Tbh, I think it's rediculous to say it's even a hot take.. It's just objective fact that we will ruin/destroy everything, if we take care of nothing lol
I'm so happy that you're talking about smartphones sustainability! I really hope more and more people are going to have this vision of buying less stuff, repair more and keep them for a long time. Guys, we have to consume wisely!
No, every company want to maximise their profit..and this is opposite of that. If they could, Phone company would forced you to change you phone every single day.. 😅,but they cant so at least they forcing you to change your phone every 5 year at most.. 😅
@@ADeeSHUPA i mean, we use internet a lot nowadays so basic phone function like calling and text messaging already been left unused because we already have somethings like WA, Telegram and Line. And we would never go back to old way of using phone. The truth is, Our phone would struggle to keep up with these apps after 5 years because they keep updating their software..which is mean your phone became useless after 5 years.
too bad its just a promise and not a legality that they will support the phone, I expect this to die within 1-2 years, thats just what these companies do, overpromise, make money and disappear
10:09 its good to see new-age companies taking the initiative to make this word sustainable. And Unbiased creators like Marques (10:31) will make Big Companies rethink their idea of a better phone.
Props to MKBHD for highlighting sustainability and environmental impact, hoping this pushes other companies to examine their suppliers and ESG policies.
genuinely glad to see this, disappointed to know the repairs and replacements available to the consumer by this phone dont occur frequently enough to sacrifice all those specs other phones have. but like anything there needs to be a start and like Marq said, they dont have the resources as a small company like samsung or w.e. but their whole economically sustainable product is just amazing and the materials their using to make it sustainable i think can be done but the larger companies.
@@Fairphone sorry if my comment came off harsh. i so wish other companies that had the resources to do this on a greater scale with higher quality specs would, or better yet!! few models/years time U GUYS WILL BE 🙏🙏👌
I can't believe this is finally coming back / becoming a trend again. In a perfect world - Google and Apple would do this and provide modularity to their hardware. P.S. Your shirt / sweatshirt is really cool!
Unfortunately sustainability hurts Apple and Google's profits so they would never do it. If given the chance, both would probably do their best to shut down operations like fairphone.
This has great possibilities both for the company and the customer. Imagine being able to update the camera of your phone to a better one without having to purchase a whole new phone. That also would mean the company wouldn’t have to create a new phone with minor updates every single year.
Camera is fine, but most of photography is through post processing these days. Apple does so much post processing so quickly that we don't even realize it. We can swap camera, I'm curious if the soc could be swapped as easily
@@shoukathkhan3646 crApple cant do long exposure just computation like google , samsung . new modules would be able to do long exposure like sony pro i .
This sounds like an awesome idea, instead of always coming out with another phone, just have the team focus on the tech inside to swap out, that would be fantastic. Would it really work? Maybe, but maybe not too
Saying actually, I more into this approach)) And I glad for this, as it pretty does work, but I'm poor anyway, so as I'm not really able to follow it)(
There is like a dozen people I know right now, that would absolutely love these phones on principal alone, and be proud to own the thing. I really hope these guys grow and move to other regions for sales, because its a spectacular idea that is really an untapped market today.
Great to see more coverage on repairable technology! Most old phones are still perfectly usable so I’d recommend selling or giving them to someone who can use them before you consider recycling them
Respect for actually getting the sustainability message and passing it on instead of just glossing it over and focusing entirely on the spec differences. Well done - quality review!
One thing I don't think he considered during his review was long term costs. Hear me out, you buy a pixel which is technically better, but you have it for 2-5 years depending on if it gets damaged. Then you buy a new one so in 5 years you spend at a minimum 1200~ $ You buy this phone one time and just upgrade parts that get outdated/damaged so in 5 years with that phone you use maybe $650 (phone), examples of upgrades $99 (screen), $60 battery, $30 port and so on so compared to the pixel in 5 years you might only spend 850~ $ this was just to get my point forward, but I think the long term cost of things that are upgradable are much cheaper it might even be open to 3rd party options that are cheaper just my theory
If this was an iPhone, perhaps you would want to keep it past 5+ years, but Android, with crappy OS support, you get 3 years of OS support on Pixel and less on pretty much 99% rest of the phones. The Fairphone, you probably lucky if you get a single major OS upgrade, so yeah, keeping it past 3-5 years mark, is pointless, cause your OS will be too old for anything but to make a phone call.
Or you can not be an idiot and put it in a protective case. I’d rather buy something nice and take care of it than to assume I’m gonna break it and get something slower/worse cameras/display and crappier overall. Also not everything is about dollars and cents, your phone is the item you touch and use the most in a single day, I’d take the Pixel/iPhone camera and overall experience over this any day of the week. Most of us who watch MKBHD are people who already are more interested in tech/value it in their lives more than the average person, and as such are more likely to spend more getting a better item.
"Do you have a smartphone sitting in your draw, unused, gathering dust?" he says as he has several draws packed to the brim full of old unused smartphones
Love when creators give a spotlight to sustainability, this company sounds great. even though the actual most sustainable thing you can do when you need a new phone is to buy a second hand one! There are many companies that certify second-hand devices, and you can get them for so much cheaper. And it's not creating new waste,you're using something that already exists.
Doesn't entirely work considering somebody still has to buy it new for you to buy secondhand... The actual sustainable thing to do is just not care about something as small as a phone, instead focus on the big things like pollution in India, microplastics from plastic polyester clothing, and so forth.
@@Luckingsworth in the current system there's always gonna be people who buy things new, therefore second hand phones will always be in rotation. I agree that we should focus on big picture things and government and big corporations responsibilities, but it's still good to help in any small way we can
@STONKS📈 He goes over this, saying how no phone can be 100% sustainable. The point is they go as far as they can with the resources they have and are doing a much better job than anyone out there now. Did you not even watch the video before commenting?
@@-ThatGuy- it will never become competitive with other phones in its price bracket. you can't do what other phones do for the price. its a tradeoff. and you don't just get modularity, you get that no child had to die in a mine for your slightly faster phone. that no poor people had to bend over smoking cancerous piles of garbage trying to melt down metals in e-waste. to me, human life and reduced suffering is worth the extra. not to mention the ton of scientific research fairphone publishes on their website.
Doubt it will be. Most People when they want an android phone really will just go to Samsung or google. Only enthusiasts will lean to something like this. The price will be ignored if people think the sustainability and reparability is worth it. There market should be imo to sway enthusiasts and android users. I don't think any Apple user would switch to this.
@@theholt2ic219 a lot of people who switch to this are apple users. they care about the enviroment, that isn't limited to android not enthusiast. lots of people here seem to misunderstand this phone. it ISN'T about modularity or repairability. those are just attributes that fall under the larger goal, SUSTAINABILITY. guess which groups care about that? hipsters, highly educated people, artists, designers, etc. all people who generally favour iphones over android phones.
