I recently changed my completely dead FP2 for an LG smartphone and I would like to share some reflections - as a frustrated user but also as an engineer and civil servant working in areas related to sustainability and circular economy.
I am very concerned about sustainability issues and working conditions around the world. This is why I decided to buy a Fairphone 2 in the end of 2016. Even if I had to wait for it and had to use an old phone my family had for some weeks.
I will tell you my personal experience later, but I will start by making my point. For someone to buy a Fairphone, I think he should meet the following conditions:
- Have enough money and be willing to pay an overprice of 150-200€ for (alleged) sustainability.
- Think a low-end smartphone is enough for his needs.
- Be able to wait for several weeks to receive his device, i.e. his current phone must be working (or he can live for over a month without a phone).
So seriously, do you think this has any future?
Then, the problem is, is Fairphone actually more circular? In my opinion, as long as devices are not upgradeable (and I am not only talking about changing the camera, but the “performance hardware”), it will not be. Make it retrofitable or give the buyer an option to change his device for a new one (that keeps up with technological progress) or it will not be.
I see in this forum that there is a lot of talk about how the individual consumer should make a difference, which in the end means blaming those who are not willing to pay an overprice and wait to buy a FP instead of any other smartphone. Some others do the same. I guess they don’t live on a close-to-minimum salary and, in this case, they don’t mind having a badly performing smartphone whose camera cannot even take proper scans to send to customer service that works only on smartphones (true story, and not so rare nowadays).
I think that the change to a more circular economy should be led by policy, laws and proper resource and waste management systems. But remember that sustainable development is not only sustainable, it’s also development. FP2 is objectively a pretty bad product, and its distribution model does not help a person wanting to buy one neither - they can’t just go to a shop, check it and buy it.
The “fair working conditions” and fair-trade mineral stuff is good but you just have to believe it, so it was not the reason with I decided to buy a FP. It’s still mostly manufactured in China (65 hour working week) so it’s not like buying only clothes made in EU and other countries you can trust in this respect (with I do). I know there is no manufacturing capability for many components and smartphone assembling in Europe so I am not blaming the company. What made me buy a FP was the modular design and my belief that the phone would be upgradeable. I know they didn’t claim it, although they did say something like “maybe in the future”, “this would be a nice thing”. I thought this was going to happen because it is really the only way to reduce obsolescence in such a deflationary industry as this one (or, said otherwise, in which product technology improves massively every 2 years, and new OS and SW relies on relatively new HW). Maybe my previous experience in the turbomachinery industry, in which products are usually retrofitted, influenced my thoughts.
Anyway, now I can say I have tried a FP2 and I couldn’t make it until it’s 3rd birthday. And I really tried hard to make its life longer. Is this really the spirit of Fairphone? I don’t think so…
First, I started having problems with the screen (part of it didn’t work at all, I had ghost touches, double letters when typing - so “o” was “ip”, and this suddenly disappeared, then appeared again). I already paid around 150-200€ more than for a smartphone with similar specs and then (as guarantee had expired) I would had to pay another 100 odd euro (plus wait for a week or so at least) to make my FP2 work - the problem being that I was repairing a phone that had other issues and that was soon to become quite obsolete. 4 years after its lauch, the only thing you could upgrade was the camera (from terrible to mediocre), and anyway I don’t care much about the camera as I have a full-frame DSLR. It clearly didn’t pay off…
Then, I started thinking of buying a new phone. I ruled out FP3, but I thought about buying a Shiftphone. These guys make better (and more expensive smartphones). But still they have a big problem, it takes a while to receive your phone, especially if you don’t live in Germany. Anyway, I was going to do it and take the risk… the my FP2 really stopped working. It doesn’t charge and plugging it only managed to cause overheating.
So I bought an LG 8s that has a better screen, a better processor, more RAM, more memory and a better camera than a Shift 6m for 100€ less and went with it out of the shop (if I wanted the Shiftphone in 1 week I had to pay 55€ more, otherwise I had to wait at least 6 weeks). LG offered me a 5 year guarantee, which makes me think they are confident that their device is robust and designed to last, while Fairphone offers only the 2 year legal minimum. Time will tell if it will last me longer than my FP2, but I think it will. So probably this purchase will be more sustainable (and obviously cheaper and it will provide me a better user experience).