Fairphone 3 specification speculation & leaks

Discuss The Industry
12

Yes, I read, and it does not correlate with what I posted above.

  1. 4 GB RAM and Bluetooth 5 fits (though as does the SD632)

  2. It is not a 1.8 GHz SoC. It is a 1.84/2.2 GHz SoC.

  3. The Geekbench entries with that SoC are quicker than the ones with the SD632. The Geekbench entries with the SD632 are far more accurate.

  4. Another difference is SD632 supports LPDDR3 while SD660 supports LPDDR4. The memory-related benchmarks were on par with the SD632; not a device with a SD660.

  5. The SD660 supports more than 1080p: WQXGA / Quad HD / 2560x1600. That’s a very good screen, like a retina MBP. The disadvantage is its more expensive to replace (which goes against the values of Fairphone). That’s of course just my take on it…

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13

thanks for your explanation and the explorative investigations you are doing! :slight_smile: I am not tech savvy enough to understand every detail - I just wanted the speculative info of the article not to be missed…

it seems the 632 is anyhow better than the 660 (https://versus.com/de/qualcomm-snapdragon-632-vs-qualcomm-snapdragon-660-vs-qualcomm-snapdragon-801-msm8974ab-v3)

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14

Thank you! I don’t understand everything about the topic either.

As for the SD632 being faster.

AFAIK LPDDR4 (SD660) is faster than LPDDR3 (SD632).

From this benchmark comparison I would assume the RAM in FP3 isn’t fast:

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/compare/14194833?baseline=14173908

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 contains a SD660. Here’s a bunch of benchmarks. Ignore the obvious outliers and you see a clear difference with the SoC in the Fairphone 3 benchmarks (1200 range single core, 4800 range multi core).
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/search?q=Xiaomi+Redmi+Note+7&utf8=✓

Here’s more benchmarks of the SD660
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/search?dir=desc&q=sdm660&sort=created_at
The negative outliers are single core 1300-1400. Most are at the 1500-1600 range. FP3 is consistently in the 1200 range. Not saying its impossible, just more likely it being the SD632.

15

I think discrepancies in multicore can also be explained by different power settings, i.e. if the max. power is limited to preserve battery, not all cores will run at the highest speed at the same time. At least in laptops it is common nowadays that laptop manufacturers change the max. power consumption of the CPU.

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16

I based my “better” soley on the slightly higher overall score of the 632 compared to the 660. I am not sure if “which memory technology is supported” went into this comparison. When looking a bit closer at both, I am not so sure anymore why the overall score is better for the 632 :wink: but I simply don’t have the expertise to judge on my own

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17

Five Four new photos!
(:de: article):

fairphone-3-5
fairphone-3-51024×510 58.1 KB

fairphone-3-3
fairphone-3-31024×683 57.2 KB
fairphone-3-2
fairphone-3-21280×427 38 KB

fairphone-3-4
fairphone-3-41024×683 49.8 KB

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18

Seems like modularity might be slightly reduced. I somewhat expected that, maybe contact issues with the FP2 modules prove too hard to solve.

I also like that – at least so far – it seems that Fairphone is sticking to a “one model only” policy. Of course offering a catch-all party phone will have some disappointed, but I think it’s the economically soundest decision.

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19

Thanks for the link Rainer!

Too bad we can’t read the source directly.

It is clearly a modular phone (with the iconic and unique translucent case). Also, clearly a physically larger battery. Which fits the other smartphones using similar (suspected) SoC.

What is unknown as the article says: microUSB or USB-C or 3.5 mm jack.

I’d assume USB-C because of the (suspected) SoC and QC.

[EDIT]Wait why does this picture say “charging rapidly”? There is no wire shown https://i1.wp.com/stadt-bremerhaven.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/fairphone-3-3.jpeg?w=1024&ssl=1

Also, what is this black spot on the left (top left of phone)? https://i1.wp.com/stadt-bremerhaven.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/fairphone-3-2.jpeg
[/EDIT]

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20

On the backsind of the display you can recognize three symbols. Two looking similar, I guess they are symbolising SIM1 and SIM2 and the other is, I guess, a microSD.

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21

On the top left it looks like a screwdriver and under left the kind of screw you are allowed to unscrew and right not allowed to unscrew.
So my guess is, it will still be modular.:heart_eyes:

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22

Have a look on the headphones on the left. They are corded.
Another hint?

As the cover is translucent, that may be the headphone jack.

FP3
FP31440×812 63.8 KB

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23

Do we have any sense of when FP3 might actually be announced? I’ve just bought a new battery for my FP2 but it’s really not able to provide the functionality I need - I’ll be the first to order the FP3.

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24

Official announcement on 27 August 2019

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25

That’s at least, what eg the above mentioned bremerhaven-page states:

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26

Fairphone has send an invitation the press that they were announcing the Fairphone 3 in Berlin on 27 August 2019.

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27

I’m anxiously waiting for that announcement! I bought 3 FP2 for my company and one colleague already told me he wants a better camera (he has the latest one), but if the FP3 has better specs, we’ll go for it (and I’m the one deciding anyway :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:).

I would have reeeally loved them to reuse the same modular components than the FP2, or at least some of them, but I guess the need for a bigger battery, hence (probably) bigger screen will be stronger…

Anyway, my FP2 is still working great so I’m not changing anytime soon :wink:

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28

https://www.globalcertificationforum.org/pub_product/8203.html
This shows what frequency bands the FP3 will support.

I’d like to see it being somehow water resistant to IP 67 or the like. Showing that a “waterproof” phone can also be easily repairable is one of things which the smartphone industry needs.

Cheers :slight_smile:

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29

“Supports UICC-NFC Services Yes”

… UICC are SIM cards, so NFC-SIM cards can be used with e.g. payment services, it seems.

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30

Lack of 5G confirmed? Would it say there, if the device supported 5G? Not that I was expecting 5G, or that we even have a 5G network here… 4G is good enough for me :slight_smile:

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31

Great find! The table entries claiming 4G-LTE Cat 7 support are another hint pointing at the use of the Snapdragon 632 SoC, as the 636 would support cat 12 for 4G connections. It means FP3 will bring double the 4G LTE bandwidth of the current FP2 (max 300MBit up, 150MBit down).

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