Hands-On With the Fairphone 2 Modular Android Smartphone (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In just a couple of months, the world's first consumer-ready modular smartphone will start shipping. It's called the Fairphone 2, and it will run Android 5.1. Ars Technica got hands-on time with the device, and they say it works surprisingly well. It's a bit thicker than most modern phones, but that's the trade-off for being able to swap out components. "The smartphone consists of seven major building blocks: the back cover, removable battery, display assembly, main chassis, receiver module, rear camera module, and speaker module. Positioned this way, the components that break most often, like the screen, are isolated for better repairability. In addition to swappable blocks, you can even change things inside the modules: for example, a mic or a speaker. They are press-fit, not glued, and can be extracted with simple tools."

Assembly and disassembly is pretty straightforward, as well: "The modules are held together by Phillips screws marked with blue circles. All screws are the same, so you won't have to remember which one goes where. It's quite hard to make a mistake in the assembling process, however Fairphone promises to release additional manuals and video instructions in collaboration with iFixit." The company also thinks it's important to get the phone's materials and components from ethical sources.

Comments

Re:The OS

[ChunderDownunder]

The article states they aim to support the device with 5 years of updates, which is more than most.

(Assuming the company is still in existence by that stage)

Re:The OS

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

It looks like they're using almost vanilla Android. Wouldn't you just upgrade if that was a concern? Given the issue of big name brands not offering timely upgrades for their software, it's hard to imagine a phone like this being significantly worse over its useful lifetime.

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Personally, I'd find it attractive just for having a removable (and therefore also replaceable) battery, which is something a lot of the recent generation of smartphones don't have. Batteries for mobile devices degrade over time.

There may be potential privacy/security advantages to this sort of modular system as well, which for some people could be significant. For example, my company normally won't surrender an electronic device that could have had sensitive data stored on it. If such a device breaks and can't be repaired without losing custody of it, it's securely destroyed and replaced. This more often affects things like hard drives, and therefore creates a bias towards business-grade suppliers who understand the restriction and won't expect a dead drive to be returned. However, a mobile device where say a broken screen or failed battery could be replaced without having to give up the whole phone complete with potential access credentials to a company VPN or sensitive customer data could also be more attractive for the same reason.

battery life

[jaklode]

With "2420 mAh at 3.8V (9.2 Wh)", the battery life will surely suck. I have 3100 mAh, that's a reasonably sized battery.

Re:battery life

[gaiageek]

Right, because all phones consume power at exactly the same rate.

Re:battery life

[drinkypoo]

With "2420 mAh at 3.8V (9.2 Wh)", the battery life will surely suck. I have 3100 mAh, that's a reasonably sized battery.

Your battery has all of 28% more capacity, assuming that what it says on the tin is correct. The difference is significant, but not dramatic.

Re:battery life

[fluffernutter]

For me, I just want my phone to last a full day, day after day, after being plugged in while I sleep. 28% more right now would get me there, so that would be huge for me personally.

Re:battery life

[jaklode]

It's between 0.5 to 1 day(s) more/less battery life, assuming the usual battery life of 2 to 4 days with the 3100 mAh one.

"conflict materials"

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

People would do well to remember what can happen when trying to avoid "conflict materials". See this article from The Guardian.

A lot of these so-called "fair trade" efforts are marketing gimmicks and come from the "let them eat cake" school of thinking of rich and naive Westerners.

Re:"conflict materials"

[pr0nbot]

What's your point, exactly? That since doing the right thing the wrong way has unintended consequences beyond our control, we should say fuck it and turn a blind eye?

Re:"conflict materials"

[ChunderDownunder]

Fairphone's website specifically mentions sourcing minerals from Congo and the US law that the guardian refers to.

whether these guys are part of the problem or the solution, I'll let you be the judge.

https://www.fairphone.com/road...

Re:"conflict materials"

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

So your point is apparently that as long as your intentions are good and doing something makes you feel good and noble, you don't really whether it has unintended consequences and results in people suffering or dying. My point is that you should care about the consequences of your actions and their unintended consequences, because whether real people end up suffering matters a lot more than whether you feel good about yourself.

My more general point is also that you should think critically. Fairphone is an expensive, bulky phone, so it needs some gimmick to sell. Under Dodd-Frank they are already required to report where there minerals come from, and, lo and behold, they come from a conflict zone, the DRC. Normally, under Dodd-Frank, that should be of concern, but they turn lemon into lemonade by trying to sell that as a good thing. But if you look at their web site, there is a lot of verbiage about their lobbying and their intentions and their goals, but little clearcut evidence that they are doing anything useful.

Re:"conflict materials"

[lexman098]

I think the operative word in your first paragraph is "unintended". If it's known upfront things can be done differently (or not at all). Yeah people like to feel good about themselves, but that doesn't mean good deeds for the sake of real altruism isn't real.

Re:"conflict materials"

[ilsaloving]

This statement in the article really popped out for me.

"As it sought to comply with the law, Congo’s government shut down the mining industry for months. Then, a process was launched to certify the country’s minerals as conflict-free. But the process is unfolding at a glacial pace, marred by a lack of political will, corruption and bureaucratic and logistical delays."

So in essence, they're blaming the US for their own governments inability to get their shit together and... you know... govern.

