Six months of using a fair phone
Did you know that the average lifespan of a smartphone is only 2.5 years? And did you also know that from a climate perspective, this period needs to be a lot longer? Well, there is a solution for that.
Hi everyone!
In this article, I want to talk about my experience with smartphones. Not from the technical side, no, but from the user side. Here, I want to revisit my current usage of smartphones, and the replace-period. This is how I'm going to call the period in which we, or in this case I, replace the current smartphone with a new one.
Now, before I start rambling about this, and that, I want to put out a disclaimer first. This is not an advertisement for the Fairphone smartphones, or any other phones to that extent. This is just my general impression and experience with using the devices we all nowadays have. From 7-year-olds, to 107-year-olds...
Smartphone usage cycle
A regular smartphone is nowadays used approximately 2.5 years and then replaced for a new one. Usually discarded, not even recycled. Now, I don't want to write about rights and wrongs of this cycle. I've already written about the bad consequences of this approach in some of my previous articles.
Marjan Bugarinović
A rather subjective use-case
Now, another disclaimer - I am a rather simple user. I need my phone to be able to:
- give/receive a call
- send/receive messages (now IMs), and e-mails
- basic research a.k.a. internet search
- maps
- some music or podcasts
- and a battery life.
That is pretty much all. Yes, I don't mind a good camera, or a faster phone, but these are all not dealbreakers to me. The most important thing in my phone is the battery. That was, and I still think is, my biggest focus when looking for a new phone.
What is Fairphone?
Fairphone is a company behind Fairphone smartphones. These smartphones are built in a fair way for both Planet and the people. In other words - Fairphone.
They are built to last much longer than a normal usage cycle, built from recycled materials, and easily repairable.
For example, in case you drop your phone and the screen breaks, you can order a new screen and replace it by yourself. And for way less than you would spend doing the same on some other smartphones.
Why I decided to switch?
Before the switch, I was using Google Pixel 2. I bought it in a dealer store in 2017. And only because my phone at the time got stolen. The one that got away was a Xiaomi, but I don't remember the model.
What I liked about it (Xiaomi) at the time was good battery (of course), and the ability to customise the phone. I remember I rooted that phone a couple of times, and used the Lineage OS on it. Now, rooting a phone means to re-install the OS without all that (Google) bloatware on it.
It was a great learning experience, but with one small drawback - the whole application market was more oriented towards Play Store on Android and App Store on iOS. Not every application I was using was available on F-Droid, at the time. And F-Droid is something similar to Google Play Store, but free and open source. So, the better of the two.
Having the possibility to play with the phone, tinker with the OS, freeing it in a sense, was great. I put a lot of time and effort into making that phone Google-free. But, it got stolen, and I was a bit pissed. I thought about all those hours I re-installed the OS, because I didn't like one thing or the other, and I wasn't motivated to do that all over again. Back then, I wasn't that much into documenting my troubleshooting and tinkering with devices, so it might be because of that as well. So, I opted for a not-that-much customizable Google Pixel 2.
I fell in the hole of conformism. On one hand, it felt so easy using the phone, and on the other, all my de-Google-isation before felt pointless. But, I continued to use it. With all that Google mambo-jumbo disabled, though.
Time passed, and I continued to use it. And I was satisfied with it. It checked all the points that were important to me. Then, during last year, the battery started to go from good to bad, and from bad to worse. It didn't make any impact if I used the phone or not, or cleaning it from the apps. The phone battery wouldn't last more than 12 hours. If I was able to change the battery for a new one, I would continue to use the Google Pixel 2. And I received the last official update from Google on that phone in October 2020. In a nutshell - I didn't care about that. I just didn't want to bring the external battery wherever I go.
So, I decided to buy a new phone. The main thing I wanted, is a phone with a good battery. But this time, I also wanted to use that phone for a longer period. To be able to buy spare parts if they got broken. To be able to buy a new battery, when the old one doesn't work any more. I wanted the things to be like they were before smartphones. When a phone battery died, you could've easily changed it for a new one...
Why Fairphone?
I first heard about them from a friend, one year ago. I wasn't actively looking for a phone, the one at the time was still functioning. Even though it spent a lot of time in airplane mode. But, I started reading about them, and started following them.
What I've discovered is that they don't just sell smartphones. No, they sell the possibility to easily, and on your own, repair stuff. To reuse and repair. And to use the phones longer. Because the current phone life cycle is not good for our environment. Period.
This, I liked the most! Since my goal was to buy a phone that is good for people and the environment, the Fairphone fit right into the picture. And so far, it's going great!
Besides the great hardware, almost all easily replaceable and repairable, they also have a great Android support. They offer 5-year warranty on the hardware, and software updates until 2031.
Now, if you remember from before, I don't require too much from my phone, other than it lasts as longest as possible. I didn't test or benchmark this phone. Feel free to check various videos about that if you're interested. This phone works for me just great!
Also, this being my personal blog and kind of place I use to vent, I don't want to sell you anything. This is not my intention. If you like to find out more, be sure to visit their website. They are quite transparent with what they do, based from what I understand.
How can they guarantee that life cycle?
Well, for starters, the processor they use - Qualcomm® QCM6490 (Octa Core) extended life chipset is, from my understanding, an industry-based processor. This means that it is designed for longer use, in factories. There, it's not that easy to just replace a device after it reached EOL (End of Life) after just 2 years. These things require extended life. Why shouldn't this be applied to regular users?
In addition, they guarantee 5 additional Android versions after version 13. Which is around 8 years of continuous software updates! If I am to compare that with the old Google Pixel 2 I used, I will probably use this phone 3 more years after the last update. Not recommended if you want to be secure, but, hey, nobody hacked me. As far as I know...
What I like the most about them?
There are numerous things I like about this phone. Some of them are:
- built to last,
- built from recycled materials,
- in a fair way for the workers building it,
- easily repairable,
- a lot less impact on the environment.
Last but not least, I would like to mention My Fairphone application that comes with these phones. This is an app that shows you the overall status of your phone, your warranty, device info, and one of the really nice things - your phone timeline. You can scroll and see the life cycle of your phone, when do you need to check your battery, when will you receive a new Android update, and so on.
The image below shows just one small part of it.
To find out more, check out the following link.
Fairphone
Summary
To finish all this rambling of mine with some (hopefully) sensible conclusion.
It is true, I am not your average smartphone user that needs to have all those new, flashy, or nowadays popular AI features, on the smartphone. I don't care about that.
What I don't want is to be limited to some built-in obsolescence, and my device turns into a brick after just 2 years of regular usage.
What I want is to:
- be able to use my phone to reach others, find new things, on my own, without (AI) listening in on everything I say...
- be able to open the phone case and see how the things are connected from the inside...
- be able to easily find and repair things that get broken. Replace the battery, for example...
- be able to make a good impact to our environment...
And you should too.
Now, I am not saying - hey, go buy a Fairphone, it's great! No, that is not what I want my message to be here.
My message here is - when buying a smartphone (or any other thing for that matter) make sure you are aware of the impact this has on our Planet. And make sure you actually need it!
Let me know what do you think about this topic. What is your usual life-cycle of a smartphone? What are the things you look for in a phone?
See you in the next article!