I mean it sort of can’t be like fair phone because of well disposability. Apple and Samsung recycle phones returned to them by melting down the materials and reusing them. If everyone could just toss their old parts themselves, there’d be less recycling and more pollution
It's not really Apple's fault that it started Not only were things like sustainability and customisation not a thing back then, this tech was so out of the world at the time that most consumers wouldn't be able to handle its inerts even if they tried Additionally, the disposable nature of the phone might actually be one of the reasons why Apple grew to be influential to begin with They didn't always have the same level of influence, definitely no influence in the phone business until their very first release which just happened to be a smash hit Apple is however responsible for the continuation of that disposable smartphone business model
@@N3c777 unfortunately, that does seem to be the case Clearly consumers don't care enough Fair-Phone is also limited cause of not just internal design restrictions but also external restrictions Not to mention that even if it is capable of taking the heat from modern processors, it might not be able to for next gen processors
From 1:53 you can see the map of this richest country... my country (DR Congo 🇨🇩) from where come the most important and needed ore (Coltan) to built phones. And this ore became the principal reason of instability (war and kids working and being used to get that ore for cent$) in a part of my country. Congrats to the manufacturer for remembering the country
I already have a fairly new phone, but I am seriously considering getting the next iteration of the Fairphone. I wish they could combine this concept with what the Framework laptop is doing, meaning we could switch out camera lenses for example or even upgrade some parts of the phone while keeping the rest if we wanted.
Yes! Finally! I think that you, MKBHD, actually can make a difference talking about sustainability in your reviews. I really have been waiting for this. Thank you so much!
Made the decision that this is going to be my next phone. Important to remember though that the most sustainable phone is the one you already have. Marques, thanks for promising to shine a light on sustainability, I think more reviewers should be doing so
As a long time iPhone user I gotta say I really like the Fairphone and what it’s all about. Great idea, good specs and an overall solid package seems like. Pretty impressive 👍🏻
Hey Marques, theres one major point you forgot to discuss when comparing the $650 Fairphone vs the competing devices. 3-4 years later (the unfortunate time when most people want to upgrade their phone), the upgradable capability of Fairphone vs replacing a new phone is a major win for Fairphone's pricing! You should have made a small note of that in your video especially when even battery replacement can be done by the user too when for most times people will pay someone to replace their battery to, that cost adds up too!
yeah, Fairphone just removing some parts for being looks like "cheaper", but in fact it's same Other brands removing charger, cable data to reduce cost, Fairphone removing battery and inside part of the phone
The odds of this company being around in 5 years is low. It's not the first attempt at a modular, ugradable phone and this business model is simply not very profitable
@@costaliberta5969 I disagree, they don't get obsolete. OEMs force upgrades on people. 5-year-old processors still work fine even now. And as said in the video they use 'average' parts for longevity as support for those is longer and stable. Most people do not need to upgrade their phones even after 5 years, I still have my phone which has SD 808 processor, the only problem is that battery replacement for that phone is hard but otherwise it works fine for everyday use. I am not saying Fairphone is for everyone but I think its for most people who want a phone for regular tasks like calls(audio/video), text, video, reading, social media, navigation etc. And with an unlocked bootloader possibilities are endless in terms of software support too!
Despite its flaws, I have to say it's commendable that they're doing this. I hope they receive more & more funding truly. Even IF at the very least you're able to replace *only* the battery in your smartphone, that's almost akin to giving it a second life. Add your fast charging tech & it's quickly another extra 2-3 yrs by the effort of a few minutes opening and replacing the battery!
![[#2024MAMA] ROSÉ (로제), Bruno Mars - APT. | Mnet 241122 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dgGqD28J6aQ/mqdefault.jpg)
“Remember, swapping out your battery is always faster than charging"
Unless Apple glued it in place. Then you would have to get out your hair dryer.
8 years ago this was normal.
xD 360 yy no scope battery reload
And remember, no prisoners
@@Alex-lp6bg why are you talking about apple like if they are the only ones that are doing it?
Love that you're giving these sustainability companies the shine they deserve
Fair phone is actually a Bad company for sustainability as repair shops asked for mainboard schematics to fix the phone and they refused to give them , so this phone is acually less fixable than Iphones that we have schematics for ... its just matrketing
@@khaledaboizzat heh?
Agreed!
@@khaledaboizzat it's not like the iPhone schematics were given by Apple. People figured them out or got them kinda illegally.
@@khaledaboizzat They said its not possible to give it aways because they dont make them. They are a small Company they cant do the schematics themselfs. So the Company who makes them doesnt want to share it. But i am sure if they get bigger they will do them self.
Its nice to see that the whole “modular” idea is coming back in a proper way.
Never should have gone away. We have reviewers who worship glass, slim phones, how it feels in the hand, instead of talking about repairability, replaceability of battery, and practicality / convenience to consumers. Most reviewers are guilty of the trend of phones with non-replaceable / non-repairable batteries.
Idea is great - yeah, but what about the insulation ? "no glue" - doesn't that mean it caches the moisture ? drowned in the bathtub is the most likely warranty denial
@@mikusion Galaxy S5 was submersible and had a removable back cover. It is possible, but definitely more of a "accident proof" than a "take pictures underwater" thing.
failed once, whats different
@@frankandroidz9365 that’s because reviewers (and specially “influencers”) are pressured to say nice things about what they get from corporations or else they’ll stop getting free products
Crazy how removable battery feels like a new thing
The best privacy feature of all time
@@temp-payday7641 Yes and EU is going to force phone companies to make phones with removable batteries in 2027
@@aleksimoose lets gooooooooooo
I hope it doesen't puff.
That would defeat all phone companies.
The fair phone is most definitely “pushing the limits” and “actually unique”. It is an important step to a better future. They’re setting the bar.
I agree with but sadly it's so good to be true, there is no such thing as nice or saint company
it's A SCAM the parts are x3 times their price the phone itself is x3 times it's price.
20€ for a plastic back cover even the galaxy s21 glass back cost less.
for LCD 80€ ?? IN MY LIFE and I repaired phones for 15 years now I never seen an LCD go over 35€ and this one should cost 19€ at best even super Amoled for galaxy A and M series cost less
I think they offer to recycle your old phone so they can sell it on ebay XD
@@azexy21 I'm pretty sure that the prices are due to the sources they get their materials from.
@@azexy21 4x markup seems very reasonable for sustainable sourcing imo.
That is not how you use quotations.
@@Gran69 oh shit, we've a got a "scholar" over here. 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘴.
Regardless of the phone’s downsides, I have to give huge praises to Fairphone for creating a product that is not only sustainable and better for the environment, but a product that gives more power to the consumer. I hope other big tech companies take notice.
Unless we actually stop buying their phones, there's unfortunately not much reason for other companies to take notice. And in this particular case the issue is that instead of getting a FairPhone, you could get an equivalent old, used phone for a much lower price, which would be even better for the environment. So while I applaud them for what they're trying to do, I don't see it as something that could really shake up the market at this point in time.
