TL; DR
- Fairphone announced the Fairphone 4.
- It offers a Snapdragon 750G chipset, two rear cameras and other upgrades.
- Expect a starting price of € 579.
Fairphone has made a name for itself with its sustainable approach to smartphone manufacturing and its repair-friendly design. The company launched the Fairphone 3 Plus last year as a sort of stopgap measure, but it has now received a major upgrade in the Fairphone 4.
The new smartphone offers remarkable upgrades in many areas, starting with the mid-range Snapdragon 750G 5G chipset. This is a massive performance boost over the budget-friendly Snapdragon 632 4G SoC seen in the previous smartphone. Fairphone adds that its phone therefore supports 12 5G bands and 17 4G bands, although we suspect mmWave is not available here.
You also get a 6.3-inch FHD + LCD screen with Gorilla Glass 5 and a 3,905 mAh battery with Quick Charge 4 and USB PD 2.0 capabilities. The company says using a 20W Quick Charge 4 adapter should go up to a 50% increase from empty in less than 30 minutes.
On the photographic side, the Fairphone 4 offers a 48 MP main camera with OIS, a 48 MP ultra-wide shooter (120-degree field of view) and a ToF sensor for capturing depth information. A 25 megapixel camera in a water drop notch is available for your selfies and video calls.
Other notable features include dual SIM support (with a physical SIM and eSIM), NFC functions, a side fingerprint scanner and IP54 splash protection. The new phone also uses six other responsibly sourced materials, bringing the total to 14.
The Fairphone 4 will be available on October 25th with pre-orders starting today. Expect to pay € 579 (~ 671) for the 6GB / 128GB variant in gray. Do you need more storage? Then you can grab the 8GB / 256GB option for € 649 (~ $ 752), which comes in gray, green, and mottled color options.
Fairphone 4: A Big Update Promise and More
The company also makes some big promises in terms of support, saying it guarantees upgrades to Android 12 and 13 and intends to offer Android 14 and 15 as well. This theoretically means that the phone will receive operating system updates through 2024, assuming it receives an annual operating system update starting that year. However, Fairphone explicitly stated in its press release that it intends to provide operating system updates by the end of 2027 “although the support from the chipset supplier is running out”.
Either way, the company adds that they will offer monthly security patches for the first two years and will likely switch to a less frequent cadence thereafter (e.g., quarterly patches).
Another notable promise is that the new phone comes with a five-year warranty, which is great news if you want to keep your device for longer than a typical contract cycle. However, the battery is not included in this warranty as you might expect. However, the company advises that it is a replaceable battery, so you can always buy a new one and replace it yourself.
The Fairphone 4 has also improved its modularity, with an increase in the number of “sub-modules” in the device’s modules. This increases reparability so that you don’t necessarily have to replace the entire module if it is defective – you just need to replace the affected sub-module. Unfortunately, however, the parts of the Fairphone 4 are not compatible with previous phones, the company said in response to one Android authority Question.
One potentially controversial decision is the move to leave out the 3.5mm port on the new device. Fairphone’s Wayne Huang claimed the move was made to eliminate any “flaws” in the design, noting that the water and dust ingress had to do with the port. The manager also claimed that the device would have been bigger and thicker if it had included a 3.5mm connector. On the other hand, we are sure that many consumers would be satisfied with a slight magnification if they had a headphone jack.
Finally, the company also confirmed the launch of Fairphone True Wireless Earbuds. This is made from 30% recycled plastic and uses fair trade gold, according to the company. We don’t have any further details on the audio product, but will update the article when we receive more information.
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