The Fairphone - a "fair" smartphone

The Fairphone - a "fair" smartphone for 325 euros

The Fairphone was presented in London. The Fairphone is a modern smartphone that is produced under fair working conditions and consists of 100% fairly produced raw materials. The Fairphone is an ambitious project that is worth supporting. However, if you want a Fairphone, you can only pre-order it at the moment. The first production line will comprise 25,000 units and will be available in December at a price of 325 euros. The only drawback is that the money has to be paid in advance - similar to crowdfunding.

The Fairphone will not be technically state-of-the-art, but this should not be a hurdle for most users, because the technical features are not that bad:

• Operating system: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
• Also possible in the future: Firefox OS or Ubuntu
• Quad-core CPU with 1.2 Ghz
• 4.3-inch qHD display with 960 x 540 pixels
• A replaceable battery
• Generally, repairs can be done by yourself
• Cables are not included (as these should already be available "in every household")
• Headset socket
• USB port
• microSD slot
• GPS
• Bluetooth
• W-Lan module
• Dual SIM
• 8 MP photo camera / 1.3 MP video telephony camera
• 16 GB internal memory

Buy a phone, start a movement

For Bas van Abel, the CEO of Fairphone, it is not about bringing a smartphone onto the market that can technically compete with the latest iPhones and the many Android smartphones.

He is more interested in changing the way products are made today. The focus here is on openness and transparency, both in terms of production conditions and in relation to hardware and software.

This is in stark contrast to the proprietary iOS system from Apple and as far as data is concerned, it also affects Google. After all, Google still subsidizes smartphones and tablets that run on Android (especially its own Nexus series) and "only" wants our data in return. Apple wants our data, binds us to a system that is not open and is paid handsomely for it.

As mentioned above, the Fairphone is a project worth supporting. Let's just hope that everything works out and that the devil doesn't strike. After all, once the reports of these and those problems (hardware and software) start to pile up, many people will consider whether they would rather go for the tried and tested candidates. Nothing is more annoying than an everyday item that doesn't work properly - whether it's fair or not.