That price is very much justified in my opinion. First of all there is of course the issue with the economies of scale (the more your produce the cheaper it gets). Secondly, FP2’s design is simply genius!
Just today I helped someone troubleshoot their FP1 and we exchanged motherboards for a while, etc. If you have ever opened up a phone that is not designed to be repaired, you know how tedious that is. After unscrewing and rescrewing all the different parts several times, you lose your concentration, forget little parts (exterior power and volume buttons…) and wish that all phones were built in such an uncomplicated way like the FP2.
The upgradeable battery camera is the smallest issue here! Much more important is that FP2 can easily be troubleshooted and repaired. So it’s way easier to stick to it for a longer time.
For the comparable Huawei Y6 a display exchange (incl. work!) meets excatly the costs of FP2 display: 89,-
Batterie exchange 49,-,- (inkl. work) versus 20,- FP2 .
Camera 59,- (incl work) versus 30,- FP2
on the other hand a huge price difference of phone (“unfair” 150 -220,- versus 520,- FP2)
regarding this all, the modularity of FP2 seems NOT such a big cost saving advantage…
The clean modular design of the fp2 allows you to easily repair it yourself within minutes by simply swapping parts. These glued glas-metal-sandwiches are a real pain to deal with, not only working on them but also loosing warranty etc.
The price of a fairphone is clearly justified and dictated by its ethic aims.
It’s all about working conditions, fair wages, education and the like and therefore by no means comparable to the cheap unfair economics of a conventional sixpenny smartphone without ethics from China. The difference in price has already been paid by exploited workers and their families.
I think that someone at Fairphone once said that the price is not much higher because FP2 is produced fairer than other phones. I’ve heard that the low number of units account for most of the price difference.
I think many FP employees have stated that. I remember first hearing it from Tina at a T-Mobile Event in Vienna.
So there are two questions here:
Could the FP2 be cheaper? Do Fairphone profit too much for each phone? If you believe the cost breakdown the answer is clearly no. One might argue the phone should be a little more expensive to increase the net result so the company doesn’t get into financial jams.
After accounting for investments and operational costs, we have a result of approximately €9 before corporate tax. We reserve the remaining profit from each phone for unexpected costs or additional investments in our social impact programs.
Is the higher price (which is caused by the lower quantity) made up for in value?
For me personally the answer is clearly yes. 520€ for a phone that lasts 5 years (which I do believe it will) is not too much.
Especially if it’s the first modular smartphone ever, the most repairable smartphone so far, the fairest (new) smartphone (repeating again that the fairest phone is still a 2nd hand one that doesn’t have to be produced anymore), the one that comes with the coolest community and some of the greatest OS-porters.
When do you ever get so many superlatives for just 520€?
Oh and clearly I’m not the only one who thinks so or else the demand wouldn’t be higher than the supply.
The price is ok in my eyes. But they have to be fair to their customers, too.
The long-life is one of the advertised preferences.
And when I hear, what happened to the FP1, I am very afraid, that I will
not get any parts for my FP2 when I need them. Especially the battery.
I am not sure, to buy a further device for my wife.
And then I read about a FP3 development. They seem not to have their
current device(s) under control. And then they plan another one???
I already described my frustration in the FP1 end-of-life thread.
But only If you get the needed parts. And if you get them in a short time.
Do you really believe it will last 5 years? I hope so.
It’s a completely different situation. FP2 was designed by Fairphone themselves (no copyright issues) and produced in much higher quantities. Sure, they will not be able to keep producing FP2 batteries indefinitely - that will probably never happen unless batteries are standardized, but I’m completely confident that they’ll be able to produce FP2 batteries for much much longer.
What do you mean?
If they don’t start brainstorming, designing and producing new devices at some point they can go into bankruptcy right now and won’t be able to produce any more spare parts for FP2 anymore.
Back on topic, I would say in general, the price is good, but a the moment, its overpriced. The price is good because of the unique design and goals, the important research and improvements in the supply chain fairphone finances with the phone.
But, at the moment, to be open, I do not feel its a very good deal for customers. It urgently needs some upgrades to increase it’s value. That is the main board including the SoC with a SoC that can receive Android O+ updates, the dual sim modem with support for LTE on both SIMs, 3GB plus RAM and finally, a better camera. The rest is fine I think. But I feel the hardware is a bit outdated to attract customers for this and the following year.
I doubt these changes would increase the production cost of a device a lot, but I am fully aware that such an upgrade includes a lot of development and maintenance cost. But I feel it will be necessary soon for the Fairphones price to be justified.
Just curious: any current phone out there which does that?
And FTR, this would need a second modem, which is why not gonna happen, ever applies.
Replacing the SoC and RAM, well - that’s basically a new phone. I, for one, would much appreciate this. But this would be a new phone, and a FP3 is not announced.
Yes, like the iPhone 6S is a new phone but you can’t tell from the outside and many customers don’t care. My point was: In general a think 520€ is a justified price, but an hardware upgrade is needed soon so that it keeps being justified. There simply is very little chance the Fairphone 2 ever gets the official Android 7, which is the current release! Next year, new phones at half that price will have Android O and better camera and spec. But most importantly, users will still expect to be able to use the phone for 3 - 5 years! And they are right. But with FP2 hardware without a SoC upgrade, that will be a challenge.
The question is what you want to put up with. In my opinion, carrying a phone in your pocket is a natural way to use it. I have now had bright spots on the display three times, and – unrelated to the pocket – a complete breakdown of the phone once. For the first two times, the phone was repaired, but reaching the service took more than a month each time. Even kindness and helpfulness do not compensate for this: This cannot be my only phone.
At some point improvement of the phone was promised, but it did not get better. I am still in the two-year warranty, have used the phone for about half the time I’ve owned it (about 18 months), but have now retired it again because the display degraded again. I hesitate to contact support, because I just do not feel like this is getting me anywhere: They don’t get me a phone that withstands normal use. (Mind you, this is not my first or only phone, and none of the others were so unreliable hardware-wise, including the FP1U. Its unfortunate end of support, including the unkept promises, is another story.)
tldr; Fairphone stresses they are not a charity, but they cannot deliver good quality in service or products. If your frustration threshold is good, you accept the limitations, and if you handle your phone with exceeding care, the phone may last some time.
€520 is ok, but i guess it could be cheaper.
I think if Fairphone will sell 200’000-300’000 FP(3)/ year they will make a lower price may be €450. But i think best would be if FP would never be a cheap smartphone.
People pay few for Samsung and iPhone and i think if the phone cost more you may keep it longer.
well, the price ist ok. It would be interesting how much each part gets. Who earns how much?
But talking about five years. I hope, it will last as long. And to keep it update, please develop new parts like a better camera for it! It is one of the most important hardware parts next to battery. There will be a run on it.
Less than 2% left for company growth is really little. So 525€ might even not be enough…
I consider the price I pay a kind of “sponsorship” for Fairphone to grow so they can address other markets, sell more, and eventually get prices down. Till then, I’ll pay the fair price for fair components and jobs.
Is anybody taking an interest in others on this forum and reads the posts above their own before posting? This topic only has under 20 posts so that’s not too much to ask in my opinion. I posted the cost breakdown literally 10 posts up of your post, @h_heiko. Please try to read other opinions first so that your own post adds value to the discussion.
Thanks for your kind answer. I will never again take part, because I will never be the first.
By the way, I never got a step by step instruction, how to install sailfish, just a link, which is not really helping a plug and play user. May be you have the interest and the knowledge to do so.
Thank you!
By the way, if you need only one opinion for one subject, why isn’t there no new camera module, yet? Or does to many opinoins let faiphone remain static?