Re:"conflict materials"

[KGIII]

I could make a, presumably, well-reasoned argument that we should be sending money to conflict zones as it, may, help those who are most seriously in need while also having detrimental effects because the money, may, go to furthering the war. Would you rather be hungry or better/well-fed when the rebel troops roll through your village and kill one out of every ten males? They might be less likely to kill/maim those working in the factory or mines. Sure, it's hell - but is it a lesser hell if there's some money flowing into the area?

I don't really know and I sure as hell have no solutions, but it seems to me that I'd rather be working in a mine and being abused than potentially starving and soon-to-be dead.

Re:"conflict materials"

[monkeyxpress]

Yeah, worse than that:

"But the miners still get $4 per kilo [before the law they got $7]. That’s because there are only a few trading houses in the provincial capital, Bukavu, due to the limited supply of tagged minerals and delays in providing government licences to buy them, miners and community leaders said. The houses fix the price, they added."

Okay so in addition to the government's 'inability' to certify more mines, they are also turning a blind eye to price cartels that are using the situation to squeeze miners? I have very little doubt it is corruption all the way to the top with the whole situation. My guess is that everyone they interviewed was either getting their cut, and so had a vested interest in 'blaming Obama', or too uneducated to have a clue who Obama even is and are just saying what they've heard.

What a tragic situation for what should be a wealthy country.

Re:"conflict materials"

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

Yes, I think they are trying to turn lemon into lemonade: Dodd Frank requires them to disclose their sources, they get their metals from DRC, and so they write pages and pages about how they intend to do so responsibly. It's hard to tell what they actually end up doing, but I don't see any evidence that they are any more "fair" than other companies.

Re:"conflict materials"

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

I think the operative word in your first paragraph is "unintended". If it's known upfront things can be done differently (or not at all).

"Unintended" doesn't mean "unexpected". In this case, the consequences may be unintended, but they shouldn't be unexpected, in particular after reading and thinking about the issues a bit.

Yeah people like to feel good about themselves, but that doesn't mean good deeds for the sake of real altruism isn't real.

If you receive more benefit from an act than it costs you, it ceases to be altruistic. Running around with a "Fairphone" that advertises to your peers what a wonderful person you are and that you can afford to spend way too much money on a clunky phone is probably not driven by altruism, but by social signaling, group conformity, and self promotion.

Re:"conflict materials"

[pr0nbot]

My point (on which we probably agree) is that you should still strive to do the right thing even if you get it wrong initially. Outcomes are never certain; to some extent you're always rolling the dice, and you roll even when you know things might turn out badly. So if there unintended consequences, you try harder, you don't just give up and pretend that inaction to maintain the status quo doesn't equally have pretty horrendous consequences.

Re:"conflict materials"

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

My point (on which we probably agree) is that you should still strive to do the right thing even if you get it wrong initially.

Obviously you should do the right thing if you know what it is. But what is the right thing? We can't even agree in the US on the costs and benefits of basic economic questions like minimum wage or taxes. What kind of hubris leads people to believe that we can figure out whether doing business with this-or-that group in a war torn third world country is actually hurting or helping people?

So, back to "fairphone". The company uses "conflict minerals" as a marketing tool for their bulky and expensive phone, and they make a big deal of it on their home page. But they don't present any clear cut evidence that what they are doing is actually helping rather than hurting and instead fill their web page with lots of verbiage. Since they would be in the best position to make such an argument and are evidently unable to make it, that, in my book, casts a lot of doubt on what they are doing. In fact, to me it looks like they were required to disclose that they source from the DRC under Dodd Frank and tried to put a positive spin on it. So, if you want to "do the right thing", I think you should avoid these guys, because I think they are astroturfing.

In general, however, it is rarely a good idea to stop doing business with oppressive or totalitarian regimes (and I'm speaking from first hand experience). You are hurting people economically that way, and you just push the common man into the arms of his oppressor.

Re:"conflict materials"

[pr0nbot]

If one believes what they say on their site (which, from what you say, you don't; that's fair enough, it's all written in marketingese so I have my doubts too), then they're more or less doing what you suggest: continuing to do business with the DRC, but trying to do it in a "fair trade" way (i.e. directly with the producers on the ground) so as to subvert the structures that make conflict materials problematic:

https://www.fairphone.com/road...
Passed in 2010, the Dodd Frank Act addresses tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold (3Ts and G) sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and surrounding high-risk areas. At Fairphone, we want to focus on sourcing conflict-free minerals, which is why we’re going straight to the conflict zone: the DRC. While conflict-free minerals are certainly available from other countries, our goal is to work directly where we can contribute to alternatives to current mining practices, empowering workers and improving the livelihoods of the local population. We want to become a vehicle for change in the regions that need it most.

Re:"conflict materials"

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

continuing to do business with the DRC, but trying to do it in a "fair trade" way (i.e. directly with the producers on the ground) so as to subvert the structures that make conflict materials problematic:

What "structures" would that be, specifically? Where is the evidence that they are "subverting" the structures?

Do you think people engaged in violent civil war are just going to say "oh, well, let's go home"? The most obvious consequence for these people is to force the "producers on the ground" to give up money at gunpoint, leaving them with even less money than before.

Heck, I can't even tell whether the Congo government is legitimate or not. Obama seems to "like" the government. But in that case, what's the justification of "subverting" the structures of the Congo?

