fairphone3

  1. hardware
  2. phone
  1. Overview
  2. Specifications
  3. Issues
  4. Major advantages
  5. Why replace the FP2
  6. Where to buy
  7. Timeline

Overview

The third generation of the fairphone was released in august 2019, with pre-orders for October. Here are the hilights from the website:

See also the fairphone2 page for a broader discussion of the project.

Specifications

Issues

There are some problems, however, that I have found with the specs:

Things I'm still unsure about:

Major advantages

Why replace the FP2

I bought the fairphone2 in march 2019, and now less than two years later, I want to replace it, why? Isn't that device supposed to be repairable and last forever? Turns out that's only partly true. Yes, you can easily get spare parts for the Fairphone 2... if you live in Europe! They do not ship globally, unfortunately. There's something to be said about a somewhat generic iPhone or Samsung phone: anywhere in the world there will be some geeky electronics corner store that will be able to somewhat fix your phone, even if it means it's janky and expensive. At least it exists, as much as Apple is fighting against those shops of course...

The other big problem I have with the Fairphone 2 is that it's really not well supported in Canada. Yes, it works, and sometimes I even get 4G (or at least HSPA). But coverage is really bad. Sometimes I don't get signal at the grocery store or in parts of my house. It's really hit and miss. I am hoping the FP3 will be better, but it might also have trouble: it's the 4G band 12 and 66 which are used by Fido. Telus uses the similar band 13 so maybe changing providers could help. Those are the 700MHz bands which are critical to getting good long-range, across-buildings signal... Still, it already gives me 800 and 850MHz on 3G, and 850MHz is where HSPA lives, so that might improve things significantly.

Finally, the FP2 was a nice experiment in a "screw-less" phone, but that design has significant, real-life reliability issues. I often need to "squeeze" the camera to get it to work, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. The main screen sometimes "burns up" and the touch becomes erratic until I squeeze it all over the place and then sometimes it returns. I have tried the self-help troubleshooting instructions, and they basically tell me to take it apart and back together again, which is not really helpful. It's as if the connectors between the modules loosen over time and just make the phone unreliable.

Again, here, an attempt at making the phone easier to repair actually made it harder. The FP3 has actual screws (and comes with a screwdriver!) so this could possibly be better.

Where to buy

Places that might ship the Fairphone 3 in Canada:

The Fairphone 3+ (comparison) is more expensive:

Shop Price Converted
Clove 338GBP 584CAD
Vireo 469EUR 728CAD
/e/ 500EUR 776CAD

Ecosto, where I bought the fairphone2, do not yet ship the Fairphone 3 -- and has stopped shopping the FP2 as well, so they're unlikely to ship the FP3.. See also the Canadian fairphoners group.

There's also this third-party case for the FP3.

Timeline

Created . Edited .