Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves - This sustainable smartphone aims to reduce global electronic waste::In a bid to reduce global electronic waste, Fairphone has created a smartphone that owners can repair themselves. What makes its technology so sustainable?

  • Echo Dot
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    5210 months ago

    I do sometimes feel like what we really want is something a little bit more like how Framework are doing things. Yes it’s easily repairable, but it’s also easily upgradable.

    Upgradability isn’t really a design consideration for fairphone. So everyone is stuck with the kind of mediocre camera that they decided to put on it. It would be nice if the option was there to have something a bit better.

    • @[email protected]
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      2410 months ago

      Actually, they do.

      The Fairphone 3 was upgradable to the Fairphone 3+ by buying spare parts like the camera and installing them yourself.

      The thing is that phones don’t really need upgrades.

      • @[email protected]
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        1510 months ago

        phones don’t really need upgrades

        Huh??? I went through 4 phones during the lifespan of my last PC

        • @[email protected]
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          10 months ago

          Yeah and you didn’t really need any of them.

          A smartphone from 9 years ago is still enough hardware to handle everything a smartphone needs to do.

          • @[email protected]
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            1510 months ago

            This is not true because you need to upgrade your software and patch it to keep it secure, and old hardware does not like newer os versions. Your phone will run more slowly if the os is newer (i believe that’s planned obsolescence in action, though)

            I appreciate that the hardware is still good enough functionally, but only if you want a less secure phone.

            • Captain Aggravated
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              1410 months ago

              You can install current day Linux Mint on PCs from the Core 2 era, ~15 years old, and it runs like brand new. OS bloat is not inevitable, it is a result of greed.

            • bitwolf
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              1010 months ago

              That’s the fault of the manufacturers. Google does their best to mitigate this but the unfortunate reality is that when Qualcomm drops support you’re going to stop getting updates.

              There are efforts to get these phones supported within Linux. When that happens they can just run forever.

              • @[email protected]
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                110 months ago

                My Galaxy S2 actually had more updates than it could handle. While the last useful update had already slowed down the phone somewhat, the last available update was actually completely uninstallable - the portion of Google play services that was required to be installed on the system memory was larger than the entire system memory.

                I more than doubled the useful life of that phone by switching to LineageOS / microG.

                Chip support is definitely an issue with these devices, but it’s Google that’s running the treadmill.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    110 months ago

                    Hardcore oled burn in though. Probably because of the RGB pixel structure instead of the pentile that Samsung use for everything else.

            • @0x0
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              110 months ago

              old hardware does not like newer os versions

              You got that ass-backwards.

              that’s planned obsolescence

              There ya go.

              • @[email protected]
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                210 months ago

                Yours is a bit of a redundant comment, then right?

                In the context of what i was replying to, it made more sense to say the hardware had a problem with the software.

                It’s technically true either way, though

                But yes, it would have made more sense to say the software doesn’t play ball with the old hardware.

                But since it’s intended to be like that, it doesn’t really matter how i say it. The point still gets across.

          • @[email protected]
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            10 months ago

            I wish that was true but it feels like the opposite to me. Running videos in a browser on my phone seems to be worse than when I first started using it - I suspect due to them becoming more demanding.

          • @[email protected]
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            510 months ago

            Maybe if you don’t communicate with people regularly lmfao.

            My current phone is about 3 years old and is getting slower with age, the camera is mid when compared to newer models, the under screen fingerprint sensor is ass, etc

            My first phone? A slow mess, not running a modern operating system, overheated if you looked at it funny, camera looked like there was Vaseline on the lens, battery was shit, usb micro-b, etc

            • @[email protected]
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              10 months ago

              My phone is 5 years old, I’ve replaced the battery twice, and it runs just fine. I was planning on keeping it for a long time yet, but I’m going out of the country and US border patrol can take a copy of your phone when entering or leaving the country, so I’m gonna buy a new phone right before I go so it doesn’t have much data on it in case they decide to take a copy.

              • @[email protected]
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                10 months ago

                The frugal in me says Back up and then Factory Reset. Honestly the only reason I replace them is because they get too damaged. I wish I was nicer to my phones but I’m just not the type of person to baby them.

                • @[email protected]
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                  310 months ago

                  I have like 200gb in photos and videos on this thing and I don’t pay for cloud backup, though I thought about that also. My old backup phone is getting really old though, so I’ll probably just cycle my current phone into its role And give the old one to my little brother as a WiFi only device.

            • Corgana
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              610 months ago

              the camera is mid when compared to newer models

              This is a weird take. New phones having newer features doesn’t mean yours got worse than it was when you bought it.

              A factory reset and battery swap will restore most old devices to their original state. If they were good enough three years ago there’s no reason it’s not now.

              • @[email protected]
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                110 months ago

                Right, except the original comment was that phones don’t need upgrades. I’m saying that my circle of people, myself included, all appreciate getting new phones for newer features. So the notion that upgrades are unnecessary is a little delulu

                For battery swaps, I’m not arguing against that. This is all under the main comments about frameworks strategy of designing upgrades into their product – so i don’t have to buy a whole new phone to get a new camera and battery :p

                • Corgana
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                  310 months ago

                  Appreciating an upgrade isn’t the same thing as needing one. I’m glad(?) that you recognize you and your friends are submitting to social pressure and consumerism but if you’ll forgive me I think it’s still a very weird take when not buying something you don’t need is still an option.

            • MrScottyTay
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              210 months ago

              I’m still rocking my pixel 3 from ages ago, still don’t feel like i need a replacement, plus i prefer my 3 over the later iterations and from other brands

      • hh93
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        910 months ago

        The main upgrade they need is the processor because the companies making those are not supporting newer Android-Versions and at some point that becomes a security-issue.

        Problem is that replacing the processor to a newer generation usually means the whole mainboard is obsolete, too and then is very quickly doesn’t become easy to upgrade anymore

        just switching between different types of cameras, screens etc. wouldn’t be as big of a problem but that’s also not part of the main-problem either