Build my own fairphone

Discuss The Industry
1

Bonjour tout le monde.

Comme il semble possible de trouver facilement les composants pour réparer son fairphone, j’ai eu l’idée d’aller plus loin et de construire entièrement le mien (pour l’instant je n’ai qu’un smartphone Xiaomi Redmi A3 du commerce avec Android Go qui ne me donne pas entière satisfaction puisque je ne peut pas installer dessus e/os).

Certains d’entre vous ont-ils déjà fait la démarche ?

Hello everyone.

As it seems possible to easily find the components to repair your fairphone, I had the idea to go further and build my own entirely (for the moment I only have a Xiaomi Redmi A3 smartphone on the market with Android Go which does not give me complete satisfaction since I cannot install on it e/os).

Have any of you already taken the step?

2

Welcome to the community forum.

You do have a source for the Core module / mainboard?
Normally, those are only available as part of a repair job via Fairphone’s repair partner.

3

If you do, you should not call it fairphone, that might bring you legal trouble.

4

That was my question: is it possible to buy all the components to build my own FairPhone ? If motherboards are only available from repair partner then it’s not possible to build it myself.

Maybe, FairPhone would have avantage to sell “Do it yourself build kits” that could be cheaper then completely integrated phones ?

5

Actually it’s possible to build a smartphone from a Raspberry-pi source Build Your Own Smartphone : 10 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables , it will not be a FairPhone as FP is a commercial trade mark but i was wondering if FP could sell kits for building smartphone ?

6

Hello
the motherboard is not for sale separately.
You can purchase a whole Fairphone and (re)open it/(re)assemble it.
There are no DIY kits. The reasons I can only speculate but I thought as follow

  • it does not really save a lot of time for the company but it does save a lot of trouble if something goes wrong (if you damage the part in the process, the warranty is void)
  • they can provide IP rating for freshly assembled phones
  • the modules are not changeable - like in Framework where you choose your modules - here you have one version of a camera, or one version of the USB port

The only thing you can swap and play with are colours of the back cover(s) and some accessories.

7

Another problem is the IMEI number which is associated with the SIM slot if I am not mistaken. The IMEI number is unique. And there is laws surrounding the distribution of it I think.

Reason I know this is due to me sending my FP5 in for a lower microphone replacement. The microphone is connected to the lower PCB, and that is not replaceable by me due to not being sold as spare parts (not changed in FP6). It is soldered. I wish the microphone was on the same replaceable module as the speakers, but no.