iFixit demolishes the newest Fairphone – is it serviceable?

The Dutch company Fairphone believes that smartphones can and should be fully repairable and contain no material from conflicts. Ars covered the launch of Fairphone 2 in 2015 and proceeded to dismantle assisted a late prototype model with the company's CEO. This time, the iFixit repair guide site got the pre-launch prototype and thoroughly examined it to see if Fairphone was still meeting its promises.

The Fairphone 3 itself

Before embarking on physical disassembly, let's take a quick look at the specifications of Fairphone 3.

• 5.65-inch screen – 2160 × 1080, 24-bit color depth, 18: 9 aspect ratio, Gorilla Glass 5
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 SoC: eight-core 1.8 GHz processor, with Adreno 506 graphics processor at 650 MHz
• 4 GB of RAM
• 64GB of internal storage, microSD extension available
• Rear camera 12MP / 8MP front. The rear camera has a dual LED flash and takes a 4k video at 30 frames per second, 1080p at 60 frames per second, 720p at 60 frames per second
• Wi-Fi 802.11ac with BlueTooth 5 + LE, NFC and support for multiple GNSS standards (GPS)
• Dual nano-SIM card, supporting 2G, 3G and 4G LTE networks (GSM only – no CDMA; sorry Verizon subscribers)
• USB Type-C sensors: fingerprint scanner, ambient light, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, barometer and compass
• 3.5mm headphone jack included – no need for USB-C!
• Battery 11.8Wh

If you are not a full person, you may want some comparisons to locate the Fairphone 3 on a scale of performance. Many international phones use the same Snapdragon 632 SoC, but very few appear to have been sold in the United States. This is best described as a budget chipset halfway. When comparing the processor or GPU scores on several benchmarks, the Snapdragon 632 used in the Fairphone displays a score of about 25% to 33% faster than the Exynos 7884B used in the Samsung Galaxy A10e (one of the current ranges of "free with new subscription" "cheap phones"), but half as fast as the Snapdragon 845 used in Google's flagship Pixel 3. These observations fit into a wide range of CPU and GPU benchmarks.

The 11.8 Wh battery between the Google Pixel 3 (11.6 Wh) and the iPhone XS Max (12.1 Wh). We will not really know what it will be in runtime until the phone comes on the market, however, since power consumption is the flip side of the coin when you look at the capacity. d & # 39; diet. This can depend heavily on operating system optimizations and applications.

The phone is just under 10mm thick and weighs 189g. It's a thick feel, but the weight is average-of-the-road; for comparison, the iPhone 10 measured 7.7 mm in thickness and 174 g, the iPhone 11, 8.3 mm in thickness and 194 g. Google's Pixel 3 is 7.9 mm thick and weighs only 148 g (5.22 oz).

Gorilla Glass 5 is the same formulation used by Samsung in the Galaxy S8 and S9 series, although it was upgraded to Gorilla Glass 6 with the Galaxy S10 +. Google has also used Gorilla Glass 5 in its Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL, although it is not the cheapest Pixel 3A.

Disassembly

iFixit has done the complete disassembly of the disassembly presented above with only a spudger and a Phillips screwdriver 00. If you wish to go further and separate the modules themselves (which you would not do during a normal repair ), you will need to add a T5 Torx driver and an opening choice to your toolbox. Nothing was glued hot. The headphone jack, blinking LEDs, and ambient and proximity light sensors are soldered to the bypass card; the USB-C port and the microphone are soldered into the lower module.

In addition to the 10 out of 10 repairability rating, the Fairphone 3 uses ethical components and work.

Price and availability

Bad news, American readers: you will need a friend somewhere in Europe if you want to buy one. The company only delivers to European countries, although the phone itself should work well with most US mobile phone companies (except Verizon), if you can get one.

European readers can now order a Fairphone 3 in advance, delivery to begin at the end of October. The phone costs € 450.00 plus postage (for UK, the shipping costs are DHL, the cost is between 10.20 and 13.20 €). For comparison, it is a little more than a pixel 2. You are thus assured that if you break the screen, it can be replaced easily and cheaply (possibly at home! The battery can be even more easily replaced when it degrades and you have done your best to avoid supply chain problems.

Announcement image by Fairphone