简介
“All good things come in threes” is what the Dutch social enterprise must have thought when they were planning the Fairphone 3, their newest ethically-made mobile device, sporting a modular and repairable design. The Fairphone 2 from 2015 already set the bar high for smartphone repairability—only a teardown will tell if its successor can raise that bar further, as other big manufacturers continue to offer phones that are glued shut and increasingly hard to repair.
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你所需要的
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It's the inner beauty that counts, but we'll get to that shortly. First, let's look over this smartphone's specs:
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5.65" IPS display with 1080 × 2160 resolution
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Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 SoC
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4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage
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12 MP rear camera with ƒ/1.8 and a front-facing camera with 8 MP ƒ/2.0
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3,060 mAh battery
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Fingerprint sensor and headphone jack
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A huge thank you to Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM, who provided us with this x-ray image of the Fairphone 3.
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The Fairphone’s line of succession (from left to right): Primus, Secundus, and Tertius, as the Romans might have said, if they could count smartphones.
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Note the evolution not only in size and style, but also in tech: this iteration features a USB-C port instead of the old Micro-USB connector, as well as a fingerprint sensor on its back for increased convenience.
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Just how much bigger is it? The Fairphone 3 comes in at 158×71.8×9.89 mm and weighs 189 g.
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We start off by simply removing the back cover—no tools needed.
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Compared to the bumper-like casing of the Fairphone 2—as well as the two-piece 'slim' version that replaced it midway through the product cycle—this is definitely an improvement.
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Removing the battery is also easy as Android 9—it lifts right out using the notch at the bottom.
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At 11.781 Wh (3,060 mAh at 3.85 V), this juice box is not the biggest around these days. But it should get you through the day—and if it doesn't, you can just carry a spare and swap it out!
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It beats the Google Pixel 3a in capacity (11.55 Wh) but cannot quite touch the iPhone Xs Max (12.08 Wh), let alone the Shift 6m (16.3 Wh).
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The underside of the battery bears an encouraging message: "Well done. You're what progress looks like." Speaking of which, it's time to make some more teardown progress. Onward!
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Fairphone decided to forgo the nifty display lock mechanism from the previous iteration, opting for standard Phillips #00 screws instead.
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With the screws gone, we unsnap the display from the frame—revealing the same pogo pin connector plus breakout board configuration seen in the Fairphone 2.
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Note the map of the Democratic Republic of Congo in this spot, illustrating the conflict-free sourcing of minerals like tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold.
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Not satisfied with merely removing the modules, we bust out our Torx T5 screwdriver and an opening pick and tear down even more.
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Starting with the top module:
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The 8 MP ƒ2.0 selfie camera and earpiece speaker are both removable.
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The headphone jack as well as the proximity and ambient light sensors are soldered onto the breakout board.
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The camera module carries a modular 12 MP ƒ1.8 camera with a SONY IMX363 Exmor RS sensor. The flash LEDs are soldered onto the breakout board.
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The bottom module contains the vibration motor, and a soldered-on USB-C port and microphone.
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The loudspeaker module is the loneliest of the bits clinging onto the bottom module with its two contacts.
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Removing the motherboard, we discover a bunch of spring contacts, which connect to the fingerprint sensor, the volume and power buttons, and a few antennas.
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Pulling off the shields reveals:
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Samsung KMRH60014A-B614 eMMC with 64 GB
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Qorvo QM57508 RF front-end module
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Qualcomm WTR3925 RF transceiver
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Qualcomm WCN3680B WiFi module
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That's all for the Fairphone 3, right down to the screws and individual components. To sum up our findings:
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The new enclosure is easy to open and showcases the transparency of the project.
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An even more modular design makes for a tidy phone on the inside, with another layer of disassembly for repairing individual components.
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Reassembling this phone won’t be much of an issue, and we're very confident it’ll still work.
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Let's see what this means in terms of repairability...
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- Key components like the battery and screen have been prioritized in the design and are accessible either without tools or just a regular Phillips screwdriver.
- Visual cues inside the phone help with disassembling and replacing its parts and modules.
- Replacing complete modules is very easy. Going for their internal parts is also possible and requires a Torx screwdriver.
- Replacement guides and spare parts are available via the manufacturer's website.
- Most components inside the modules are individually replaceable though some are soldered on.
最后的想法
可修复性评分
（10是最容易修复）
团队
37条评论
Love that this is still happening in the mobile phone world. And that they’re taking sustainability seriously.
Not making it upgrade-able seems to defeat the purpose. Only the battery and the screen are likely to need replacement before this goes obsolete
You don’t need to upgrade every year and maybe in the future you will also be able to swap the motherboard with a newer cpu.
you can always try these ones: https://www.shiftphones.com/en/
No, it does not defeat the purpose. The purpose is making it easy to replace any part if something breaks - even if you’re a non-tech-savy user. The Fairphone makes repairing your smartphone as easy as assembling an IKEA shelf, which - definitely - archieves it’s purpose. You don’t need to buy a new phone if your screen is shattered or your USB-C-connector got dusty - just a replacement part.
Of course, having upgradeable parts would be nice, but that’s not as easy to accomplish as it might look: The individual parts would be sold less often, resulting in higher prices to account for development and production costs. And compatibility isn’t easy on low-level hardware: Installing a better camera could also require a better BUS or other connection to the mainboard etc. A bigger battery might need a better charging IC or at least more space in the housing. Same goes for any other component. And remember - the Fairphone 2 got a camera upgrade midway in it’s life cycle. So you can’t even say it’s not upgradeable.
sadfadsf -
I’ve been using my Fairphone 2 since it came out in 2015, so it probably counts as obsolete - but it works perfectly well, and spare parts are still available (as they are for the Fairphone 1, incidentally) so I’m not going to replace it for the foreseeable future. “Obsolete” it may be, but it’s still a good phone.
MarkNW -
