Brett Haines
TechAltarFairphone put out a document that takes a holistic look at the environmental impact of electronics. Everything detailed by component, material, process, etc. Really interesting for those looking to dig deeper
Winston Smith@Techaltar they are very serious about their business. I saved this article back in the day. Having impressed me so much. https://www.fairphone.com/en/2023/11/28/lets-talk-about-fairphones-work-in-the-congo/
Romulus@Techaltar I appreciate what fairphone is doing, but without powerful hardware the logic behind keeping your phone for 7 years breaks. The pricing of iphone 17e is on par with frairphone 6 and i would bet that you would have better 7 years of experience with iphone rather than with fairphone.
Diogo Constantino@rominator I've been using fairphone devices for nearly 10 years. First the Fairphone 2, and more recently (but multiple years) the Fairphone 4. I haven't felt that the 4 is underpowered, and therefore the 5 and 6 will likely not be as well.
Shaun McDonald@DiogoConstantino @rominator @Techaltar I'm on a Fairphone 4 and don't feel much need to upgrade. Depending on what you are doing, a more powerful phone could work better, but for the average person it's probably enough. My wife is on my Fairphone 3 hand me down and it's still doing fine.
@smsm1 yes, it will always depend on what you do.
papiris🏴🇵🇸@DiogoConstantino @smsm1 @rominator @Techaltar
Well, Fairphones have fairly good compatibility with #linux, so they can easily be repurposed as power-sipping home servers when you're done with them.
https://hackaday.com/2025/04/09/self-hosting-a-cluster-on-old-phones/
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/16/from-smartphone-to-a-home-server/
https://blog.denv.it/posts/pmos-k3s-cluster/
https://github.com/Bry50/Old-Smartphone-as-a-server
Or, you know, just install #postmarketOS with a nice GUI on there and keep using it as a smartphone without worrying about whatever years of support the manufacturer promised. Upstream, baby.
@papiris I'm an Ubuntu Touch user and contributer, but PostmarketOS is nice too.
Bindestrich@rominator @Techaltar my fairphone 5 is doing just fine. What are you doing with your phone now or in the future that requires more?
@rominator while I agree that it would be even better with more high-end hardware I think you underestimate how long many people keep using midrange phones. Not everyone is annoyed by slightly laggy performance over time
Eye
jerThe Fairphone 6 is pretty powerful! The problem I foresee for the remainder of my use of the FP6 is with the #enshittification of Google's apps (them trying to drive it into obsolecence prematurely because of arbitrarily raised system resource requirements, mostly RAM), but I am in the process of replacing those anyway.
dasgrueneblatt@rominator
What's keeping me from still using my Fairphone 3+ (!) as my primary device is definitely not the hardware. The hardware is absolutely fine. It's the intrusive policies and requirements of more and more apps. I use a second hand Pixel now because GrapheneOS does not work on Fairphone hardware, and I want control over my data and communication.
@Techaltar
What's keeping me from still using my Fairphone 3+ (!) as my primary device is definitely not the hardware. The hardware is absolutely fine. It's the intrusive policies and requirements of more and more apps. I use a second hand Pixel now because GrapheneOS does not work on Fairphone hardware, and I want control over my data and communication.
@Techaltar
🌸 lumi-nhac 
🌱@Techaltar would be interesting to see one about human impacts, such as child labor, conflict minerals and other exploitation
@Techaltar of course... capitalism in general is exploitative, but there are variations
Gabriele Svelto@lumi @Techaltar they have published a lot of stuff around their supply chain, and in the past they've been fairly transparent about the fact that securing some parts of it is very hard (e.g. you can guarantee that child labor was not involved in battery production and assembly from the vendor, but the previous step of mineral extraction could still rely on child labor)
https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Fairphones-Guide-to-paying-living-wages-in-the-supply-chain.pdf
https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Press-release.Fairphone-establishes-a-transparent-supply-chain-for-all-four-conflict-minerals.pdf
https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SCE-2024.pdf
https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Supply-Chain-Engagement-FP4-2021_FINAL.pdf
https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Fair-Materials-Roadmap-2030.pdf
panu@Techaltar
Interesting chart, but what is "headquarters" in this context?
Anyway, I've been seriously considering an FP6, but it's a bit difficult to get a clear picture of the current status of the OS.
I'm not looking to de-Google atm so I'd stay on the stock OS. I'd need to be certain things like casting to a Chromecast and Android auto work flawlessly.
Jules 🍺@shadowdancer @Techaltar why don't you ask them?
@julesbl
Yeah, well I tried asking the chatbot on their web page and it was totally cluless although trained specifically to answer product questions.
Anyway, discussions on their forums don't give a too encouraging picture about FP6 Android Auto compatibility.
I bet if I asked the customer support directly they'd say of course it works perfectly.
@Techaltar
@shadowdancer @Techaltar
I've talked to customer support, they are OK, it's worth dropping them a line
I've talked to customer support, they are OK, it's worth dropping them a line
PursuitOfElysia@shadowdancer @Techaltar "Headquarters" is referring to Fairphone's company headquarters in Amsterdam (for product and software development, support, management, etc)
As for the FP6, it's been doing pretty well for me software-wise, and I'm in Canada so had to deal with the momentary issues with lack of North American support at the beginning but things are smooth and fixed now. Occasional hiccups but nothing disruptive