@Richard Riley Yeah when you compare a small company that is trying to make a change against Giants like Google, Apple, BBK, and Samsung. Come on dude, how's that fair?! at least learn to appreciate good things. They are putting some effort to bring change. Not everyone needs high end specs, performance, and have the money to change their phones every year.
Praises won't pay their bills...
@@sh0me14 That's why my Fairphone is on the way. Can't wait because the old phone is dying.
Great review! I watched it on my Fairphone 3. I bought it two years ago. Last year, I installed an upgraded camera. Just a couple of weeks ago, I replaced my damages usb-c port. Looking forward to at least 3 more years of using this phone. Recycling your old devices is a great idea, but also remember that the most sustainable phone you can use is the one you already own. So don't buy the latest if your current phone will do and make an effort to keep your current phone running smoothly. Finally, one thing that wasn't mentioned in the video is that these phones are assembled in Chinese factories, but that Fairphone ensures fair wages and working conditions for factory workers. Cheers everyone!
So you can upgrade the camera? They offer better new cameras eventually on their website?
will upgrade from FP3 to FP4 as soon as iodé is ready to put them in their shop!
@@alexhnd552 but why? The whole point is to use the same phone longer. That's why it's repairable and it keeps getting software and security updates. That's why most customers choose to buy it. To buy the latest model as soon as it comes out completely defeats the purpose of the phone! I am aiming for at least 5 years on the FP3, more if I can.
@@Ari-fb5bn well, I cannot promise they will do that again for the FP4, but yes, you can upgrade the camera on the FP3. When they released the upgrade, they also released the FP3+, so new customers can buy the upgraded phone in one go.
@@linn3014 Yes you are right ..
I wil lend the fp3 to a family member but I guess she will throw her phone out then.
I will twice ;)
My favorite part of the Fairphone is the fact you can replace the display and the USB C. Those two parts are always the first to go, especially the display if you're careless
I'd love to see a big case for the phone to make it more rugged and eliminate it's weakness of low water resistance. I don't mind cases, I actually like thicker phones because I feel like I can grip it better. So I see it as an absolute win. I'm definitely switching when my current phone dies
Watching this on my Fairphone. Delighted with it. The repairability combined with the ethical production line made it an easy choice for me
Thank you so much for keeping us safe. Like previously was said we don’t have a choice anymore.
Yayyy!!
apart from env, the repairability is the greatest point, my pixel battery dead month ago and I can't literally swap it because I can't even open the case ended up send it over to some repair shop just for changing the battery. and now, it's kinda broke again (freezing) and I need to wait the battery drained out just to restart it while if the battery can easily accessed, I just need to remove battery to force shutdown.
too bad it's still not available here
How is the screen?
@@chartedtravel1776 XD
Right to repair: I see this as an absolute win!
Really groovy that there is a company offering this kind of repairability on a phone like this. Not for everybody, some people won't want to do their own repairs anyways, but it is past time for us to have the choice.
I'm not really interested in repair, but I do want a phone where if a battery dies and doesn't charge anymore, it's not the end of the world.
Have a Pixel 2 atm, it turns off all the time- even at 70% battery!!
I don't care if the Pixel 6 phone can turn things into gold, never getting another one.
If one doesn’t want to repair such phone and I’m sorry full offense, well they’re just pathetic.
A modern iPhone or Samsung or whatever I get it. But this ? Dum dum
"repairing" this phone is on the same level as swapping the batteries in a GameBoy. But yeah, I guess even such basic inconveniences are too much for the average user these days. Need an excuse to buy a new phone every few years I guess.
@@konishiwoi honestly even iPhones are insanely easy to physically repair, it's just that the parts are paired to the phone for arbitrary reasons. They're probably the easiest phones to repair otherwise, though.
Foreal. I also love you can DIY save on repair. And also change upgrade etc. i love that you can do it yourself and feel like a total nerd 😂
I hate how tech takes that option out
It takes smaller companies to do something ambitious like this, hopefully at some point in the future the entire industry goes in this direction.
I think the best use of this phone would be as a company phone. Companies can easily pay for small damages and repair the parts that are needed while supplying their employees with a phone for work. Especially with the 5 year promise of supplying parts, this can go a long way
Agreed
For sure.
perfect use case
I Agree, this would be great as a first phone for The Home Depot
I hope this catches on. Imagine wanting a better camera and buying an after market top notch camera module.
I would love that as well but nowadays it is more about the software behind the camera unfortunately. Hopefully it will be on point.
@@Fairphone That sounds fun :)
@@Fairphone made me do a double take, really hope I can see your phones here in the Philippines in the future, hopefully!!
@@Fairphone no way ? is it possible ? are old fairphone chipset upgradable now ?
Fairphone already offered exactly this! Not top notch of course but for the Fairphone 3 they released an upgraded camera after a while :)
Also, if enough people get into the value of something like this, the sales increase, and the business grows, surely they could eventually compete on the level of other flagship phones.
I’m not 100% certain, but I seem to remember when project Ara was a thing, reading that the issue was always performance. An integrated design would always out perform a modular one.
Potentially, but you could imagine some cases where what is good for the customer (repairability, for example) is bad for the business and its investors (inability to charge high margins on repairs, less recurring revenue on sales of new models, less participation in the secondary market). Some companies are able to raise capital despite these headwinds and develop their product to catch up to or exceed legacy flagships (e.g., Tesla) while others fail to get customers to value ancillary benefits to get the capital they need to grow and develop their product. Timing and consumer trends matter to form a view on whether they'll be able to "get there".
Not really a value for money phone so nah not the word to use with this phone
Really glad to see this phone on the channel! Thanks for not being a cynic about it, you've always supported the right causes and I have mad respect
I’ve been wondering why phones didn’t have user-replaceable modular components like this for years. The fact that this exists is absolutely incredible.
So we'd spend money on another phone. Same case I find myself in lol hopefully not anymore!
PCs are like that.
It would be nice for phones to be like that too.
Granted, I hold on to things until not even modernization can keep them viable, but OK.
There is a reason no one builds modular phones, it’s because no one will buy them, just get apple care
Google had Project Ara for thaat but later dumped it, not sure if they thought it won't be easy or it won't let them earn much.
$$$
A breath of fresh air for sure. A phone that is pro-consumer. Imagine that.
@@robierahg17 yeah, but when normal phones brake, they go to the trash. the electronic garbage that produces is a lot. with this, you prevent throwing out your phone when a small component brakes. I like this idea. The thing is, it will never reach the mass consumers.
@Joe they legally aren't just another company, their company but a social purpose company which is a completely different legal standing meaning they're a company on a mission.
I really hope phones like this catch on.
