
Fairphone 3 Teardown - sohkamyung
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Fairphone+3+Teardown/125573
======
24gttghh
[https://www.ifixit.com/smartphone-
repairability?sort=score](https://www.ifixit.com/smartphone-
repairability?sort=score)

There is only one other phone from the last five years (that isn't also a
Fairphone) that has a score better than an 8/10 on ifixit's 'repairability
score'. Well done!

------
mkettn
What about the software side? Fairphone 3 supports Android 9, Fairphone 2
supports Android 7. I see no use in a smartphone with replaceble hardware
parts if I cannot install at least security patches for my phones OS on the
long run.

~~~
xorcist
Fairphone has had very solid software support. It is together with Nexus and
Oneplus the hardware most enthusiasts choose, so there is a functioning
community around it.

It is not only well supported in LineageOS, but also most alternative phone
OSes such as UBports (Ubuntu Touch), Sailfish and postmarketOS have or have
had people actively using the hardware.

It's quite a good track record considering the Fairphone 2 is already twice
the age the minimum software update guarantee from Google for their own
hardware.

~~~
freehunter
Absolutely not. I don't download Windows updates from "enthusiasts" or "the
community", and I don't consider community security patches to be "solid
software support".

There's nothing wrong with LineageOS and I'm not criticizing their work. They
do a great job keeping phones supported past the time when manufacturers have
dropped support. But the Android community is far too willing to trust ROMs
downloaded from forums that include who-knows-what and calling it "solid
software support".

Solid software support is updates from the manufacturer, the company I
originally trusted to provide updates when I bought the phone. If I have to
rely on the work of people who once called themselves "Team Douche" [1]
because the company who released the original software has stopped support,
I'm not considering that "solid software support".

[1] [https://www.talkandroid.com/16074-modders-round-table-
with-t...](https://www.talkandroid.com/16074-modders-round-table-with-team-
douche-makers-of-cyanogenmod/)

~~~
secondtom
Conflating LineageOS with forum sourced ROMs is FUD, and the vast majority of
servers are run on software from the efforts of the "the community".

~~~
freehunter
>Conflating LineageOS with forum sourced ROMs is FUD

Nonsense. CyanogenMod started off as a forum-sourced ROM on XDA just like
anything else [1]. It may have grown beyond that, but only because people
blindly trusted it and installed it on their phones 10 years ago, and XDA is
still distributing hacked ROMs in the exact same fashion today.

[1] [https://forum.xda-
developers.com/showthread.php?t=537204](https://forum.xda-
developers.com/showthread.php?t=537204)

------
mosselman
This is great, especially since modern cell phones are not that revolutionary
anymore and should be fairly static in terms of parts. In theory you should be
able to upgrade your fairphone in a few years with new parts, like you can
with a PC.

~~~
OrangeMango
This is the 3rd version; their website doesn't list the previous two. Are
parts still available? Can you fit the guts of the 3rd version into the shell
of the 2nd?

I'm going to pay attention to this brand; it's very promising. But they still
have a lot of work to do before its sustainable.

~~~
mosselman
> This is the 3rd version; their website doesn't list the previous two. Are
> parts still available? Can you fit the guts of the 3rd version into the
> shell of the 2nd?

I have no idea, I was just speculating that in theory it should be possible to
create a base phone that can be upgraded continuously.

~~~
pvorb
A problem that often isn't considered is firmware/drivers. In the smartphone
world you often can't simply install a driver for your new 5G module, for
example. I haven't seen a solution for this, yet.

~~~
RandomBacon
The Librem 5 seems to potentially solve this. If it is an m.2 card and there
are Linux drivers, then it can be upgraded.

------
Tepix
Congratulations to the Fairphone team for achieving a 10/10 score!

------
tgsovlerkhgsel
The more I look at this sort of project, the more I wonder if the "hyper-
repairable" approach is worth it. How many of those phones will need repairs?
How much more resources have to be spent, and what other trade-offs have to be
made, to enable that repairability? (One of the trade-offs being less economy-
of-scale because not as many people are willing to buy a bulky yet expensive
phone.)

At which point is it better to just build 12 non-repairable phones instead of
10 repairable ones + some spare parts?

Take, for example, the user-serviceable battery with its thick casing. Given
that you'd expect to swap it 1-2 times during the useful lifetime of a phone
platform, does it need to be _that_ easy to swap, or would it be OK to require
some level of disassembly?

