The Fairphone 5 is not supposed to be a powerful, spec-heavy smartphone, so it isn’t. It’s not supposed to have cameras better than the iPhone 14 Pro or Google Pixel 7, so it doesn’t. Its design isn’t supposed to wow you, so it probably won’t.
Instead, Fairphone has set out to make a smartphone that will get eight years of software support, possibly 10.
And it knows not all the components in the phone will last that long, so many of them are user repairable or replaceable, with the company promising to stock key parts for it for several years.
It’s impossible for me to test these promises right now, and the longevity of the phone relies on the company still existing in 2033. But Fairphone has a good track record so far, and its latest phone is impressive in what it sets out to achieve. Importantly, Fairphone is a small company proving that other smartphone manufacturers could offer longer software support, while questioning the environmental ethics of phones whose components