@@robierahg17 has no standout features? The whole concept behind it is a standout feature. I honestly think with a large enough backing you could minimize the problems and get it fairly close to a regular phone. Give it time
@@jazzinthevoid that's where refurbishing comes in.
Wow, finally glad to see sustainability taking a step into the tech world. Other manufacturer mention things like reduction in packaging material, or weight of material, or missing components in the phone. But to see a company showing of the modularity of their phone and its components, is pretty fantastic.
fairphone + apple= best sustainable phone 0-0 and best performance
@@jasnoorsingh9194 but apple will never do it, not to mention that the software is the worst part of their products.
@@SupremeLordGeek people buy iPhones just to avoid android and use iOS
And ethical production practices. If anyone didn't know, Fairphone 4 is apparently made from vegan materials as well.
I really hope this thing catches up! And heartfelt thanks to MKBHD for pledging to include sustainability for all phone reviews going fwd. This is a big deal, man! Thanks for doing your part
Unfortunately, it seems that we could remind Marques of this pledge for sustainability.
This is actually a huge step. So happy to hear mkbhd will be sinning a light on sustainability as an aspect of reviews moving forward. Definitely my next phone. A small drop in specs for the price is nothing in terms of what you get in return.
Well said. Thanks. I'm going to recycle all my old phones. Do you recommend a place to turn them in?
This is a huge step forward.
Either way, if this company sells a million or two units of the phone. They'd probably change into the corporate greedy smartphone companies.
I hope not
But, this phone comes with a 5 years of warranty.
This is huge for any company
@@puckpuck18 "corporate greedy smartphone companies" Lol, the sole purpose of EVERY company is to make money. They're already a corporate greedy smartphone company. If Fairphone was doing this purely out of the goodness of their hearts, they'd be a non-profit organization. But they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They're doing it to make money. Because they've identified a niche role in the smartphone where they're not directly competing with Samsung or Apple, or really anyone at all for that matter. And they went all-in, gambling that people would see them as the moral and righteous nature-loving "good" company. Their survival depends upon the public not thinking of them as just another samsung or apple. They have to be the "good guys" in order for their company to survive. As you could see in the video, the actual specs and shape of the phone are hugely inferior to the pixel 6. And yet, the fairphone and the pixel 6 are the same price. The only reason anyone would buy the fairphone is because of their sense of morals and values. They want to support the "good" company, fuck google.
@@whirlwind872 THIS^^^^^
@@whirlwind872 your point does stand, but how you think they gonna operate a factory supposing they make very little money?
I really want this company to grow large enough that they can start building their company in Canada or the US. If i have the budget for a Fairphone when the phone i'm using die, it's what i'll go for.
In US they have Freedom phone 😑
Start saving money now, this way you don't have an excuse when the time comes. :) 20-30$/month is easier than 650$ at once.
why do they need to build in north america? do they not ship to the US rn?
Same. Technology can keep speeding away for whatever reason, but I don't actually need my devices to be penis extensions. The hardware will come regardless if we give it time, even with sustainable practices, so I just find myself wanting to put more and more of my money where my mouth is. I'm living at minimum wage and have a ton of debt to clear, but once I get those things out of the way this will be the company I vouch for. For now I buy my phones second-hand anyway.
Also, I've read Fairphone's Glassdoor reviews, and though there seem to be issues here and there it's nothing I haven't seen about other companies. For reference on what I mean, I don't count "I can't earn enough to buy a villa by making it to the top of the foodchain" as a good point when we clearly need to change how we live.
Anyone else used the fairphone 1 or 2?
This one on the other hand looks like it might be near competetive, which is actually really good! I really like the idea behind fairphone, I hope they’ll get to a point of low range competetiveness. If nothing else it might move the needle for other companies to start making fair’er phones
If they can get to a level of competiteveness to Xiaomi and co then yes they will do extremely well
Oh hi there, billion dollar startup owner
I had a Fairphone 1, which was quite a bit less capable than other models at the time, but this one looks much better. I'm sure it can't compete on specs, but it looks like a decent phone. I wish I had got one now rather than upgrading to the phone I have now.
I had a Fairphone 1. It was terrible to use (cellular coverage dropped randomly when walking while talking…), but I was proud to be one of the first 100 people to back the project. And kudos to how they‘ve developed over the years!
@Joe You're assuming that sustainability and repairability aren't anyone's priorities. Not everyone has big demands from phone tech.
My Samsung Note 3 is still going strong (thanks to Lineage OS) but when it eventually breaks the Fairphone (probably version 5 or 6) will be one of the top options. I do not need the best specs in a phone (tbh phone-hardware hasn't really improved that much after the Note 3 anyway) but I value ecological, open source and repairability factors quite highly
If the Fairphone company with a few dozen million dollars in R&D can make something like this, it is totally possible for the giants at Apple, Google and Samsung to definitely do better in terms of specs and reliability. Phones are at the point now where we don't need more from them. So, focusing on making parts repairable is a key thing we could be focusing. What they don't realise is that people want to reinvest in the stuff they already own, people will come back for broken parts and upgrades over time and even if the reliability isn't perfect, it ultimately would result in them making more money from the extra parts sales anyway, and economies of scale would lower the cost of each part, making the phones totally marketable.
Google tried something like this years ago... As usual ended up a dead project
The problem is that tens of people with advanced degrees already did the math and showed that this would make them less money or it would lead to lower purchases. So that's why they dont do it.
Companies only factor in money and sustained income. Thats why Apple always gives shit incremental updates; they're dragging out the upgrades so there's always improvement. By making things repairable, it reduces new phone purchases; people aren't going to buy a phone based on how easily they can repair it. They buy based on quality, status, performance, and familiarity, which is why so many people who know nothing about electronics buy iPhones.
@@YSPDJapan best said, fair from both sides and I’m satisfied after having to listen to dumb iPhone and Samsung fanboys
@@hman6159 Samsung fanboys?)))
companies will never sacrifice profit for sustainability. investors would also go nuts lmao
Not surprised by this. Europe has really been pushing the “right to repair” for years now. It’s crazy how they actually care about the customer over there.
Hah
thats a doomsday for Apple..😉
When i was taking a seminar about civil law in ger, i was given this tl; dr version at the start of it
"there are 3 holy cows in the BGB: minors, employees, and consumers. Everthing else is secondary"
well in that aspect yeah but do they really care for their customers? Thats doubtful
They just hate Apple like me but I keep buying their products
"Do you have a phone sitting in a drawer?" Says the man with a cabinet absolutely filled with cell phones.
LMFAO
Plus a bomb
This comment has to be pinned. Good one.
I mean he is kind of exception because his content is based about tech and especially phones new or old. Time from time he uses old phones for his videos so don't expect him to giveaway those phones or recycle. You wouldn't say "damn this Museum is so not eco friendly, they have so much old tech lying around".
To be fair someone has to keep collecting phones for legacy and educational purposes. You wouldn't be able to see a bomb if it never existed in his drawer.
