Fairphone 3 specification speculation & leaks

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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Official announcement on 27 August 2019

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

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

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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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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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“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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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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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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Hi @RSpliet I thought that the modem for QC was somewhat independent of the main SoC - doesn’t each SoC have different modem options? If you look at flagships with the same SoC the supported LTE cat is often different amongst them all.

Anyway, I agree that a 6xx series is likely, although I was expecting maybe 660 rather than 63x.

Yes I think this confirms that there will be no 5G support, unsurprisingly.

Unfortunately we probably won’t get much more info from certifications as I don’t think it will appear in FCC listings and the only other certification which normally gets listed is WiFi Alliance, which I don’t think has been published yet.

I base my claim on this Wikipedia table. It looks like all but the very high end SoCs have internal modems.

Hi @RSpliet I checked the Qualcomm website and you’re right, the modems are almost all internal, just the 5G ones are external.
Cheers :slight_smile:

Let’s just hope that the USB C port is 3.1/DisplayPort, and not USB 2.0. Most aren’t. Android 10 supports desktop mode when connecting to an external monitor so it’s more important than ever to improve upon USB 2.0.
If they come up trumps here on better wired connections, I’m in.

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Don’t count on it. Looking at datasheets, only the very high-end Qualcomm SoCs do DP alternate mode through USB-C. Looking at the most likely contender for the FP3 (Snapdragon 632), no mention is made of supporting this. The SD632 supports USB 3.0 according to the product brief and Wikipedia, while DisplayPort alternate mode is a standard that was added as an optional feature to the USB 3.1 specification. The FP3 may well come with a USB-C connector (I certainly hope so, the USB 3.0 micro B connector is huge and hideous!) but that doesn’t imply any features.
… of course, I very much look forward to your “I told you so!” moment. :wink: Just managing expectations.

Also, looking at the Android Q beta devices list, no support for the Snapdragon 632 has been announced yet. That doesn’t mean it won’t come, but it’s not guaranteed until it’s out there.

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I sure hope you’re wrong about the 632 SOC. I’ve just looked at the Qualcomm website and it only supports WiFi 4 ( 802.11 a/b/g/n). We’re now on WiFi 6 and any smartphone worth its salt nowadays has WiFi 5. I assumed the 632 did too but now I see that it doesn’t. I know WiFi 4 - compared to 5 it’s very slow. That just doesn’t cut it in today’s day and age. I doubt you are wrong though, if the memory scores correspond with LPDDR3. It has USB 3.1 alright, so that’s all that’s needed for DisplayPort, which saves buying a separate laptop. My last phone had this feature (a BQ Aquaris X2 with a Snapdragon 636). Worked like a charm until I cracked the screen and discovered that posting a phone back for repair with an battery inside that can’t be removed is no simple matter!

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The Wikipedia entry concerning the Snapdragon 632 Mobile has some differences with the orig. source.

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon-632-mobile-platform

The orig. source indeed cites WiFi 4 and USB 3.1.

What is wrong with WiFi 4 though? Could you site situations where it is inadequate?

Wikipedia corresponds with the product brief, which also mentions 802.11ac wifi support. However, looking at actual phones with this SoC, I’m not so sure about that.

Odd. Do note Qcom’s page mentions MU-MIMO (all 3 sources do). Does that even exist without ac? Will that alleviate the concerns regarding slow speed?

Just for reference - even FP2 had 802.11ac wifi support (still online at https://shop.fairphone.com/en/):

WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac
WLAN Bands 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
WLAN Maximum Data Rate Up to 433 Mbps (802.11 ac)

Would be quite odd if the FP3 doesn’t…

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Any speculation on that side, actually? The camera is one of my biggest pain points with the FP2 (alongside the poor battery life and janky 1/8" jack) and I would love to have an awesome camera in the new phone…