Fairphone has announced its latest "sustainable" smartphone today, the Fairphone 3. It's available for presale already on the company's own official website, for €450. It will be in stock on September 3, when it will be offered across Europe by select retailers and operators.
So what do you get for that cash? Not a whole lot in terms of specs, but you can bask in the glory of owning the most sustainable phone ever, or something of the sort. Clearly, spec sheet freaks will not aim for this one, in a world where the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro exists and delivers much more for €50 less.
So then it all comes down to how much you care about things like sustainability, a fairer supply chain, employee satisfaction (of the people building the phone for you), responsibly sourced conflict-free materials like tin and tungsten, recycled copper and plastics, Fairtrade gold, combating e-waste in Ghana, and getting a reward for returning your previous phone when you buy a new Fairphone. How much you care, and how much you're willing to pay extra for these benefits.
The Fairphone 3 contains 7 modules that make repairs easy, and ships in sustainable and reusable packaging, being delivered with its own protective bumper. It has a 5.7-inch 1080x2160 18:9 touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 5 on top, the Snapdragon 632 SoC at the helm, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, and a 3,000 mAh removable battery with fast charging support. It runs Android 9 Pie and has a 12 MP rear camera and an 8 MP selfie shooter, dual-SIM functionality, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC, as well as 4G network support.