This would be the perfect gift for the older generation who don't really care about gaming or the greatest performance, but rather more about being able to call and text friends and family, especially being able to swap out parts, it'd last many years.
Or even young people who aren't shitheads
Kudos for the effort! And I'd just add: we do NEED to recycle, but also KEEP our devices for as long as possible. The most sustainable phone is the one you don't need to produce!
Absolutely! I personally don’t replace my computer more frequently than seven years. This time it will be 10 years because of the pandemic. Wiping your device clean every 2 years or so will also keep it running well.
Also buy used
The idea of modular, user repair-friendly is always coming back at different times, in a somewhat better form. I feel like the idea of the end-user actually repairing their own devices will never go away. I used to be a tech savy individual back in the early days of the smartphones, and I'm still one today. User are becoming smarter, and a lot of people like the idea of repairing or upgrading their devices. So I feel this is in some way the future of smart devices. Just like we have many people building or upgrading their own PCs. Hopefully more top tech companies get in the bandwagon and give us what we truly want.
I still feel that'll take a gigantic effort and push from consumers, as you see companies make enormous profits from each new unit sold, I mean take Apple, the biggest example of this.
@@deepeshmathuria yes, unfortunately, the stock market and capitalism currently reward monopolies and closed systems rather than open, repairable systems.
Love it! Been trying to get one of these for a couple years now. Wish they would sell them here :(
I love it but realistically in the current way of how society is, this business model wouldn’t make them go big and comparable to the big company, its a noble cause but unfortunately it wouldn’t go anywhere. Im sad too cause i love this concept
Love your videos!!
Just bought mine and can’t wait 😻
@@yupickmyusername, they don't need to be big to be successful or accomplish their goal.
@@ChrisDecrease True, but they cant reach more customer which is sad
Fairphone 5 review?
I have an old (2010 something) Sony-Ericsson smartphone lying in a drawer. That is the phone I fall back to when something goes wrong with my current generation phone. Yep, it still works. It also has a removable rear lid and battery and most other parts. How do you think we repaired our tech? This used to be the norm, you know?
Hehe. I also have my old sony ericsson k850i and xperia z in my drawer 😂. Still functioning. I.m not gonna recycle them, i.m a horder 😂. I loved those phones
Still, this "fairphone" doesn't have a headphone jack. With my heavy use one pair of wireless earbuds lasts me like 5 months before battery life becomes too short, so I have to buy a new one. They are fake company trying to profit from the ecovegan crowd, even selling their disposable generic buds for $99.
@@jackwilson5542 Use type-c port? How much profit do they make ? Atleast they're trying to do something in the right direction.
iPhone : "we don't do it here"
@@rgb2296 On the earbuds, manufacturing cost is $10 at most. (I have seen generic ones on AliExpress for 3.97 when bought in bulk, but they may have added some fairness to it) That means $89 is profit. The whole phone is bad proposition- budget specs for flagship price. They could have built a flagship and ask idk $1500 for it, but this phone is outdated at launch so keeping it for 5 years would be a horror. (Maybe sufficient for grandparents, but definitely not tech savvy people) I don't know what the market is- the eco-commies usually use an iPhone.
Being able to remove so easily the USB C port is just awesome
When it breaks you must change the motherboard since it’s soldered to it (or you can remove it if you have the courage and tools for it) but here it’s really easy to open the phone and change to tiny little piece that can be broken so easily
Actually, most phones soldered thier usb C to their daughter board, not to their mother board. It's commonly paired with bottom firing speaker on its daughter board.
@@ragilmalik yeah but still you must replace that board instead of just the faulty piece
Fairphone already winning a point, simply in the fact that Marques now puts sustainability and repairability in his review. Making people aware is step 1 in making changes for the better.
Just this review though.
He's not talking about it in all of the other companies...
@@ReddRubble @10.31: "So from here on out I want to make a pledge to include some section in ALL off my future smartphone reviews on repairability and sustainability.."
@@tom.jacobs Oops, spent too much time reading comments i missed that. You're right thats awesome
Would appreciate a repairability and sustainability section on each review. I'd like to see all phone makes have a take back when broken or dead scheme.
This guy is just perfect.
He's so smooth at everything!
Kudos on the repairability idea Marques.
Yes! So cool to see you cover this Marques! Such a cool flagship for the industry!
This isn't a flagship.
You guys are here too, nice! I'm following both of you. 😀
@@mitismee A flagship for sustainable phones.
That is no where near a flagship, please let me know what you're drinking 🤔
The way marques compared this to samsung a series and other midrange phones was disgusting. This is worse then 2021 budget phones, and those are repairable as well with plastic backs. There is a reason why this was only launched in Europe, to sell to people living in an oblivion buying their 'sustainability' crap
YES MARQUES!! I've been hoping you might include a sustainability segment to your reviews and repairability is definitely crucial there too. Thank you for shining a light on this
@@Fairphone I'm looking forward to your dream of "the last phone you'll ever buy!" If it's released in North America it will be very hard to resist :)
Always quality content by Marques. I love his honesty and how he makes videos considering other perspectives than just silicon valley's definition of progress.
You've got to appreciate brands like these introducing new ideas despite being on a tight budget, can't wait for other industry giants to emulate the same.
This idea is amazing! Being sustainable and easily repairable. Providing actual parts to repair the phones. No more salvaging for parts. Specs are okay but as long as it's able to get the job done. Hopefully, the bigger companies will do this in the future.
MAD RESPECT for including a rapir and sustain part in EVERY phone review.
man you did have to do it and companies will hate you for it but you did it anyway.
Mad respect!? Why? Is he risking his life?
Favorite thumbnail ever.
Sweet phone. Fairphone has come a long way.
I like everything about this phone, including the design. It actually makes the camera bump look good. Its thickness is a plus IMO. It would be nice to be able to upgrade and/or mod the phone, but I expect that would require a giant user base. It would be great/better if Google, Qualcomm et al were leading the charger here, as they ought to, but this is great.
Funnily enough, there's an ipod community based on modding old ipods, like give them Bluetooth, give them bigger batteries, and even give them usb-c! My point of this is that no matter how little a community is, they will always find a way to make their stuff better
@@snughug1181 very true
In the fairphone 3 when they made a fairphone 3+ you could upgrade the phone just by buying a camera part. They may be planning something similar for the fairphone 4+ (like a better screen for example)
Why should they be better? Nothing wrong with standing out from the crowd
@@kelvinmorris1991 why shouldn't they be better? You got a backwards way of thinking
Absolutely love this phone, and what the company stands for, there really needs to be much more pressure on the big companies to make/sell more sustainable electronics
Apple has been working hard on the issue. Their choices are different, but important to consider too. e.g. Making a durable phone. Provide updates for a long period of time. Sustainability in data centers, offices. Removal of plastic. Suppliers audit. New ability or order parts. removing the charger, etc... enough is never enough, but Apple is a leader in pushing sustainability goals.
