Fairphone 5, the eco-friendly and repairable smartphone: the features

Elizabeth Smith

19 September 2023

Do all smartphones look the same to you? Well, it’s not just an impression. There is actually little innovation between one model and the next, and it is limited only to technical features.

Here then is someone trying to stand out: it is Fairphone 5 which, after so many years, goes down the road of offering an independently repairable phone. And that’s not all because it is also environmentally sustainable and offers great warranty and upgrade periods. Let’s find out all the features.

Table of Contents

No more sealed smartphones: Fairphone is easily opened and repaired

Remember the good old days when you took the back cover off your Nokia or Sony Ericsson and replaced its battery with a new one? All forgotten. The constant of these years, in terms of smartphones, has been the total sealing of the back.

So it cannot be opened, checked, or repaired independently. And it has become customary for everyone. if it’s broken, I can only take it in for repair (and pay more).

Fairphone 5 wants to sweep away this unhealthy habit because, as it used to be, it is modular. It simply means that it is built by modules, that is, by parts, all of which are clearly distinguishable and detachable when needed, not soldered together.

As many as 11 parts of the phone can be detached and replaced, paying on the Fairphone site only for the replacement part and nothing else, because you can repair it yourself with just a screwdriver.

Among the accessible parts are the display, USB port, card slots, vibration motor, even the cameras and the ever-present battery. So when you figure out with this guide if the battery needs to be changed, you can do it entirely yourself.

Fairphone 5’s flags: eco-sustainability and long service life

Among the other merits that Fairphone 5 boasts is its distinct eco-sustainability. The company calls it the “fair smartphone” as well as their “most sustainable phone ever.”

In addition to the issue of modularity, Fairphone 5 is composed of more than 70 percent fair or recycled material. For example, in the speaker, 100 percent of the rare earth elements are recycled, and so is 90 percent of the plastic used, plus the gold is from Fairtrade supply chains.

The company is also committed to using renewable energy in plants and offsetting new products with other recyclables. In addition to green talk, Fairphone’s philosophy aims to greatly increase the period of guaranteed software updates, which in other companies travels between 3 and 5 years.

Fairphone 5, on the other hand, will be supported at the software level until 2031. 5 Android updates are provided (so up to Android 18) and still 8 years of security coverage and daily use. In addition there are as many as 5 years of warranty, the guaranteed support is really long.

Fairphone 5 features: a good data sheet

Let us now turn to the technical sheet of Fairphone 5. The smartphone has 8 GB of RAM and a large 256 GB internal memory, expandable with Micro SD up to even 2 TB. The processor is a Qualcomm 6490, certainly not a power monster, but smooth enough.

The battery is unfortunately a bit small, 4200 mAh when many already use 5000. But at least it is serviceable and there is fast charging at 30 w (however, the charger must be purchased separately!). The phone is dual SIM, has IP55 protection, NFC and 5G. It comes out with the latest Android 13.

The screen is a 6.46-inch OLED with an excellent resolution of 1224×2700, wider than on many competitors, and with 90 hz refresh rate. It also has the advantage of stereo speakers.

On the back we have three cameras for an excellent quality compartment:

a 50-megapixel Sony IMX 800 main one, with optical and electronic stabilization simultaneously, up to 8x digital zoom, and video recording up to Full HD 60 fps and 4K 30 fps;