Note also that the "Fairphone" web page talks a lot about what they "want" and their "goals", but nothing specific in terms of quantifiable results.

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

The point is not just that the phone is easier to repair. Fairphone included an interface that links with the back cover. This way the phone can be extended by changing the cover for one with, for example, an NFC chip.

The point of the Fairphone is that they strife to minimalise slave labor in the product and use materials that are better for the environment or can be recycled.

Also, if you can't open the phone: if it is broken, you have to replace it.

Fairphone tries to create a phone that is more durable and usable for a longer period of time (not just two years). If you want a better camera after two years, that is probably possible by replacing the camera module with a better one.

So they are trying to break the throw-away culture and improve the world a little bit :-)

How phone turned hipster

[abies]

Best part of it is transparent back cover. This way, everybody around can see how cool you are for building your own phone. Even if it is as complicated as putting together 6-part Duplo duck.
Ethical sources part only confirms diagnosis - it is targeted at holier-than-thou vegan hipsters, rather than on hacking/modding community.

Re:How phone turned hipster

[TheDarkMaster]

Put a black/opaque back cover on your unit, problem solved. Which part of the sentence "modular design" you do not understand?

Re:How phone turned hipster

[MrNiceguy_KS]

Best part of it is transparent back cover. This way, everybody around can see how cool you are for building your own phone. Even if it is as complicated as putting together 6-part Duplo duck.

But is it as cool as taking apart a digital clock and putting it into a suitcase?

Re:How phone turned hipster

[abies]

My point is that this seems to be tailored towards people who want to show how cool they are because they tinker with their phone, rather than for actual tinkering. Default transparent cover and emphasis on ethical sources are my proofs for that, rather than problems themselves. If I put black back cover and steal candy from child in India, this won't make Fairphone as a product any less 'hipster'. I will be just left with expensive underpowered phone and will actually have to tell people I have assembled my phone myself! (and that I don't have TV - this is always a good brag, isn't it?)

Re:How phone turned hipster

[Chozabu]

really? you don't sound that representative of the "hacking/modding community"
Transparent back cover... that's nice. Not amazing, but will probably get them talked about a little more without so much forced PR.
They are *trying* to be ethical by investigating their supply line and not buying from suppliers who don't support slavery? Great! No hacker supports slavery!

It may not be totally focused on hackers/modders - which is fine. It's a modular phone that we should be able to replace/repair/home-make components for!
If hipster/vegans also like it make it more popular, meaning more spare parts at less cost... great.

Who _else?_

[Sloppy]

This would be a lot more exciting when some other manufacturers do the same thing in a compatible form factor. Then you'd get a handheld the same way you get a desktop: go buy just the right parts for your situation.

"A Fairphone screen, a Foomeister I motherboard, a used Sorny RadioNIC that I found on eBay, a Brand X battery and oops I guess I didn't even bother with a camera on this one. Oh well, I didn't need one here. Wait, I just remembered have a 5 year old one sitting in a drawer, let's just throw that in." Later: "Shit, it got obsolete: time for a Foomeister II+ board, which has enough RAM to run the newest release of Netbuntroid."

But the only way we'll get there, is if this sells well enough that other manufacturers see a market for the form factor. It's hard to be optimistic about that.

Re:Who _else?_

[drinkypoo]

But the only way we'll get there, is if this sells well enough that other manufacturers see a market for the form factor. It's hard to be optimistic about that.

The truth is that phones are so cheap now that adding a bunch of connectors and having to support all that crap is just going to add so much cost that there's no point whatsoever. This will continue until the components shrink so much (through integration, process shrinks, technological advances, etc.) that the phones actually have to be made bigger than they need to be so that people can hold them. Then you can have your modular phone ecosystem, because then the handset makers will be willing to sacrifice space and weight on things like connectors as part of their ordinary design process. We've seen this happen in laptops; once laptops started to have empty space in them, they started to use more swappable parts — even down to the video cards. MXM uses a substantially complex and expensive connector compared to no connector at all (you could say that of any connector, but it's not just one of those trivial things used for flexible circuits) and in most cases the manufacturer specifies one MXM card and sticks with it even though in theory they could offer multiple levels of graphics by installing different cards there. They're only doing it so that they can avoid having to design the graphics card portion of the system at all, and just get something off the shelf instead. It's not for serviceability, repairability, or even for the purpose of offering different options.

Re:Who _else?_

[TheDarkMaster]

"The truth is that phones are so cheap now"

Only on the "first world". Below the Equator (except Australia) cellphones are always a expensive gadget.

Re:Who _else?_

[drinkypoo]

Only on the "first world". Below the Equator (except Australia) cellphones are always a expensive gadget.

For people not in the first world or modern equivalent, they're not going to pay extra for a modular phone anyway.

Re:Who _else?_

[c]

This will continue until the components shrink so much ... that the phones actually have to be made bigger than they need to be so that people can hold them.

There's an argument that this is already happening with phones... witness complaints like "you introduced a camera bulge rather than a smooth back and a bigger battery?!?" about the iPhone 6. Bendgate was a lot of nonsense, but one of the main points was that flat and thin isn't an optimal shape for something you stick in a pocket. There's physical room for connectors (and larger batteries) in recent generations of phones if designers get off the "thin at all costs" bandwagon. I'm less confident about room in the budget.

