Fairphone 2 was launched about four years ago, but the company didn’t stop working its way towards the ultimate ethical smartphone. The continued research and development has led the company to launch Fairphone 3 – an upgraded version of its smartphone. Fairphone 3 offers enhanced specs but remains committed to sustainable and responsible phone development.
Similar to the previous models of Fairphone, the latest model has also been built while keeping the environment and supply chain in mind. It makes use of tungsten and tin from conflict-free regions, thus making sure that their sale is not benefitting any armed groups, Fairtrade-certified gold, and recycled plastic and copper. Fairphone 3 is also modular, thus making it possible for repairs to be quite straightforward and removing the need to buy a new smartphone. The phone will be packaged using sustainable and reusable packaging as well.
Furthermore, Fairphone has said that it is working in collaboration with assembly partner Arima for the sake of improving the workers on the supply chain. This includes health, safety, and remuneration. With the aim of trying and keeping the e-waste to a bare minimum, Fairphone will be running recycling programs in different regions, thus allowing users to trade in their older handset.
Fairphone CEO Eva Gouwens said in a press statement, ‘We envision an economy where consideration for people and the planet is a natural part of doing business. This is why we are creating scalable and replicable models in our impact areas for the industry and improve our supply chain and products step by step. But we cannot do this alone or overnight. To make lasting change possible, we need to transform the industry. The strongest signal that we can send is that there is a market for more sustainable products, which is why we developed the Fairphone 3 to be a real, sustainable alternative on the market.’
Fairphone 3 has a 5.7-inch full-HD display, a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 processor, 4 GB of RAM, a single 12 MP rear camera, 8 MP front camera, 64 GB of internal storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery. The battery is also replaceable, thus making the phone truly sustainable. The phone runs on Android 9 Pie and can be ordered for a price tag of almost $500 with shipments slated for the first week of September.