You may not have heard much about the Fairphone 2 Android phone. We certainly didn't cover it, as it was so low under the radar, we didn't know it existed. It turns out that this device is way ahead of Google's Project Ara phone and has already hit the market with the same modular concept.
It's time for us to take notice even though we missed it before. The folks at iFixit got hold of the little self-crowd-funded start-up device. They gave it a stunning perfect score of 10/10 on their repairability scale! Here's a quote with the iFixit summary below:
- Fairphone 2 Repairability Score: 10 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)
- The LCD and cover glass are fused, simplifying removal, but significantly increasing the cost of replacement.
- The most commonly failing components, battery and display, can be replaced without tools.
- Internal modules are secured with Phillips #0 screws and simple spring connectors.
- Individual modules can be opened, and many components can be individually replaced.
- All buttons and cables are easily accessible. Spring contacts allow for future upgrades and easy component swaps.
- In addition to the in-phone icons and instructions, the Fairphone 2 will ship with repair documentation built-in.
It should probably come as no surprise that the phone is extremely easy to repair. That is the ultimate goal of the device really. It's great to see that such a small startup can actually execute on these goals. Perhaps Google should look at incorporating the FairPhone company tech into Project Ara...
Be sure to check out the iFixit article for all of the slick pics for the device in various stages of disassembly: iFixit. For information's sake, here's a quick spec-list of the FairPhone 2:
- Dual SIM
- 5-inch, Full HD LCD screen
- Android™ 5.1, Lollipop
- 4G LTE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth®
- Qualcomm® quad core processor