@@rainbowofsoups8570 except they want you to buy a new phone if something breaks in theirs
They need to make something for the high end market (which is also the most wasteful market)
Nobody is going to fork over nearly $1000 for a phone with mid range specs and performance
@@rainbowofsoups8570 My dude excuse me but what ? Apple is exactly one of those companies that are the biggest problem. All of their eco talk is just PR and an attempt to look good for the congress. They had this repairability program but it was so limited that it was absolutely useless in practice and was just a PR stunt. Apple is the company that is purposefully designing their devices to break and to be as irepairable as possible. iPhones 12 and 13 have parts locked in software ffs. Even if you swap identical original parts between two phones it won't work. Apple even went as far as to create fake glitches for these parts that won't pass the software checks. They bully their parts suppliers not to sell the parts to anyone but them so no repair shop can work on your device and they won't ever release any schematics.
@@Royvdl Yes, sustainability of your cash is an important issue to you.
My wife and I both have the Fairphone 3, it's been absolutely brilliant up-to now.. I decided to go this way after been really frustrated that nobody would replace my HTC 10's battery. The phone is in perfect order but the battery is dead.. I'll never buy a phone without a removable battery ever again. I also just picked up a refurbished LG V20 for my son. One of the last smartphones from a main company that has a removable battery. Beautiful metal build, shoots Raw format photos and even comes with a really useful IR blaster.. I hope other companies start doing this.
This is gonna be my next phone. I really feel the price is completely justified here.
Bruh 🤦🏿♂️, you must've a lot of $$$$
@Slayer Developer I don't know what you're on about
Make a video about it or you just say it for fun
@@Azmodaeus49 wtf? you think a $650 phone is $$$$?
@@GeekProdigyGuy that's a lot of money for a outdated spec phone lol, it has the most rubbish processor in there. It is not worth a single penny.
Holy crap, this is actually kind of awesome. Proving yet again that huge companies with unlimited resources like Samsung, Apple, and Google have NO excuse for not doing the same.
Google even had a modular phone project for awhile. Killed it of course.
@@sys-administrator apple stopped including chargers before the European Parliament started drafting those laws.
better camera, display, soc, speaker, design, and cheaper.. yeah no excuses
@@sys-administrator But no one really cares. I'd need to swap a battery long before I ever dropped this in water. I have never, in 20 years of smart phone ownership, dropped a phone in water.
@@Slyj I would never use the charger that came with it anyway, so why bother. Good call to not include one...it's a waste.
Last week there was a dutch podcast called "met nerds om tafel" where the SEO of fairphone talked about the company. It was really interesting and told about what they all wanted to do in the future.
One tf there biggest things they were working on was bringing the phone to more people all around the globe instead of in only Europe.
But that it's hard to achieve for a company only has around 80 employees (if i remember correctly) so first thing i thought was dammmm small company big steps…
But I love to see it work. I think the idea is great, and their goal to not only sell but also to inspire and inform the market that it can be achieved is a step in the right direction.
Simple support the company by buying their products..we all benefit in the end...just a thought..🙏🙂
CEO*
Honestly im drooling right now.
I'm a diesel mechanic and also I work on cameras and the market for modern-day smartphones is absolutely insane. My Samsung s22 I'm currently typing this on had its back glass broken at some point. The company said it would cost me $100 to send me a complete replacement phone, when back glass is only $9 from Amazon with the OEM adhesives. Also the speakers in this phone have been going out so I've been on the market for either a dumb phone or a really good repairable phone and this has filled the slot perfectly! I'm so excited to see a company dedicated to their customers and the fact that they genuinely care about repairability.
Marques -"recycle your old phone in your drawer"
Also Marques - *has drawer with like 50 phones in it*
More like 500*
Called a hypocrite which he is
Prolly because he also "collects" those phones. If he were to get rid of them, he'd likely recycle them
@@fimarb292 I only have 2 old phones I don’t use and they are part of my “collection”… an iPhone 6S and iPhone 8.
@@fimarb292 No excuse at all he's always in this progressive democrat theme, recycle environment, all this hypocrite BS and he does not lead by example at all. remember his fancy electric vehicle is also a joke it uses coal fired plants to charge and also there is no clear clean way to "dump" old lion batteries they are very toxic so where does this al lead to? garbage theory that you are doing something good...
Congrats for adding repairability and sustainability sections in smartphone reviews from now on 👏 With you making it more visible to the public's eye, companies should pay more attention to this in the future and hopefully we will see a change in the whole industry soon after.
The next iPhone review is gonna be hilarious. Yeeeah it will brick itself if you change anything on it yourself and as a side note it was assembled by people in India making 5 dollars a week but more importantly look it has the apple logo on it so the best phone out there
This should be a new category in the mkbhd yearly awards! (of course I would assume fairphone wins but the runners up would be interesting!)
This phone is most likely to win the category for easiest repairable phone, with the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro as a runner up.
For sure Jerryrigeverything will even argue the Fairphone will be the winner in his durability awards
@@lilPopper, the Shiftphones would probably be close to the Fairphone(s), but Pixel might come after that.
And if these companies are successfull, some larger brands might feel the need to offer something similar as well.
IMO give it 2 years or so before giving "awards" to the brands, do some honorable mentions to hype it up a bit. after that "grace period" hit them on the nail for not sustainable enough Vs cost benefits and features.
5:10 - In fact all cameras are almost like in the fairphone. The difference is usually in the image processor and in post-processing.
.My buddy has one of these and it's really great. Marques, I'm so thrilled that YOU posted this! Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone and there's some incredible Android phones out there, but this is really the way that ALL the big manufacturers need to be thinking. It's not just about having the right to repair it but taking a more emotionally educated and environmentally responsible approach. It's not just up to the manufacturers to change or for government to legislate, we need to be responsible for our own choices. Great video.
Do you have one as well?
Honestly, this is how phones should've been designed in the first place.
This is the first time I'm hearing about Fairphone, and I loved to hear about the amazing work they're doing! Awesome!
Not really awesome
@@Billkelly5 Why not?
Hopefully they keep growing I wanna see this in 5-10 years when they improve and are more popular
"We only have one earth. Hot take: we should be taking better care of it." HELLS YES!
I'm grateful for the review and the willingness to include reparability. I would also love to hear anything other head-to-head comparison (are others using child labor? What about mining practices?). You are the kind of content producer who could push the industry in a better direction. Thank you and keep up the good work! :)
Tbh, I think it's rediculous to say it's even a hot take.. It's just objective fact that we will ruin/destroy everything, if we take care of nothing lol
@@Demorthus pretty sure the "hot take" dialogue was meant to be sarcastic
@@ravvvioli yes, "hot take" was obviously sarcastic
YES please include in the iFixit scores in the reviews and /or come up with your own!