Re:Who _else?_

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"A Fairphone screen, a Foomeister I motherboard, a used Sorny RadioNIC that I found on eBay, a Brand X battery and oops I guess I didn't even bother with a camera on this one. Oh well, I didn't need one here. Wait, I just remembered have a 5 year old one sitting in a drawer, let's just throw that in." Later: "Shit, it got obsolete: time for a Foomeister II+ board, which has enough RAM to run the newest release of Netbuntroid."

Then you'd get a handheld the same way you get a desktop: go buy just the right parts for your situation....

I don't really understand why this sounds enticing. You have reminded me of why over the last few years I've avoided OS upgrades, kept lots of computers around, and hoarded tons of computer gear. I'm just not convinced that's how I want to manage a device I have higher expectations of in terms of up-time.

Re:Who _else?_

[kamapuaa]

Right, I've always wanted to make having a cell phone as much of a hassle as building a gaming computer.

Re:What's the point?

[phayes]

So they are trying to break the throw-away culture and improve the world a little bit :-)

Meh, I'm far from convinced that modular (with it's attendant connectors links & interfaces) is better.

I can remember pulling vacuum tubes out of the TV when it stored having problems and taking the lot down to the electronics shop so that we could plug them into the test station. Being able to test every last circuit may bring back fond memories to some but connector related problems have always been a significant part of the reasons that things don't work.

The general movement towards global integration & non-maintainability has brought with it the quasi elimination of all these problems. It has been decades since I last performed the "drop the motherboard 1 foot onto a flat surface to reseat the memory chips" debugging procedure as people don't install memory chip/chip on the motherboard anymore. Flakey connections to the daughterboard that are fixed by removing & reseating them? Gone as almost all functions are integrated into the mainboard & those that are left use connectors like USB & mini-DVI. RAM problems are now much less common because the RAM is soldered on. My phone no longer gets into weird states because the battery connection was last when id had a small drop, etc.

That I do not have the tools (or the inclination, or the time) to repair my phone does not mean that I cannot take it back to my vendor who does have the tools, time & inclination to swap out any broken parts, so your comment on being unable to open your phone != having to replace it. I'm also far from convinced that people replacing bits & pieces of their phones will be as ecologically responsable as my vendor is in recycling so "improving the world" remains to be proven.

I also see little difference between using an external battery pack to recharge my phone when it gets low & swapping batteries. My son has a phone with a removable battery that he has changed twice & yet he still has to use an external battery to get through the day.

Flexibility can bring interesting things

[BadgerRush]

If they play their cards right, pushing this as an open platform to attract third party module makers, this could be huge and bring a variety of "personalized" features to niche markets. This could be a little bit like the IBM PC in the early days, where companies or people with specific needs can buy a standard platform but then expand it with one specific module to cater to their needs. Imagine a big company that currently needs many of its employees to carry an expensive custom made device, and then could replace all of those devices for a fair phone with just a less expensive custom made module.

Re:What's the point?

[drinkypoo]

For example, my company normally won't surrender an electronic device that could have had sensitive data stored on it.

Does anybody make phones with socketed eMMC for their main storage? That would solve this problem neatly.

Re:What's the point?

[TheDarkMaster]

Many things. For example, in this design nothing prevents me from using a battery with twice the capacity (and thickness) as the format is standardized it easier to find the battery you want and a back cover to accommodate the extra volume. I can put a more advanced camera than would be economically viable to a mass-produced mobile phone, I can put additional devices that do not exist in a common cellphone only specifying that such devices have the same format as one of several device slots. It's like being able to mount your phone as if it were a personal desktop computer.

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Indeed, but as far as I know none of the big name smartphones have that sort of option at the moment (though I'd be happy to discover I've overlooked one that does). If anything, the big brands all seem to be pushing as hard as possible in the other direction, with as close as they can get to no external connectivity except wirelessly via their own preferred services/networks/whatever. They're pretty much stuck with having a power cable, but if routine wireless charging becomes viable I expect your phone will be a completely sealed unit in hardware, software and ecosystem as fast as the likes of Apple can get it there.

Re:What's the point?

[MrNiceguy_KS]

Most of your points I agree with, but I do take issue with this one:

I also see little difference between using an external battery pack to recharge my phone when it gets low & swapping batteries. My son has a phone with a removable battery that he has changed twice & yet he still has to use an external battery to get through the day.

Here's the difference: Once the phone is a couple of years old, then the original battery doesn't hold a charge as well as it used to. If you have a removable battery, you can replace it with a new one, sometimes even with a higher capacity than the original battery.

Hmmm

[DrXym]

I suppose I can see the benefit of modularity for maintaining a device if a piece of it breaks. But that adds bulk, and to the cost of the handset in total. And I doubt it makes the device reusable or future proof. The article even ends by expressing doubt about backwards / forwards compatibility on that score.

Re:FairPhone

[moronoxyd]

I don't know the details of this FairTax, but it sounds like one of those schemes that are designed to be 'fair' by putting the burden on others.
It sounds like people with low income would be (comparatively) worse of as people who earn plenty. Assume the same amount of waste produced by both, the poor person would have to spent a larger part if their income in taxes.

Re:What's the point?

