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Fairphone 6 is switching to a new design that's even more sustainable

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401 points Bluestein | 5 comments | 23 Jun 25 15:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.903s | source
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strangecasts ◴[23 Jun 25 16:20 UTC] No.44357341[source]▶
Was lucky enough to get my Fairphone 4 on sale, but I'd happily pay full price now - even though the Fairphones are pricey for the specs, unless you absolutely need 24 cores etc. I'd say they are worth it, knowing the company is at least trying to improve the parts supply chain, and knowing you stand a chance of fixing the devices yourself (luckily I've only had to replace the USB-C port, which was trivial)

About the only thing I'd ding Fairphone on is not communicating earlier that they were having trouble getting Android 14 out to the FP4s, but the security patches have been consistent.

(Okay I'm also dinging them on getting rid of the headphone jack, yes I know it's a lost cause... )

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bombela ◴[23 Jun 25 17:03 UTC] No.44357765[source]▶
The removal of the phone jack is so obviously planned obsolescence, it is ironic that this project for sustainability follows the trend.

Wired headphones still have better sound quality. Don't need charging. Don't break with software update. But because of that it means less consumption.

Think about how insane it is that companies can remove the phone jack and glue in the battery with the very obvious goal of planned obsolescence. And this is legal.

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jack_pp ◴[23 Jun 25 17:09 UTC] No.44357829[source]▶
I don't think it's about planned obsolescence. It's about cutting costs and having one less hole water can get in.

Also wired headphones are a very niche market. If you care so much there are wireless DACs that can feed your wired headphones better than any phone in history.

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chaosharmonic ◴[23 Jun 25 17:17 UTC] No.44357909[source]▶
My hotter take is that this is the same problem as IR blasters, and relative to the old normal -- when device makers like LG were specifically advertising how awesome their built-in DAC was -- this whole thing could be solved in a much more elegant, flexible way if anyone at all would just give us a second fucking USB port.
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jack_pp ◴[24 Jun 25 00:37 UTC] No.44361714[source]▶
Sony tried to compete with the best camera, best DAC and I don't think those phones sold. Manufacturers build products the market wants. Wired headphones are not what the market wants. If you are a true purist you buy stuff from fiio and carry more then one device.

This is the same thing as with small phones. A vocal minority cried far and wide that they wanted them. Apple made them.. and they did, not, sell.

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1. LtWorf ◴[24 Jun 25 05:06 UTC] No.44362993[source]▶
> Manufacturers build products the market wants.

Every single person wants smaller phones. What do we get? No small phones.

Apple doesn't count… they are priced at 3x 4x what an android would cost.

People want small phones but don't want to spend their whole salary on a phone.

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2. tsimionescu ◴[24 Jun 25 06:37 UTC] No.44363420[source]▶
I don't know of a single person who has switched to a smaller phone after having a bigger one (though also don't know anyone who bought a phablet, so maybe that's too big). As people moved most of their computer use to phones, bigger phones where you can see more of the web on your page, while still fitting in your pocket or purse, have won decidedly.

By and large, the only people who want small phones are those that still do most of their computing and media consumption on a PC or laptop. And that's becoming much, much rarer (and gaming doesn't really count here - lots of gamers have a separate stream or something on their phones while playing).

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3. whyoh ◴[24 Jun 25 07:15 UTC] No.44363613[source]▶
>I don't know of a single person who has switched to a smaller phone

It's difficult to do that when the available phones are just getting bigger. Ten years ago you could still find sub 6" phones easily. These days, not so much.

4. LtWorf ◴[24 Jun 25 08:11 UTC] No.44363904[source]▶
> I don't know of a single person who has switched to a smaller phone after having a bigger one

Similarly, I don't know a single person that likes to eat dodo eggs.

5. chaosharmonic ◴[24 Jun 25 21:39 UTC] No.44371361[source]▶
> I don't know of a single person who has switched to a smaller phone after having a bigger one

Consider how small the overlap is between devices in a product lineup in the first place and an audience that can buy them -- whether that's through carrier availability to put them on plans if in the US, or the resources to spend on them up-front.

That trend also is based on touch as the primary method of interaction -- but given the tethered AR devices we're starting to see trickle out, and Android's desktop mode finally hitting prime time, that assumption might not hold long-term. I'm not saying this will be the timeline we live on, but considering some of the experiments with dedicated, external devices for powering them, it's not hard to envision the pendulum swinging back toward smaller phones that focus more on things like the compute and sensors and less around a screen you look at all day.

Think of the (modern) Moto Razr. You could, hypothetically, have a compute device that more so resembles the folded-down version of this -- aimed more toward external displays, and less toward being regularly looked at.