Should a Canadian Wait for the US Fairphone?

Hi Fairphone Hive Mind!

I am just wondering, should I wait to buy a US version of Fairphone 2 or import the soon to be preordered version? Will the US version be cheaper? Will you need more customers on this continent?

Just wondering how best to help out.

Jonathan

What I figured from the community event last week is twofold:

  1. Fairphone plans to release the US version well within 2017. So it shouldnā€™t be too long a wait for you (unless you are really impatient :slight_smile: )
  2. The low Euro valuation (or the high Dollar valuation, depending on your perspective) has a huge impact on the price of FP2. Since international trade is all in Dollar, this should not affect the price in the Americas. So you might get a better deal if you wait.

That said, Iā€™m just an outsider as you are, and thus this is all speculation.

3 Likes

Thank you for your advice! I contacted Fairphone and they said that you void the warranty if you use the phone in North America. I suppose Iā€™ll have to wait!

Jonathan

I canā€™t believe that. Did they really say that? I can imagine you donā€™t get support (yet) if you are in the US. But voiding the warranty just by traveling there once sounds strange.

Edit: btw, this report confirms that ā€œthey should launch in the U.S. in the first half of next yearā€.

Hi Jonathan,Unfortunately we donā€™t sell outside of Europe, please take a look on our webshop FAQ.

Thatā€™s what they said.

Iā€™ll wait for the North America release.

Jonathan

Ah! The warranty isnā€™t void, but they will only cover warranty returns/repairs/replacements inside Europe because of the cost/licencing issues outside Europe. It means at this moment if you wanted to have your phone repaired you would have to cover the cost of sending it in and they will only ship as far as Europe to send it back to you.

My advice would be to wait until Fairphone start shipping to the US because they will then have the necessary infrastructure to support you properly

2 Likes

Hi Jonathan,
Iā€™m Canadian and Iā€™ve had a first edition Fairphone for over a year. I took the risk and had it mailed to my sister in the UK, who then mailed it to me. Iā€™ve never had any hardware problems but just some software/android problems that have been fixed with updates.

Also, it didnā€™t work with Telus. Had to go with Rogers (Fido).

Iā€™d say go for it if you donā€™t want to wait for US version!

Lee

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Yeah thatā€™s what I decided to do! Iā€™m from France but currently live in US. I missed the last batch of FP1 that was sold a few month ago (sold out in just a few hours I believe)ā€¦ and just donā€™t want to wait who knows how many monthsā€¦ looks like the LTE frequencies arenā€™t gonna work with frequencies used by most carriers in US, but 3G will be fine (for me). I might move back to Europe at some point tooā€¦
Soā€¦ maybe it would be good to compare the frequencies in the specs with GSM carriers in Canada.