[MrNiceguy_KS]

...Second, you might spend the initial money as you would on those Samsung or iPhones, but over the years instead of purchasing it again, you can just upgrade it bit by bit at a fraction of the price.

I don't see how this phone is really all that upgradeable. From the article:

The smartphone consists of seven major building blocks: the back cover, removable battery, display assembly, main chassis, receiver module, rear camera module, and speaker module. Positioned this way, the components that break most often, like the screen, are isolated for better repairability.

The only components I see that would actually be upgradeable are the battery, camera, and possibly the screen. The screen size is pretty much fixed by the physical constraints of the phone, but I could imagine replacing it with a higher DPI model. Other than that, your only upgrades are better camera and higher capacity battery. Unless their main chassis has socketed CPU, RAM, or flash storage, you're not going to be able to upgrade this phone bit by bit as you said.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of building for better repairability. Make it easy to replace the screen or swap out a broken charging socket. But this isn't like a PC where I can upgrade the RAM, hard drive, and video card as need requires and budget allows. The article even closes by saying it's unlikely that modules will be compatible with future generations of Fairphones.

Re:The OS

[fpoling]

Upgrading is only possible if binary-only drivers are compatible with newer Android. This is what made Fairphone-1 such a bad deal. They cannot upgrade beyond Android 4.1 as binary blobs work only there. I really hope that they learned their mistake with the second version. Still this time I decided to wait and has not preorder the second version until openness of software is confirmed.

Re:What's the point?

[fyngyrz]

Just keep in mind that you can do that if someone makes a more advanced camera for it. If this ends up being a sideshow, no one is likely to do that.

It's not that easy to make a good camera. And someone has to make the more advanced software for the more advanced camera, too.

Not saying it can't happen, but it's not a given, just because the phone is modular. I wish it were.

Re:FairPhone

[fyngyrz]

Don't worry. No one is going to upset the rich people's apple-cart here; no one else can afford to bribe the legislators to arrange the tax code to suit them.

Re:What's the point?

[macs4all]

They're pretty much stuck with having a power cable, but if routine wireless charging becomes viable I expect your phone will be a completely sealed unit in hardware, software and ecosystem as fast as the likes of Apple can get it there.

Why drag Apple into this? Just to get a cheap dig in?

Grow up, hater.

Re:What's the point?

[macs4all]

The point is not just that the phone is easier to repair. Fairphone included an interface that links with the back cover. This way the phone can be extended by changing the cover for one with, for example, an NFC chip.

The point of the Fairphone is that they strife to minimalise slave labor in the product and use materials that are better for the environment or can be recycled.

Also, if you can't open the phone: if it is broken, you have to replace it.

Fairphone tries to create a phone that is more durable and usable for a longer period of time (not just two years). If you want a better camera after two years, that is probably possible by replacing the camera module with a better one.

So they are trying to break the throw-away culture and improve the world a little bit :-)

And just how much do you think that "better camera" will be?

My Spidey Sense says that it will be about 2/3 the cost of replacing an entire "sealed" phone. For one thing, this is a VERY "niche" product; therefore the economies of scale (or lack thereof) will be working against the consumer that buys into this product. Second, the individual modules will have to cost more than the component-level parts they replace, if for no other reason than to pay for the mold design for the housings for each "module", and the cost of the ancillary components that will likely be replaced along with that camera, memory module, etc.

This sounds like something a 12 year old kid would dream up, not a serious product engineering team.

Re:What's the point?

[macs4all]

The article even closes by saying it's unlikely that modules will be compatible with future generations of Fairphones.

So it's fraud, pure and simple.

Re:What's the point?

[macs4all]

Many things. For example, in this design nothing prevents me from using a battery with twice the capacity (and thickness) as the format is standardized it easier to find the battery you want and a back cover to accommodate the extra volume. I can put a more advanced camera than would be economically viable to a mass-produced mobile phone, I can put additional devices that do not exist in a common cellphone only specifying that such devices have the same format as one of several device slots. It's like being able to mount your phone as if it were a personal desktop computer.

All these things would be practical if the entire cellphone industry got on board with the "modular" concept.

However, the chance of that happening is essentially less than zero; because not only will the rest of the cellphone OEMs not come anywhere near this idea (nor will any third parties jump in); but Fairfield themselves will quickly go out of business, stranding their vict... er, customers with whatever hardware modules they happen to have.

Re:What's the point?

[macs4all]

The point is that you no longer have choices with other products. Samsung has turned the Galaxy phones into no-choice iPhone clones.

Comparing TFA to an S4, which is no longer available, is pointless.

Sure you have a choice: Don't buy one.

Re:What's the point?

[fluffernutter]

Having to use an external battery back totally defeats the purpose of having a small portable device. I would shoot myself if I bought a device that couldn't go a day of normal use without being able to pop in a battery freshly charged by an external charger. Right now I have a Galaxy S3 and I cycle between two batteries. Changing the battery is 10 seconds of inconvenience and then you have your fully pocket able device back again.

Not for the US, doesn't matter.

[sethstorm]

There are some nice concepts, but excluding the US does them no favors.

That's not a choice, just a bromide.

[sethstorm]

It leaves the issue unresolved.