Not "melt the glue, pull with suction cup, pry open, disconnect 15 connectors,
loosen two sets of 8 screws (all different), remove all innards, replace some
single-use parts" level of disassembly, something like "losen two screws, pry
off the back, loosen two more screws, swap battery" like with the Nexus 4:
[https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nexus+4+Battery+Replacement/130...](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nexus+4+Battery+Replacement/13039)

We don't complain when we take a wristwatch to a watch shop at the corner to
swap the battery every few years, waiting a few minutes and paying $5-10 for
the service and another $5 for the battery. I would be perfectly OK with a
phone that works like that: Repairable (especially commonly swapped parts),
but not average-user-servicable.

Edit: Looking at the Fairphone 3, it doesn't look as bad. I remember looking
at the Fairphone 2, which looked like a brick made of cheap plastic all
around.

~~~
la_barba
The more you look at the e-waste that is being generated and dumped (often in
developing countries, or.. out of sight of most westerners) the more you
realize that increasing repairability/re-use/longetivity of devices is
important for the planet. Can you imagine dumping your laptop in the garbage
if one of the keys stopped working? Or if your CPU fan clogged up with dust?
That's essentially whats happening with iphones, because Apple refuses to give
customers the option to take their phones to reputable repair shops by
prohibiting suppliers to sell to repair-shops, or in some cases using DRM to
prevent repair.

>How many of those phones will need repairs? How much more resources have to
be spent, and what other trade-offs have to be made, to enable that
repairability?

Judging by the large amount of phone repair shops in existence, we already
have the answer.

>(One of the trade-offs being less economy-of-scale because not as many people
are willing to buy a bulky yet expensive phone.)

Why do you assume that the phone has to be bulky? That's simply a lack of
imagination on the part of designers..

~~~
LaGrange
> The more you look at the e-waste that is being generated and dumped (often
> in developing countries, or.. out of sight of most westerners) the more you
> realize that increasing repairability/re-use/longetivity of devices is
> important for the planet.

This is based on an assumption that making the device serviceable is actually
going to help with this. I'm pretty sure that's just an assumption, mostly
based on a hope that we can keep consuming like we do and somehow not wreck
the planet if we just pick a phone with "fair" in its name.

> That's essentially whats happening with iphones, because Apple refuses to
> give customers the option to take their phones to reputable repair shops by
> prohibiting suppliers to sell to repair-shops, or in some cases using DRM to
> prevent repair.

Apple actually takes the old phones and is fairly good at recycling and/or
refurbishing them. If you're going to toss your phone with that being the
case, I somehow doubt you'd repair them either.

> Why do you assume that the phone has to be bulky? That's simply a lack of
> imagination on the part of designers..

I can imagine a phone that's also a horse and a vacuum cleaner, but it's not
imagination that helps. Extra demands restrict options.

~~~
xg15
> _This is based on an assumption that making the device serviceable is
> actually going to help with this. I 'm pretty sure that's just an
> assumption, mostly based on a hope that we can keep consuming like we do and
> somehow not wreck the planet if we just pick a phone with "fair" in its
> name._

Why wound reparability not help with this? Especially since you note that we
can't keep living like we do: Reparability is an active attempt to reduce the
harmful effects of consuming by reducing waste.

> _Apple actually takes the old phones and is fairly good at recycling and /or
> refurbishing them. If you're going to toss your phone with that being the
> case, I somehow doubt you'd repair them either._

Bringing it to Apple for repair might take weeks to process, a repair shop
might not always be available and I might lose my local data. That's
definitely a lot more friction than ordering a new battery (or hypothetically
even buying it at the store) and taking a few minutes to put it in, all in the
comfort of my home.

~~~
LaGrange
> Why wound reparability not help with this?

Why would it?

> Especially since you note that we can't keep living like we do: Reparability
> is an active attempt to reduce the harmful effects of consuming by reducing
> waste.

Or is it an active attempt to soothe our consciences without sacrificing very
much?

> Bringing it to Apple for repair might take weeks to process, a repair shop
> might not always be available and I might lose my local data. That's
> definitely a lot more friction than ordering a new battery (or
> hypothetically even buying it at the store) and taking a few minutes to put
> it in, all in the comfort of my home.

Do you know _why_ most phones are filled with glue? Vibration resistance.
You're going to mess with far more than replacing the battery, meanwhile the
expected lifetime of an unrepairable phone is limited by software updates and
carrier support anyway.

------
Rotareti
I think the repairability of the Fairphone 3 is a huge step forward, but in
the long run I want a phone that allows me to run an up-to-date OS for as long
as I want. The Fairphone 3 will get updates for 5 years, that's not enough if
you ask me.

~~~
bradfa
Would it be reasonable to you to get something like 2 years of monthly
security/software updates included in your purchase of a phone and then pay a
nominal (like $25) yearly fee to continue getting only security updates beyond
the first 2 years? If not, then how would you suggest funding the people who
perform the software/security update process for your phone?

