Two years after theFairphone 4and following the release of some audio products like theFairbuds XL, the Dutch company is back with a new repairable phone: the Fairphone 5. It looks and feels a lot like the Fairphone 4, but it adds choice upgrades across the board, making it the most modular and also most modern-looking repairable phone from the company yet.
The design is largely unchanged compared to the Fairphone 4, but the improvements that the company did make go a long way: The teardrop notch and the LCD screen is finally gone, with an ordinary punch-hole selfie and an OLED taking its place. Otherwise, you’re looking at an aluminum frame, a triangular camera array, and a removable back cover. Here, the company brought back its signature translucent back cover next to two black and blue variants. The dimensions and weight has been reduced ever-so-slightly compared to the predecessor.
On the inside, a Qualcomm QCM6490 is in charge of processing needs, an IoT and industry-focused variant of the Snapdragon 782G. The main difference is a longer support window from the chipmaker, which is an important consideration for Fairphone. The phone launches with Android 13, but Fairphone promises a whopping five OS updates and eight years of security patches, with the company striving to move that up to ten years. No other Android manufacturer comes close to this kind of long-term support.
Fairphone 5
The chip is coupled with 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a microSD card slot to expand the storage by up to 2TB. The 4,200mAh battery can charge up to 50% in 20 minutes when coupled with a 30W charger. Like the previous Fairphone, a headphone jack isn’t on board anymore. You will instead have to use the USB-C port or Bluetooth 5.2 (with LE also supported).
On the camera front, we’re looking at a triple 50MP setup: A Sony IMX800 serves as the main camera, an IMX 858 is used as an ultrawide with a 121° FoV, and an unspecified punch hole camera. The third slot on the back’s camera array is taken up by a TOF sensor.
Fairphone also improved the repairability of its phone. It has ten exchangeable modules with many more individual parts that you can pick from to replace broken components, such as the individual wide and ultra wide cameras and SIM and SD card slots.
“We designed a thinner device, without compromising on repairability and durability,” said Miquel Ballester, Co-Founder and Head of Product Management at Fairphone. “After multiple design studies, we were able to reduce the Fairphone 5’s thickness by 9% and ended up with a well-balanced design that sits well in your hand and feels sturdy and premium.” Despite the fact that Fairphone can’t fully seal off components from the outside world, the Fairphone 5 offers IP55 certified dust and water protection.
The repairability is only part of what makes Fairphone “fair,” though: “The Fairphone 5 is better than ever, but more importantly, it’s made with more fair and recycled materials and contributes to improving the lives of over 54,000 people in its manufacturing chain,” said Ballester. “We want to enable people to make sustainable choices without having to compromise on their user experience and the quality of their device.”
The Fairphone 5 is available for preorder on the Fairphone website in select regions. It launches at a price of €700 and £620, which is roughly $750. For now, it is only coming to Europe, but given that theFairphone 4 only recently launched in the US, we’re hopeful that the Fairphone 5 will also make the jump across the pond. Spare parts will also be easily obtainable in Fairphone’s online store, with some examples including €40 for a new battery, €100 for a screen, and €25 for a back cover.
The Fairphone 5 is a culmination of everything Fairphone learned over the past years. It’s the company’s most repairable phone yet that comes closest to a modern-looking flagship phones, all while being easily disassembled using standard tools.
