Fairphone can be damaged by using out of European Union? Why and how?

I have read that FP cannot be returned if it was damaged by using out of Europe… How can be smartphone made just for EU? I was in Russia with iPhone and is ok… If I ll go where with FP how it can be damaged? I really don’t understand this thing…

Source? If you don’t put your source, it is just a rumour…

At this web at Warranty and Returns: ‘Damage caused by using your Fairphone outside the European Union, Switzerland and Norway as it is only engineered for these countries - there might be network discrepancies and other unanticipated issues which this device is not made for (please read the technical specifications)’

I really don’t think the phone could be damaged, but for sure there will be countries where the frequency bands used, for instance, won’t be compatible from the European ones for some carriers : so you may find yourself with just no network and unable to call, or no 3G, for instance.
I trust what the FP guys want to stress is, you can’t send back the phone announcing it doesn’t work in such a case.

I for one checked the situation in Canada, for instance, where it happens some of the carriers feature 3G frequencies incompatible with ours.
This in my case may turn OK anyhow, since in roaming my FP would just select another carrier, but it prevents me to offer one FP to my son (who is on the ‘wrong’ carrier).
OTOH, I’ll bring my FP with me over there next time, you can believe me :slight_smile:

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I think this means, that if you cannot use your phone in an emergency, then FP is not responsible for any damage caused by this.

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Thanks a lot for answers:) I just was very surprised that exist smth incompatibles for smartphones like this.

As @Herve5 pointed out, it’s more a problem of national regulators choosing rarely used frequencies than anything else. If everyone used the same frequencies, we would not have issues with any phone when going to a different country. Unfortunately, different nations choose different frequencies. Luckily for most europeans, the EU has normalised this.

I travelled to Mexico a while ago and I could not use 3G with my FP, just 2G… apart from that, the phone worked beautifully.

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I used my Fairphone in Mexico in March and it was fine, same no 3G but then roaming charges would have prevented that anyway :smile:

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Ok, thanks) I will try un Rusia…

i use it regularly in Russia without problems.

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It is great) It will be important argumento to convince muy friends buy it=)