~~~
jraph
Making people pay for security would be bad.

A solution to this is having an upstream kernel (like mainline Linux) work on
the phone, and having fairly standard hardware in the phone with in-kernel
drivers and free / standard libraries instead of these shitty blobs we need on
current phones, and crappy unmaintainable Linux forks.

Android 9 works on my nine year old airis kira slimpad x86 tablet sold with
Windows 7. It runs a standard Xubuntu though. And yes, the latest Ubuntu with
latest security patches. I don't rely on the manufacturer. It just works with
standard software. Have the OS builders and hardware device makers maintain
each part for you.

This is not the world we live in though. In our world, Qualcomm and Samsung
make their messy Linux forks and don't seem to maintain their Shit on a Chip.

The Librem 5 is promising on this matter though.

~~~
freehunter
Making people pay for security isn't unusual. Windows XP is still supported by
Microsoft... provided you're willing to pay extra for it.

~~~
jraph
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I can see a corporation / organization pay for Windows
XP security updates. Regular people, not so much.

------
tarkin2
I had a fairphone about three years ago (I'm guessing fairphone 2). The
software was for a very old version of Android and the update was very slow
coming. I tried to update but had huge problems. There were no custom ROMs for
it either - hopefully there are now.

I never got to the point where I replaced a hardware component because the
software problems, especially software update problems, and perhaps some mild
hardware problems, meant I eventually gave up and used another phone. I hope
FF3 is a vast improvement.

Edit: I see lineage has a ROM for FF2 giving it Android 8.1. That wasn't there
when I used my FF. It may have given me a good experience.

~~~
Fnoord
> Edit: I see lineage has a ROM for FF2 giving it Android 8.1. That wasn't
> there when I used my FF. It may have given me a good experience.

The LineageOS 16 OS is based on AOSP / Android 9.x Pi; not 8.x Oreo. That was
LineageOS 15.

(We also don't use the acronym "FF"; we use the acronym "FP".)

> I had a fairphone about three years ago (I'm guessing fairphone 2). [...]
> There were no custom ROMs for it either - hopefully there are now.

I have a Fairphone 2 (FP2) for 4 years, and what you say is untrue. There have
been alternative OSes for Fairphone for ages. Fairphone delivered a version of
FPOS called Fairphone Open. It is Android without OpenGapps.

The OSes which have been around the past 4 years on FP2:

* SailfishOS (community edition)

* FirefoxOS [now defunct]

* Ubuntu Touch

* LineageOS (for approx 2-3 years?)

* /e/ (more recent, but also a newcomer)

* PostmarketOS (more recent)

Source: [1]

Especially the SailfishOS port has been around for ages, by community member
mal (who now works for Jolla). Ubuntu Touch I'm not sure about when that was
released, but it was the main development device for UT.

Assuming good faith on your behalf, are you sure this was 3 years ago? From
the information you post, it was likely 5 years ago or so, and a Fairphone 1.

[1] [https://forum.fairphone.com/t/operating-systems-for-
fairphon...](https://forum.fairphone.com/t/operating-systems-for-
fairphones/11425)

~~~
tarkin2
It was 2016. A FP2? There were definitely other OSes available but I wanted an
uptodate Android phone.

If FP could supply an uptodate stock Android version with painless update
procedure I'd be happy to try again.

This looks like Android 8?
[https://lineageosroms.com/fp2/](https://lineageosroms.com/fp2/)

~~~
Fnoord
Sorry but if you cannot remember the version of the device and the date it is
pointless to discuss that further.

Fairphone delivers an uptodate version of Android on FP2 insofar that it has
all the latest security patches despite efforts from Qualcomm to not support
the SD 801 anymore. Android 7 officially does not support SD 801 either (via
Google) but Fairphone delivered. The community even managed to run an Android
9 fork on it (LineageOS 16).

What you linked looks like a second hand, not updated source.

I am running LineageOS on the FP2 as my daily driver (with microG). Many in
the community run it both with and without microG. LOS 16 works. See also this
source [1]

[1]
[https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/FP2](https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/FP2)

------
steeleduncan
Does anyone know if the Fairphone 3 will support Android Pay? I've asked their
support a few times now, but I've never gotten a clear answer.

~~~
sbradford26
Their website says it has NFC for card payments. So I would assume it would.

------
ansible
Wow, that's neat. This might just be my next phone. It's a little more
expensive than I'd like, but not bad, really.

