It’s been laborious to fault Fairphone’s sustainable credentials over time, whether or not it’s the corporate’s prolonged help intervals, simple repairability, or ethically sourced supplies. However in the case of the units themselves, earlier Fairphones have struggled to be aggressive with equally priced smartphones. They lacked trendy options, used outdated designs, and usually had extra quirks than you’d anticipate to get from a contemporary telephone.
The Fairphone 4 is a giant step ahead. It’s each bit as sustainable, with a modular repairable design that Fairphone now affords a five-year guarantee for. However extra vital is that it feels far more like a contemporary smartphone. The massive prime and backside bezels of the Fairphone 3 have been stripped away, and there are additionally trendy conveniences like an IP54 ranking for mud and water resistance.
With a beginning worth of €579 / £499 (round $669, although Fairphone has no plans to promote the Fairphone 4 within the states) for the 6GB RAM / 128GB storage mannequin, the Fairphone 4 prices a premium in comparison with its rivals. It’s additionally getting a way more restricted Europe-only launch, with no plans for a US launch. However in case you solely want a smartphone to do fundamental smartphone stuff, and also you’re ready to pay a premium over different equally succesful rivals, I believe the Fairphone 4 is as much as the duty.
The Fairphone 4 is offered to pre-order now, and units will begin delivery on October twenty fifth.
In comparison with the Fairphone 3 that preceded it, it’s laborious to consider the Fairphone 4 has been produced by the identical producer. The chunky and dated prime and backside bezels from the earlier telephone are gone, changed with a sheet of Gorilla Glass 5 that stretches proper from the highest of the Fairphone 4 to the underside. It looks like Fairphone has caught up with the remainder of the smartphone trade, even when that’s as a result of the speed of smartphone evolution has slowed.
Sure, the bezels are nonetheless sizable by trendy requirements, however they’re sufficiently small that the telephone is ready to have a big 6.3-inch show with out feeling too ungainly. It’s LCD reasonably than OLED, and viewing angles aren’t wonderful, however I used to be pleased with the way it taken care of I turned off its overkill picture enhancement choices in its Settings app and tweaked the colour temperature.
There are two variations of the Fairphone 4 obtainable: one with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (the mannequin I’ve been utilizing for this evaluation) and a step-up model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which retails for €649 / £569. Each are in any other case an identical and have the identical cameras, 3,905 mAh battery, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G processor.
Extra vital than the specs are what the internals of the Fairphone 4 are literally manufactured from. In right here, there’s Fairtrade-certified gold, ethically sourced aluminum and tungsten, and recycled tin, uncommon earth minerals and plastics. Fairphone additionally goals to show these supplies right into a telephone as ethically as potential, because of initiatives that goal to enhance working circumstances for the miners and manufacturing facility employees concerned within the telephone’s provide chain. Every telephone can also be “e-waste impartial,” Fairphone claims, because the firm will recycle both a telephone or an equal quantity of e-waste with every sale.
Flip over the Fairphone 4, and also you’ll see its again (made out of one hundred pc recycled plastic), which will be simply eliminated with none instruments to disclose the telephone’s detachable battery and the Phillips head screws that can be utilized to simply take away all the things from its rear cameras to its USB-C port and loudspeaker. You’ll must take this rear panel off to insert a SIM card beneath the battery throughout setup, a course of which handily doesn’t require the usage of a SIM instrument — handy given there isn’t one included within the field (although Fairphone tells me this will differ between launch markets).
iFixit is but to go its official judgment on the repairability of the Fairphone 4, however the firm’s earlier telephones are the only two units to have gotten good 10s from the restore specialists. In addition to being simple to take away, the elements also needs to be simple to switch since Fairphone plans to have replacements obtainable till at the very least 2027 (as a benchmark, the corporate nonetheless has some spare elements left for the virtually six-year-old Fairphone 2). A five-year guarantee also needs to hold the restore prices down over the lifetime of the telephone.
On the software program aspect, the Fairphone 4 ships with Android 11, however the firm hopes to offer at the very least two main Android updates, or 4 if it will possibly handle it. It’s achieved job at delivering on these guarantees with earlier telephones… finally. Earlier this 12 months, the corporate finally released Android 9 for the Fairphone 2. Spectacular given the Fairphone 2 was 5 years previous on the time, much less spectacular given it got here nearly three years after Android 9’s authentic launch.
As you may anticipate from a telephone that may ship with no SIM instrument, the Fairphone 4 doesn’t include something in the best way of equipment within the field as commonplace. There’s no charging brick, no included headphones, and no USB-C charging cable within the field. There’s additionally no miniature included screwdriver like we noticed with the Fairphone 3. It could have been a cute indicator of its repairability credentials, however together with it didn’t make a lot sense in case you’re attempting to reduce pointless equipment.
On the correct of the telephone, there’s a side-mounted fingerp
rint sensor that doubles as an influence button, which I want to rear-mounted sensors even when they’re not as handy as under-display fashions.