Re:FairPhone

[KGIII]

Umm... I've acquired some wealth. I'd submit that you probably don't want to switch to this fair tax idea. You know, I've already purchased all the big stuff, right? I can pay to have things repaired - and do. I don't even need to buy much in the way of groceries. I suspect, if you tax my goods at the same rate that you tax your goods then you're really going to get a lot less from me or a lot more from you.

I'd suggest increasing the rates on capital gains taxes over a certain amount. I only get taxed on it when I spend it, anyhow. If I'm spending over $500,000 per year then I can probably afford to pay more in taxes. I'd start there, I think. If I just leave my money in the market then, well, I don't get taxed really. Then I'm still encouraged to keep my money working and keep the economy afloat. Well, my little effort. I don't have *that* much money.

Re:FairPhone

[fyngyrz]

You missed my point entirely. I wasn't arguing for the fair tax.

I was saying that the system isn't going to change, so stop worrying about it.

Re:The OS

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Will 'vanilla Android' have the proper drivers for all those modules?

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Whereas for example the 3rd generation iPad I have on the desk next to me gets noticeably worse battery life today than it had when new. It could just be that the newer version of iOS now running on it is bad at power management, but given the steady degradation over time rather than a sharp drop after updating the software, decaying battery performance seems a far more plausible explanation.

YMMV, but even if it does, physics is still physics.

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Purely objectively, Apple has the most closed combination of hardware, software and ecosystem of any mobile platform, and it always has had, and the trend is clearly further in that direction including with the battery issue we're discussing here. I'm not "dragging Apple into this". They dragged themselves into it by making themselves by some way the best example of my point.

Re:The OS

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Presumably that is a legitimate support question that the manufacturer will have to answer here. The article implies that the expected lifetime is five years and that during that time both spare parts and software updates will be available even if newer and possibly incompatible models have been released in the interim.

Re:What's the point?

[MrNiceguy_KS]

Don't know that I'd go that far. I didn't see anywhere in the article where the company was claiming anything that they aren't providing. The phone is being sold as modular and easily repairable. They don't say anything about being able to use those modules in future phone models.

Re:What's the point?

[phayes]

It's anecdotal but for two phones bought at the roughly same time, my son has changed the battery for manufacture's recommended unit in his phone twice. My daughter still used my old iphone4s with the original battery until she lost it 3 months ago yet the replacement batteries didn't give my son an advantage. Both of them carry around an external battery.

Carrying around a spare removable battery is also less useful. You need to turn the phone off/on to use it and if you're already carrying around USB cables to transfer data/tethering/... adding an external battery that can be charged from a USB port independently from the phone is an advantage. Carrying a spare removable battery only helps the owner and possibly friends that have the same device whereas an external battery can be lent to anyone for a quick charge.

Again, I see no advantage in removable batteries because the use case is too narrow, the theoretical advantage fails to pan out & their connectors are a supplementary source of problems.

Re:FairPhone

[KGIII]

Ah, okay. I thought you were suggesting it was a good idea. If anything, the evil rich would probably be advocating such. It's got "fair" right in the title, right?

Re:What's the point?

[thegarbz]

So they are trying to break the throw-away culture and improve the world a little bit :-)

My point was the throwaway culture is a cultural thing not a technical problem with devices. Even if you can't pull your iPhone apart there are still people who will repair broken screens, and I gave my example of fixing my microphone (which was a small clip on module in the Galaxy S4).

Re:What's the point?

[thegarbz]

Many things. For example, in this design nothing prevents me from using a battery with twice the capacity (and thickness) as the format is standardized it easier to find the battery you want and a back cover to accommodate the extra volume.

Funny you should mention this. I did this on my original Galaxy S and my partner did it on her Galaxy S2. At the time I looked you could get larger (physically as well as capacity) batteries for any devices and they were sold with after market back covers.

I can put a more advanced camera than would be economically viable to a mass-produced mobile phone,

So just like project Ara? And just like project Ara the common critique is that the number of people something like this appeals to can probably be counted on one hand.

I can put additional devices that do not exist in a common cellphone only specifying that such devices have the same format as one of several device slots. It's like being able to mount your phone as if it were a personal desktop computer.

So just like project Ara?

Re:What's the point?

[macs4all]

Don't know that I'd go that far. I didn't see anywhere in the article where the company was claiming anything that they aren't providing. The phone is being sold as modular and easily repairable. They don't say anything about being able to use those modules in future phone models.

If that's what they wanted, then they merely had to make the display/digitizer easily replaceable (which I'd be personally all-for). 99.9999999% of the time, Nothing else on a phone actually BREAKS.

But no, judging from the comments on here, it seems like most of their potential customers are hoping for "modular UPGRADES", like on an old-school tower PC. Which of course really isn't going to happen...

Alternative OS: Yup !!!

[DrYak]

What about the part of the phone that is guaranteed to go bad (can't be patched for security vulnerabilities) after a few years?

TL;DR: don't be afraid security *will* be patched over the next years.

With the previous phones (where Fairphone company didn't have had that much access for the software part of the device) the Fairphone company has actively sought to help CyanogenMod.

Now for the FairPhone2, to quote page 2 :

As a next step we're working on giving users the choice in the operating systems that they want to use, instead of being limited to one that the manufacturer has pre-selected. We're talking to alternative OS vendors such as Jolla, Ubuntu, and Firefox,” she added.