------
victorbojica
What would be the use cases for such a easy repairable phone? Compared to
other phones not so easily repairable (i.e. 6/10).

~~~
kiba
Everytime my macbook pro break, it becomes a session in anger management,
because it's hard to fix or required lot of money to fix.

If an easily repairable phone breaks, it's not a big deal.

~~~
dexterdog
I don't have a problem with the MBP being hard to fix, but I have a problem
with most repairs require a 2-week ground shipment (both ways) to get the
apple store to send it for repair. This is with apple care. Right now I have a
bulging battery and a ruined screen glaze that has to go in and I have to find
a computer to live with for a few weeks while it's gone.

~~~
pessimizer
> I don't have a problem with the MBP being hard to fix, but I have a problem
> with most repairs require a 2-week ground shipment (both ways) to get the
> apple store to send it for repair.

I don't understand the distinction. The MBP is hard to fix because most
repairs require a 2-week ground shipment both ways.

~~~
dexterdog
I meant I wouldn't have a problem if I had to have authorized repairs because
it's not meant to be user fixed like they were just a few years ago. I just
don't want to have to ship them to Texas for pretty much everything. They
should be able to do battery, keyboard and screen replacements locally.

------
ProZsolt
It doesn't support USB-PD only QC3.0 [1]. I won't buy anything that uses a
proprietary charging.

[1][https://shop.fairphone.com/en/accessories/usb-charger-
eu](https://shop.fairphone.com/en/accessories/usb-charger-eu)

~~~
milankragujevic
The SoC, baseband, WiFi, etc. chips are okay, but the charging isn't?

~~~
bri3d
What's unreasonable about that? The charging standard is a lot more likely to
affect day to day use. Being unable to charge quickly using a standard USB-C
PD charger is much likely to affect me than some ethical argument about the
proprietary baseband and SoC, especially when there are literally no
alternatives to proprietary basebands.

~~~
dbrgn
If this is about practical use instead of ethical arguments: I think QC
chargers are more widely available right now than USB PD chargers. Basically
every Chinese charger or powerbank nowadays does QC. I've rarely seen one with
USB PD.

~~~
ProZsolt
You are right if we only looking at the phone chargers. Actually that's my
problem. I don't want to QC be the de facto standard for phone charging.
First, with USB PD we have the opportunity to use the same charger for every
device we carry with us (Phone, Laptop, Camera, etc.). If my phone doesn't
support it then I still have to carry another just for my phone. Second, the
USB-C standard prohibits any charging solution other than USB PD. Any
proprietary adds another level of confusion using USB-C. Is it supports USB
PD, Qualcomm Quick Charge, OnePlus Dash Charge, Oppo Super Vooc, Huawei
SuperCharge, Motorola TurboPower or MediaTek Pump Express? In the end,
something will fry my laptop if I just plug in a random charger and I will be
angry. That's why I hate proprietary charging solutions.

------
ineedasername
On specs this seems to be a mid-low level phone. I'm not sure I see the point
of having a phone built to be repairable and last for the long haul if it's
not got the specs to see that lifetime through, and as others have noted the
lack up updates in prior iterations is troubling.

I also wonder if the repairability will really impact repair costs. Swapping a
battery is one thing, but if the phone isn't mass produced in sufficient
qualities then getting replacement screens might not be much cheaper. Other
repairs seem much less likely to be needed-- battery and screen probably
account for a huge majority of repair issues.

~~~
nickserv
I've replaced my last 4 phones not because I wanted something faster or
thinner or any hardware improvements at all in fact.

Just that something broke and fixing it was almost as much as getting a new
one. Or the software was full of security holes or incompatibilities, and no
way of upgrading.

Honestly phones are pretty much where PCs are now, upgrading every year is
pointless except for certain specific use cases, and something that can last
4-5 years with minor repairs and regular software updates is enough for the
vast majority of users.

My only concern with the Fairphone is the high initial price.

~~~
ineedasername
On security holes, that's exactly my point when I mentioned updates. It seems
from other comments that fairphone was very lax on that front. As for repairs,
which ones were almost as much as a new phone? New flagships run $1000.
Battery or screen replacement are $200-300. How much will a new fairphone
screen cost? Even at half that, it doesn't seem worth a low spec phone when I
can get a much higher spec phone at roughly half the $500 fairphone price. (A
pixel 2xl costs about $250 with a bit of smart shopping) I just don't see the
savings here or the reason to sacrifice performance and software updates.

~~~
nickserv
I keep to sub 300€ or even sub 200€ since I don't game and prefer my DSLR for
photography. So a screen replacement on a phone that's not getting software
updates is not really interesting to me.