There’s no headphone jack subsequent to the Fairphone 4’s USB-C port, which isn’t precisely shocking given it’s a smartphone launched in 2021, however is a bit more disappointing given Fairphone’s deal with being as consumer-friendly as potential. The group tells me the tradeoff was made to permit for the telephone to have an IP54 ranking for mud and water resistance. Meaning the telephone ought to survive getting used within the rain, however not full submersion, and it’s not an insubstantial achievement given the again of this modular telephone can actually be unclipped with none instruments.
Because it seems, I ended up utilizing the Fairphone 4 to take pictures throughout an exceptionally wet stroll whereas vacationing within the Welsh countryside, so I really feel fairly assured saying that the corporate’s claims in regards to the telephone being rainproof are correct. Right here’s a selfie of me on the stroll if you wish to get an thought of simply how wet I’m speaking about (it also needs to offer you an indicator of how the telephone’s 25-megapixel selfie digicam performs).
It’s nice to see Fairphone utilizing a extra succesful 7-series Snapdragon processor in comparison with the 6-series one used within the Fairphone 3. For probably the most half, the Snapdragon 750G retains up with the calls for I positioned on the telephone in on a regular basis utilization, nevertheless it wasn’t good. Waking up Google Assistant with a swipe up from the nook of the display to ask a question took a beat longer than I’m usually used to, and there have been generally hitches within the YouTube app when switching movies between regular and full-screen viewing. It’s succesful reasonably than slick.
However whereas total efficiency is OK, the telephone isn’t with out its quirks. Probably the most irritating subject I discovered is that the Fairphone 4 isn’t nice at palm rejection, so if you’re holding it one-handed and attain your thumb throughout, it’ll confuse your palm for an intentional faucet. The Fairphone 4 additionally appeared to spend extra time linked to 3G networks than different smartphones I’ve used, even in areas the place I usually get a 4G sign. Different instances, nonetheless, it fortunately linked to 5G networks. A wierd quirk.
I had no issues with battery life throughout my time with the Fairphone 4 and usually averaged round 4 and 5 hours of display on time per cost. For me, this usually translated to placing the telephone on to cost with between 10 and 50 % of cost left within the tank on the finish of the day. On in the future of touring, I used the Fairphone 4 for a number of hours of podcast and music listening through wi-fi headphones, just a few hours of social media scrolling, after which for 2 hours of navigation whereas wirelessly linked through Android Auto, and I nonetheless had 10 % of battery left after I put it on cost at 11PM that evening. The telephone helps 20W quick charging, which Fairphone says ought to refill half its battery in half an hour.
Efficiency is appropriate, battery life is sweet, and the telephone’s display is completely effective. However the one space of the Fairphone 4 that I believe might be an actual dealbreaker for some folks is its digicam, which, regardless of being primarily based round a pair of 48-megapixel sensors (one for the primary digicam and one for the ultrawide), produces mediocre pictures, even in broad daylight. It’s good to have the flexibility of twin cameras, that are a primary for a Fairphone, nevertheless it’s a disgrace that the pictures they seize are disappointing in something apart from broad daylight.
I believe the pictures within the gallery beneath converse for themselves. They typically look uncomfortably grainy, and there’s a smudginess to most pictures that had me looking by way of the digicam app’s settings to ensure I didn’t have a bizarre setting turned on. However maybe worse than the standard of the pictures themselves is simply how gradual and laggy the digicam app is. Even in daylight, tapping the shutter could cause a painstaking couple of moments earlier than the digicam is ready to focus and take a photograph, and it’s even worse at evening. The Fairphone 4 is the one time I’ve regretted utilizing a evaluation telephone for trip snaps as a result of I remorse not coming house with nicer pictures.
Should you’re spending cash on a Fairphone 4, your cash isn’t being spent on efficiency. It’s being spent on that five-year guarantee, the promise of years of software program help, and the safety of realizing that, when 2026 rolls round, you’ll nonetheless have the ability to purchase a brand new battery and pop it into the again of the telephone with out having to study what a pentalobe screw is. And, in fact, you’re paying to make sure that all these elements have been created from as responsibly sourced supplies as potential within the first place.
Whether or not it’s Fairtrade or natural meals or sustainably produced clothes, there’s the expectation that you simply’ll need to pay a worth premium for ethically-produced items, and that’s precisely the case with the Fairphone 4. Though it begins at €579, its efficiency, particularly in the case of its cameras, is arguably nearer to telephones that price lower than half as a lot, just like the Moto G Power (which retails for the equal of roughly €170) or Moto G Play (round €140). And it’s in no way aggressive with smartphones just like the iPhone SE (€539 for 128GB) or OnePlus Nord 2 (€399), that are nearer in worth however nonetheless cheaper than the Fairphone 4.
However in case you’re the sort of particular person that may stay with the price range telephones listed above, in case you simply want a smartphone for every day use and aren’t involved about having the perfect digicam or most premium-feeling system, then I believe you’re the sort of one that can stay with the Fairphone 4. It’s a good €200 telephone that occurs to be priced at €579. That’s the value of sustainability.
Pictures by Jon Porter / The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/22716194/fairphone-4-review | Fairphone 4 evaluation: the value of sustainability