Yup, this time arround, enabling the user to install whatever they want is one of the main point of the device.

More details on Fairphone's blog.

Re:What's the point?

[fluffernutter]

I'm just saying, what's the point of having an expensive small portable device if you have to have a cable and a box dangling from it on a regular basis. It's like giving birth and not cutting the cord.

Yup they've learned

[DrYak]

I really hope that they learned their mistake with the second version.

Seems like they've learned.
(And are also working on the FairPhone1 situation - They've managed to bargain licenses from MediaTek)

Re:What's the point?

[adolf]

My first-gen iPod Touch had a dead battery within two years -- dead, as in runtime measured in minutes instead of hours.

It didn't survive battery replacement surgery.

I haven't had another iOS device since, or any other device with a ridiculously-buried battery.

(Anecdotes are fun!)

Kernel Drivers

[DrYak]

Ho{p}efully Cyanogen will fix this issue.

FairPhone is doing whatever they can to help Cyanogen.

Up until recently, the main blocker is that the ODM (Original Device Manufacturer) that FairPhone contracted to produce their phone 1, had in turn licensed MediaTek as the chipset provider for the phone. And MediaTek hasn't publicly released nothing beyond what the GPL forces them.
They've release the linux kernel source, but not the android OS itself (it's a permissive license, thus MediaTek can modify it and not release the modified source) and neither the binary proprietary drivers.
These drivers only work up to Android 4.2, the kernel used by more recent Android release can't work with them. Thus you can only get Cyanogen up to the corresponding version.

Recently fairphone has managed to obtain the necessary code and license from all the hardware partners, including MediaTek.

Re:What's the point?

[fluffernutter]

What phone charges in a few minutes?

Differences.

[DrYak]

So what is the point of this? It looks far less modular than Project Ara

The difference is that Project Ara is still a vague project between Google, Motorola and a few others.
Whereas FairPhone2 is a phone that is currently shipping (despite some delays compared to the initially planned time schedule) and already in the hand of the first lucky few (e.g.: the community at Jolla has a few phones to try porting Sailfish OS on them).

I see little benefit over other commercial phones, especially when something breaks on a typical iPhone you can just go to an Apple store and have it repaired / swapped quite cheaply / free depending on the fault.

Except that, this being Apple, the experience of the few friend who have iPhones tells me that 4 months later they're already out of stock of spares, and (because there's still 20 months mandatory warranty to go, according to the law) they'll try to sell you the next model as replacement with a very strong rebate.

Meanwhile FairPhone1 (this phone's predecessor) can not only get fixed at any phone repair shop, you can even replace parts yourself at home (FairPhone company has collaborated with ifixit to make tutorial so end users can swap parts, and they've made sure with their ODM that the phone is serviceable by the end user). I've been there, I've replaced the screen of the phone for a girl I know.

FairPhone2 simply pushes this "End-User serviceability" even further, using modules.
- They garantee 5 year supply of spares or upgrades.
- They made it even more user-friendly by using modules

Also, unlike any other brand of phones, there's the whole fair-trade business (that was the main reason FairPhone began in the first place).
- tracking source, to guarantee conflict-free material
- also guanrateeing employee welfare at the chineese manufacture plant.
Add to that the ecologic aspects:
- phones are designed with a though about their lifecycle from the very beginning.
- the design is easily fixable (FairPhone1) modular (FairePhone 2) to avoid phone getting thrown away in the garbage when they could be fixed
- the devices are designed with a long life in mind so they can be repurposed/refurbished (e.g.: and still be used in developing nations once they're out of fashion here)
- they have partnerships for the recylcing of old phones.
These are the core business of FairPhone. The openness, choice of OS / software / etc. only came afterward. (And that's why it's only getting talked, about now)

It's not necessarily a phone with the latest and best shiny, unlike Samsung's.
But it's a phone with an interesting and unique feature set (upgradeability, easy repair, fair trade, choice of OS, etc.) that isn't easily available now (Project Ara is still at the "project" phase, iPhone are a nightmare requiring hot air guns to repair, installing your choice of OS usually requires hacking/rooting the phone, etc).

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Well, as I mentioned in another post, I've personally seen significant battery degradation in Apple gear much less than that age, so frankly I don't think their technology is as exceptional as you're making out.

But the thing is, even if we ignore that, and we ignore the mountain of other evidence that Apple tries to build in obsolescence and make its equipment hard to maintain in the long run, it still remains true that any failure in an Apple mobile device is a failure of the entire unit. Since swapping it out isn't a viable option for those with security/privacy concerns, using a more serviceable device is still a potential advantage for those customers.

Hackability

[DrYak]

Even if it is as complicated as putting together 6-part Duplo duck.

That's the whole point of the module. That even the dumbest end-users could be able to sevice the phone.
The previous one used screws and required a tiny bit more dexterity to fix.

Ethical sources part only confirms diagnosis

...was conflict-free minerals all the way back at the time of their first phone. That's what FairPhone was founded for.

The news is that the 2nd one is modular to make it even easier to fix. (Whereas with the previous, they just made sure that the ODM used screws instead, and then partnered with iFixit to release fixing guide).

it is targeted at holier-than-thou vegan hipsters, rather than on hacking/modding community.

The modularity (now even easier to repair or refurbish instead of throwing away !) and the material source, indeed are.