Well would u like to donate 10USD per Month to any Environmental Organization?
I actually used to carry 2 or 3 batteries for my older phones. Once I was low on power, I would just swap out the dead battery for a charged one. 🔥🔥
I remembered that i used to do the same 😂😂😂 that was way awesome
How did you charge those extra batteries?
@@ganeshnaik6503 There was a charger for batteries. You can adjust the height of it and stuff
yep those were the good ole days
Also older phones usually last the whole day or even two. Unlike phones right now which runs out in 6-7 hours.
I'm so happy that you're talking about smartphones sustainability! I really hope more and more people are going to have this vision of buying less stuff, repair more and keep them for a long time. Guys, we have to consume wisely!
Imagine every manufacturer would build phones like this.
No, every company want to maximise their profit..and this is opposite of that. If they could, Phone company would forced you to change you phone every single day.. 😅,but they cant so at least they forcing you to change your phone every 5 year at most.. 😅
@@Shirokuma15 ReALLY
@@ADeeSHUPA i mean, we use internet a lot nowadays so basic phone function like calling and text messaging already been left unused because we already have somethings like WA, Telegram and Line. And we would never go back to old way of using phone. The truth is, Our phone would struggle to keep up with these apps after 5 years because they keep updating their software..which is mean your phone became useless after 5 years.
They will be killing their own sales
They could sell the parts @@myboah4764
This looks promising! We could save so much wastage this way as well! I’d gladly pay more if the features and upgrades are strong!
too bad its just a promise and not a legality that they will support the phone, I expect this to die within 1-2 years, thats just what these companies do, overpromise, make money and disappear
10:09 its good to see new-age companies taking the initiative to make this word sustainable. And Unbiased creators like Marques (10:31) will make Big Companies rethink their idea of a better phone.
Props to MKBHD for highlighting sustainability and environmental impact, hoping this pushes other companies to examine their suppliers and ESG policies.
Love it! Just like Framework laptop!! Thanks for featuring this!!
genuinely glad to see this, disappointed to know the repairs and replacements available to the consumer by this phone dont occur frequently enough to sacrifice all those specs other phones have. but like anything there needs to be a start and like Marq said, they dont have the resources as a small company like samsung or w.e. but their whole economically sustainable product is just amazing and the materials their using to make it sustainable i think can be done but the larger companies.
@@Fairphone sorry if my comment came off harsh. i so wish other companies that had the resources to do this on a greater scale with higher quality specs would, or better yet!! few models/years time U GUYS WILL BE 🙏🙏👌
I can't believe this is finally coming back / becoming a trend again. In a perfect world - Google and Apple would do this and provide modularity to their hardware.
P.S. Your shirt / sweatshirt is really cool!
This proves it's possible. They should all pledge to make the screen, battery, and charge port easily replaceable
Their used to be a small company that made modular phones back in the early 2010s but google bought them out and shelved their work
Was scrolling through the comments to find out If I was the only who noticed how cool his shirt is 😅
Unfortunately sustainability hurts Apple and Google's profits so they would never do it. If given the chance, both would probably do their best to shut down operations like fairphone.
This has great possibilities both for the company and the customer. Imagine being able to update the camera of your phone to a better one without having to purchase a whole new phone. That also would mean the company wouldn’t have to create a new phone with minor updates every single year.
That was exactly the ARA concept that google tried to pull off 5 years ago. A real challenge
They did exactly that with the fairphone3
You could just swap in the fairphone3+ camera into the older phone no problem
Camera is fine, but most of photography is through post processing these days. Apple does so much post processing so quickly that we don't even realize it. We can swap camera, I'm curious if the soc could be swapped as easily
@@shoukathkhan3646 crApple cant do long exposure just computation like google , samsung . new modules would be able to do long exposure like sony pro i .
This sounds like an awesome idea, instead of always coming out with another phone, just have the team focus on the tech inside to swap out, that would be fantastic. Would it really work? Maybe, but maybe not too
Saying actually, I more into this approach)) And I glad for this, as it pretty does work, but I'm poor anyway, so as I'm not really able to follow it)(
There is like a dozen people I know right now, that would absolutely love these phones on principal alone, and be proud to own the thing. I really hope these guys grow and move to other regions for sales, because its a spectacular idea that is really an untapped market today.
Great to see more coverage on repairable technology!
Most old phones are still perfectly usable so I’d recommend selling or giving them to someone who can use them before you consider recycling them
My church uses my old ones.
Respect for actually getting the sustainability message and passing it on instead of just glossing it over and focusing entirely on the spec differences. Well done - quality review!
One thing I don't think he considered during his review was long term costs.
Hear me out, you buy a pixel which is technically better, but you have it for 2-5 years depending on if it gets damaged.
Then you buy a new one so in 5 years you spend at a minimum 1200~ $
You buy this phone one time and just upgrade parts that get outdated/damaged
so in 5 years with that phone you use maybe $650 (phone), examples of upgrades $99 (screen), $60 battery, $30 port and so on
so compared to the pixel in 5 years you might only spend 850~ $
this was just to get my point forward, but I think the long term cost of things that are upgradable are much cheaper
it might even be open to 3rd party options that are cheaper
just my theory
If this was an iPhone, perhaps you would want to keep it past 5+ years, but Android, with crappy OS support, you get 3 years of OS support on Pixel and less on pretty much 99% rest of the phones. The Fairphone, you probably lucky if you get a single major OS upgrade, so yeah, keeping it past 3-5 years mark, is pointless, cause your OS will be too old for anything but to make a phone call.
@@mlodyme3675 Their support pledge includes software support. So no, that's not what we have here. This phone will keep getting updates for years.
@@georgeshapiro301 Does the upgrade part include the CPU module? If it does, you pretty much have an OS update along with the new computing unit.
You can’t upgrade the processor which is what will be needed after the 4-5 year mark the most
Or you can not be an idiot and put it in a protective case. I’d rather buy something nice and take care of it than to assume I’m gonna break it and get something slower/worse cameras/display and crappier overall. Also not everything is about dollars and cents, your phone is the item you touch and use the most in a single day, I’d take the Pixel/iPhone camera and overall experience over this any day of the week. Most of us who watch MKBHD are people who already are more interested in tech/value it in their lives more than the average person, and as such are more likely to spend more getting a better item.
So it cost less then to replace my old S7 glass? Well Done Louis Rossmann.
This phone is the next gen of the smartphone hardware. Thanks for the review, MKBHD 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
This is it. I've always wanted something like this since like 2013. I hope this phone can change the world of electronics
"Do you have a smartphone sitting in your draw, unused, gathering dust?"
he says as he has several draws packed to the brim full of old unused smartphones
All brand new in box also
That is so Cool! I wish all phones were this easy to repair. I love how you can just make your phone even better than when you bought it!
