Hello! This might be the dumbest question to ever be asked on this forum but I’m not joking. I plan to buy a Fairphone 5, it’s looking to be my dream phone in more ways than one. And it even brought back the Fairphone 3 transparent design, which I loved but sadly never got to own. My question is exactly as said in the title. Will this transparent back yellow over time?
Why am I asking this? Well, I’m basing this off of transparent plastic phone cases who all tend to yellow over time. I wouldn’t want that to happen to my phone because it’s honestly quite ugly. Also, I noticed that the transparent back for the Fairphone 5 had a tint of purple… is that the case? Is it actually slightly purple? Or is that just me? I love purple.
Did anyone here owned a transparent back Fairphone 3 for an extensive amount of time? Did it ever turned yellow?
The german online shop memolife actually lists the color of the transparent edition as ‘transparent schwarz’ (aka ‘transparent black’). So I suppose there is a little bit of pigment mixed into the transparent plastic.
As for the yellowing I cannot give you any reliable information, but I have experienced the same effect with soft plastic in the past as well. Less so with the harder types. So I imagine it’s largely dependent on which polymer and which additives they used in the material. Do we even know if it’s the same one as for the FP3 one?
I have an FP3 for about four years and I have the feeling it has kept its transparency. Note that it is black transparent and not just transparent. Maybe smoked would be a better way to express it
Gameboys were once transparant too, I have an old Gameboy Color (transparent purple). It didn’t discolor. Of course it’s a difficult comparison. We have to see how the FP5 will hold up. But I guess it will be fine.
As others already pointed out, it’s likely a different material (so difficult to say about the FP5), but even the fully transparent back cover of my FP2 from 2017 hasn’t turned yellow so far.
Against certain backgrounds I’ve had this impression myself. After noticing your question, I held the removed back cover against my computer display yesterday with the display all white, and it looked slightly like there’s a hint of purple (more red than blue) in it.
I’d also see a touch of purple in the back cover where it sits on top of the beige markings on the phone’s inside:
Alright then. I guess it does have a tin hint of Purple in there and apparently, it won’t yellow. Thank you all for the replies! Can’t wait to finally get my hands on it!
I would actually really like a yellow transparent version! One of my favourite ever phones is the LG Fx0, a transparent gold Firefox phone from many years ago. When FP were putting certified Fairtrade gold in the FP2 I suggested they make a transparent gold version, but they never did I still wait in hope!
I still wait in hope!