On the other end, the pogo pins that you see on page 2 are certainly targeting the hacking/modding comunity, just as the Jolla's "The Other Half" did for the Jolla hacking community.

(BTW: Jolla's Sailfish OS seems to be coming to the FairPhone 2 too)

Phone modularity == repairability

[DrYak]

If you read the blog, you see that the WHOLE MAIN POINT of the modularity is to extend the life cycle of the phone.

By making it either easy to fix (FairPhone 1) or even modular (TFA's FairPhone 2)
- it makes it much more easy to repair
- much more easy to refurbish.

Thus there's a higher chance that, once you want to buy some other new phone, your old phone can be repaired/refurbished/dismantled for spares to refurbish other phone, and will find its way eventually into the hands of someone in a developing country instead of into a landfill.

Upgradeability

[DrYak]

Eventually, upgradeability as you describe seem to be on their roadmap.

But for now, the whole point of the modularity is to make it even simpler than before to fix (FairPhone1 was screw + iFixit guide. FairPhone2 is just lego).

Makes it easier to repair your phone if its get broken.

And if you decide to change to another new phone (iPhone 7, now with 7% more Shiny(tm) !!! ), modularity makes it even more likely that your old phone will get repaired/refurbished/dismantled for spares to refurbish another phone, and will probably end up into the hand of someone in a less privileged country who can still make use of it, rather than into a landfill.

Re:FairPhone

[fyngyrz]

Arguing for it is a different matter. As I understand it, it has a threshold built into it so that there is a minimum living allowance below which there is no consumption tax (I think they arrange that by providing X$ to the individual which makes up for Y$ of consumption) and that way it's not regressive.

But it's been a while since I looked at it; it never got any traction (no surprise there either way... things are just how the rich like them, and they're not going to change), so I never really managed to gen all that much interest.

Currently, a fan of basic income, but again, I don't think that's going anywhere yet. Not until automation makes significantly more inroads and there simply isn't any other viable option.

Re:FairPhone

[KGIII]

I don't mind higher taxes - that's why I donate to charities that I approve of. I'd pay more in taxes, willingly, if they were spent to actually help people instead of bombing little brown men and stripping away our rights with overly broad and purposefully vague laws and enforcement. We can debate where the lines should be but, it is my observation, those lines should be moved. I still employ a few people, I pay a lower tax rate than they do. In fact, I don't really get taxed at all until I spend money. It's not really all that fair but I don't see much reason to fund the current system more than it is - they'll just waste it. So, I donate to charities that I agree with. I consider that taxation with representation.

Re:FairPhone

[fyngyrz]

I do the same with charities. Though it's sometimes difficult to find charities that aren't wasting a lot of the funds on ridiculous executive salaries and the like. I agree about the lines need moved, but again, they aren't going to be, or at least no more than represents a token amount.

Re:What's the point?

[rpstrong]

I don't know how much it will be, or if I really care - I'm not big on pics. But my first thought was that third parties will be offering knock off replacements at knock off prices.

Of course, other third parties can be offer replacement cameras with Carl Zeiss optical zoom lenses and more pixels than you can count at a price that would be considerably more than the original phone.

The phone reminds me a bit of the old Handspring PDAs with the expansion slot.

Needs a lil something

[manandmachineguy]

This needs a nice clean keyboard to attach to it.

Re: What's the point?

[Agripa]

"Far Superior" is an exaggeration.

Besides do to the number of cycles, lithium secondary batteries wear out as a power function of their voltage so to extend their life, they can be charged to a lower voltage which sacrifices capacity. That is easier to do if you have excess capacity do to enlarged size or the small yearly improvement in energy density. It is rare but some devices have a "long life" mode where the cells are only charged to say 80% of their rated capacity.

Incidentally, ultra-capacitors have a similar operating life versus voltage relationship which lowers their life by 10 times for every 0.2 volt increase in voltage.

I still consider Apple's decision to design in a non-replaceable battery a form of enforced obsolescence. Other companies do the same thing and it is not a new behavior; I know of examples going back decades where this was done deliberately.

Re:The OS

[Herve5]

1. On updates. I own a Fairphone from the previous generation. I can say that straight while they were feverishly finalizing the new model and OS, they did find the energy to publish an OS update for the last Android Stagefright issue in TWO days. Just tell me how long it was for your phone.
2. On the OS in general. Other than that, and although I find them not very pushy at this very moment on that point, Fairphone still officially announced they support Sailfish OS aside Android -so in addition to being fair if, like me, you don't want to belong to Apple/Google, you have a way, and with a modern phone.
I won't buy this new model because, well, I have the previous one which is still perfectly working, but I know where I'll buy the next one.

screen / battery

[eionmac]

I am not a smart phone user , but my children are. Main failures to date are screens (drops, bumps, door closure in car; dead non-replaceable battery), if these could be repaired by any competant person e.g. partner, neighbour, local repair man, without surrendereing the phone; I see a market. Likewise a business with in-house repair to avoid external overlooking while repairing. However 5 years life seems to me to be too short. I have changed phones at 10-year interval. However we only use it for actual calls and text messages. We have never used the email function or radio or whatever. We use laptop computers to email. 90% of all my paid work is by email for clients. However as we are in our eight decade, we make be dust or recyled before the phone is upgraded.