The fairest, most sustainable smartphone comes from Amsterdam. Fairphone has been proving that consumer electronics do not need to have a terrible impact on the world around us since 2013. With their recent launch of the Fairphone 3+, an upgraded version of their modular Fairphone 3, they keep striving for a better world. Fairphone founder Bas van Abel is eager to tell about the steps the Amsterdam-based smartphone maker made in the past years. But he also points out the real change has to come from all of us: the people buying stuff.
Fairphone 3+ launched as new phone or upgrade
One of the selling points of the sustainable smartphone maker has always been that their phones will last for a long time. They do so by making them extremely repairable, bagging a perfect score at repair guru’s iFixit, as well as promising five years of software support. Not launching a new phone with small upgrades, just to get people to ditch their old ones was the point of Fairphone. So how did the launch of the Fairphone 3+ go down with the loyal community?
Read more: What’s new in Fairphone 3+?
“Before the launch we had some critical supporters saying a new device would be against our philosophy,” says Bas van Abel. After stepping down as CEO in 2018, he stayed at the company on the board of directors and is still involved in building the brand. “But after the launch we had a lot of positive feedback”, continues Van Abel. He gleefully points to a review in international newspaper The Guardian, which gave the new Fairphone the maximum score of five stars. Tree and a half for the device, the remaining one and a half for the story and the philosophy. Van Abel: “Techcrunch also had a nice one, saying you could basically buy a new phone for €70.”