Today the new Fairphone was announced and it personally felt as anticlimatic as Fairphone releases get (yes, even worse than the audio-jack absence in the FP4).
Don’t get me wrong, the phone is okay. If my phone died today, it would surely be my first option. But my standard for judging Fairphone is waaay higher than for any other smartphone brand (as it should be, not gonna discuss the ‘why’ of this here).
Here are my pros & cons:
The good
-
Minimalism
The Fairphone comes with good ideas. The switch, more than a grear addition itself, is a declaration of principle. I think there is some intrinsic relationship between ethical consumerism and minimalism and it is great to see Fairphone kinda does too. -
Open source
Fairphone has always been more invested on hardware ethics than software ethics but that took a bit of a turn today. Some of the greatest things about the release are actually not promoted by the company: I’m talking about the fact that, since release, the phone is available de-Googled (with /e/ OS) and the source code has been published. These are great news for the open source community. -
Accessory modularity
I am all for official accesories, and expanding that idea of modularity is great. It had been talked for (in this forum for example), for some time and it seems like a great addition. Excited to see how this evolves in the future. -
Specs
Regarding the phone specs, I won’t say much. They seem a reasonable advancement which make for a perfectly usable phone.
Beyond being an okay smartphone, capable of the basics with a reasonable camera, I wouldn’t ask for much in Fairphone. For the vast majority of users, there are no relevant differences between most smartphones. -
Promising future?
Lastly, although not explicitly mentioned, I think we all hope the branding of the phone as “The Fairphone” opens up the possibility of modular upgrades to the phone. Something more than just the next gen.
The bad
The fact that the presentation of the phone lasts less than 15 minutes should give the viewer the hint that maybe there isn’t that much of an innovation to be presented. (Or not, I’m sure this just responds to a marketing strategy that adapts to a loss in the attention-span of our society. How considered from them).
-
The switch
Yeap, the switch makes both lists. The fact that the protagonist of a two-year hiatus between phone generations is a button that appears to change the launcher app to a “minimalist phone”-like launcher is underwhelming.
Great idea behind. But underwhelming. -
Ethics, sustainability and others
There are no significant changes between the Fairphone 5 and this new release. No new landmarks in ethical practices, no new services incorporated. Nothing new regarding the most important part of what makes a Fairphone fair, really. -
Same old mistakes (hardware)
Not only The Fairphone doesn’t correct some big incongruences of the company but it incorporates some new ones.
Since the withdrawal of the bumper from the Fairphone 3 (which was only there for certification needs), the balancing between keeping a congruential ecological discourse and withdrawing more and more from the box has been, well… worse and worse. The charger, the cable, the screwdriver… And now three additions I’m interested to know how Fairphone will answer:
- A less replaceable battery (after their “go from 0% to 100% in seconds” claim with FP5) that now need screwdriver.
- Going back to a SIM-Tray system, which is more water/dust contamination prone and which requires an extra tool to open.
- New kind of screws (the previously in-shop avaliable Fairphone Phillips 00 screwdriver doesn’t work anymore). Very interestingly enough, the phone doesn’t include a screwdriver (to help with cleaning and everything) but it does come in the box with the modular accesories. Confusing approach.
- Same old mistakes (marketing)
I already wrote a post on this but I can’t state it enough. It is a big incongruence to tag your phone at 599€.
And not only it is an unethical practice but I would go as far as to say it is a marketing mistake. As much as those .99 prices have been studied, whole round prices have been studied too and they have their marketing appeal too, especially in premium or sustainable contexts.
I don’t even think the Fairphone marketing people have deeply thought about this, my guess is that it’s just the way things normally work. Then again, Fairphone was set up to challenge how things normally work. And this is so easy to change I just cannot understand why they don’t just do it.
What do the rest of you think? Am I mistaken to not be blown away? I am open to changing my mind 