Love when creators give a spotlight to sustainability, this company sounds great. even though the actual most sustainable thing you can do when you need a new phone is to buy a second hand one! There are many companies that certify second-hand devices, and you can get them for so much cheaper. And it's not creating new waste,you're using something that already exists.
I've always done the same. Buy a better phone and sell the old one.
wow i didn't know I was that sustainable, since almost all my previous phones are second hands.
Doesn't entirely work considering somebody still has to buy it new for you to buy secondhand...
The actual sustainable thing to do is just not care about something as small as a phone, instead focus on the big things like pollution in India, microplastics from plastic polyester clothing, and so forth.
@@Luckingsworth in the current system there's always gonna be people who buy things new, therefore second hand phones will always be in rotation. I agree that we should focus on big picture things and government and big corporations responsibilities, but it's still good to help in any small way we can
Thank you for this! I absolutely love the fairphone and will get one soon
Now this is DOPE!
@STONKS📈 elaborate why is it BS ?
@STONKS📈 source
@STONKS📈 He goes over this, saying how no phone can be 100% sustainable. The point is they go as far as they can with the resources they have and are doing a much better job than anyone out there now. Did you not even watch the video before commenting?
I love this and i wish it can actually become mainstream!!
@@-ThatGuy- it will never become competitive with other phones in its price bracket. you can't do what other phones do for the price. its a tradeoff. and you don't just get modularity, you get that no child had to die in a mine for your slightly faster phone. that no poor people had to bend over smoking cancerous piles of garbage trying to melt down metals in e-waste. to me, human life and reduced suffering is worth the extra. not to mention the ton of scientific research fairphone publishes on their website.
Doubt it will be. Most People when they want an android phone really will just go to Samsung or google. Only enthusiasts will lean to something like this. The price will be ignored if people think the sustainability and reparability is worth it. There market should be imo to sway enthusiasts and android users. I don't think any Apple user would switch to this.
@@theholt2ic219 a lot of people who switch to this are apple users. they care about the enviroment, that isn't limited to android not enthusiast. lots of people here seem to misunderstand this phone. it ISN'T about modularity or repairability. those are just attributes that fall under the larger goal, SUSTAINABILITY. guess which groups care about that? hipsters, highly educated people, artists, designers, etc. all people who generally favour iphones over android phones.
*This is how the modern smartphones should have been. Sadly Apple took the lead NOT to do so and the rest followed suit and we are fcuked.*
I mean it sort of can’t be like fair phone because of well disposability. Apple and Samsung recycle phones returned to them by melting down the materials and reusing them. If everyone could just toss their old parts themselves, there’d be less recycling and more pollution
It's not really Apple's fault that it started
Not only were things like sustainability and customisation not a thing back then, this tech was so out of the world at the time that most consumers wouldn't be able to handle its inerts even if they tried
Additionally, the disposable nature of the phone might actually be one of the reasons why Apple grew to be influential to begin with
They didn't always have the same level of influence, definitely no influence in the phone business until their very first release which just happened to be a smash hit
Apple is however responsible for the continuation of that disposable smartphone business model
The nature of the fairphone is unprofitable. I don’t know how they would make money
@@N3c777 unfortunately, that does seem to be the case
Clearly consumers don't care enough
Fair-Phone is also limited cause of not just internal design restrictions but also external restrictions
Not to mention that even if it is capable of taking the heat from modern processors, it might not be able to for next gen processors
If Jobs was alive he would'nt have let this happen.
From 1:53 you can see the map of this richest country... my country (DR Congo 🇨🇩) from where come the most important and needed ore (Coltan) to built phones.
And this ore became the principal reason of instability (war and kids working and being used to get that ore for cent$) in a part of my country.
Congrats to the manufacturer for remembering the country
I spy that Donda Stem Player 👌🏻
Is that the Kanye speaker thing??
@@MiguelY22 yes
I already have a fairly new phone, but I am seriously considering getting the next iteration of the Fairphone. I wish they could combine this concept with what the Framework laptop is doing, meaning we could switch out camera lenses for example or even upgrade some parts of the phone while keeping the rest if we wanted.
Marques: 'if you have a phone sitting in a drawer, just recycle it'
Also Marques: has like 300 phones in multiple drawers
I came here to type that, for light humor, but I decided to scroll down if anyone else remembered it too! Haha 😃
So glad you covered this phone. I've been wanting to change to this phone for years.
Yes! Finally! I think that you, MKBHD, actually can make a difference talking about sustainability in your reviews. I really have been waiting for this. Thank you so much!
You better go buy one
This really reminds me of the good old Android days, I remember repairing my galaxy S4 charging port myself! Well done to Fairphone!
Made the decision that this is going to be my next phone. Important to remember though that the most sustainable phone is the one you already have. Marques, thanks for promising to shine a light on sustainability, I think more reviewers should be doing so
1:43
I think we need more of these types of phone
Congratulations on 15M subscribers
“Do you have a smartphone in a drawer collecting dust” Marques probably has thousands
When this gets released in the US I will certainly purchase! No other phone comes close in terms of sustainability and serviceability!
As a long time iPhone user I gotta say I really like the Fairphone and what it’s all about. Great idea, good specs and an overall solid package seems like. Pretty impressive 👍🏻
Hey Marques, theres one major point you forgot to discuss when comparing the $650 Fairphone vs the competing devices. 3-4 years later (the unfortunate time when most people want to upgrade their phone), the upgradable capability of Fairphone vs replacing a new phone is a major win for Fairphone's pricing! You should have made a small note of that in your video especially when even battery replacement can be done by the user too when for most times people will pay someone to replace their battery to, that cost adds up too!
yeah, Fairphone just removing some parts for being looks like "cheaper", but in fact it's same
Other brands removing charger, cable data to reduce cost, Fairphone removing battery and inside part of the phone
the thing about a five-year old phone is that their processors and chipsets become obsolete. these parts can't just be replaced.
The odds of this company being around in 5 years is low. It's not the first attempt at a modular, ugradable phone and this business model is simply not very profitable
@@costaliberta5969 I disagree, they don't get obsolete. OEMs force upgrades on people. 5-year-old processors still work fine even now. And as said in the video they use 'average' parts for longevity as support for those is longer and stable. Most people do not need to upgrade their phones even after 5 years, I still have my phone which has SD 808 processor, the only problem is that battery replacement for that phone is hard but otherwise it works fine for everyday use. I am not saying Fairphone is for everyone but I think its for most people who want a phone for regular tasks like calls(audio/video), text, video, reading, social media, navigation etc.
And with an unlocked bootloader possibilities are endless in terms of software support too!
Despite its flaws, I have to say it's commendable that they're doing this. I hope they receive more & more funding truly. Even IF at the very least you're able to replace *only* the battery in your smartphone, that's almost akin to giving it a second life. Add your fast charging tech & it's quickly another extra 2-3 yrs by the effort of a few minutes opening and replacing the battery!