Fairphone 3

The Fairphone 3 is a smartphone from Holland and one that consists as much as possible of fair materials. It is already the third sustainable phone of the brand and in terms of appearance a considerable upgrade. If you are curious about the real story behind the Fairphone 3 please read on.

Screwdriver in the box, no charger

The Fairphone 3 has a sustainable design consisting of honest materials. So the Fairphone 3 is easy to repair yourself so you don't immediately have to buy a new mobile when only the screen breaks. Fairphone even encourages it, so there is a screwdriver in the box to get started immediately. What you don't find in the box is a charger and cable. You probably still have them somewhere. This way Fairphone saves costs, you help the planet with no unnecessary materials to consume and you keep your drawer tidier by not having to house another data cable and charger.

Sustainable materials, happy employes

Every mobile phone consists of materials such as gold, cobalt and plastic. The latter is easy to recycle and thus extract. This is not the case for many other materials, including metals. These are extracted from mines in often miserable conditions. You don't see it in the Fairphone 3 but at Fairphone they have put a lot of time into setting up a sustainable supply chain. Of tin from Congo and copper from China. Fairphone is therefore the first manufacturer to make phones from fairtrade gold. But Fairphone does not stop at fair materials, they also guarantee improved working conditions for the employes of, for example, mines where these materials are extracted. This also continues after you have bought a Fairphone 3. As a member of the Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN), their ultimate goal is to completely eliminate employes' exposure to toxic chemicals.

Main Fairphone 3 specifications

• Made out of fair materials including fairtrade gold
• 5.65 inch large screen + rugged Gorilla Glass 5
• Possibility to extend storage
• Octa-core Snapdragon 632 processor at 1.8 GHz
• Fast 4G internet (LTE Cat 18 up to 300 Mbit/s)
• 12 megapixel main camera with bright f/1.8 low-light lens
• Dualsim capabilities (nanoSIM type)

Large improvement

In terms of telephone, the Fairphone 3 certainly does not disappoint. New this year is the fingerprint scanner on the back and the much improved camera. But don't forget the much larger 5.6 inch screen either. It has thinner screen edges, although above and below the screen we still find the necessary 'bar'. That makes it relatively large. Considerably larger than its predecessor even. The Fairphone 3 is a Dual SIM phone so you can put two nano SIM cards in it at the same time. Charging can be done via the modern USB-C which has no top and bottom. There are two speakers for stereo sound and if it breaks down for any reason, just order it as a spare part in the Fairphone shop. The device runs a standard bare version of Android 9.0 and Fairphone promises to release updates for a long time to come, something they also did with previous models. All in all, the Fairphone 3 has become a fairly modern phone with a slightly higher price tag than equivalent phones but one with a much lower ecological footprint. Moreover, the price in comparison with the Fairphone 2 has become a lot lower. Double the profit.

Pro and cons Fairphone 3

• Largely repairable
• Fair, recycled and responsibly sourced materials
• Bigger screen, better camera
• Phone case in the box

• No charger or cable in the box