Fairphone 5 Review: A Noble Cause, an Imperfect Phone
Phones
Speaker 1: The Fairphone five wants to save the planet, but is it actually a good phone? Here's what you should know. The technology industry is a dirty one From the mining of rare earth materials to the chemicals in your batteries to the huge amount of electronic waste produced, the environmental impact of your phone is huge. And that's compounded by most companies refreshing their offerings at least once a year. But Fairphone aims [00:00:30] to do things differently. It works with organizations to make sure that the materials used in the phone are fair trade, as well as working directly with the factories that produce the phone to ensure that workers are treated properly and paid a fair living wage. And while other companies like Apple and Samsung and Google do use an amount of recycled materials in their phones, fair phone takes that further with every component it possibly can being made with recycled materials, including recycled [00:01:00] tin and steel in the batteries.
Speaker 1: The Fairphone five can be easily repaired by you with 10 different components, including all the cameras, their battery, their screen, even the U Ss B ports being able to buy from Fairphone if you need to replace them. So if you happen to smash your screen, you can simply buy the replacement and get the screwdriver out at home and do it yourself, keeping your phone going for longer. Because the best way to minimize the environmental impact of your phone is to keep using it for [00:01:30] as long as possible before upgrading to a new one and to help that. Fairphone offers a five-year warranty with the phone as well as promising at least five major Android updates and security updates for at least eight years. And that means that this phone should still be safe to use in 2031, and that's a lot more software supports than almost any other company does.
Speaker 1: Clearly then Fairphone is working hard to show that it is a technology company with a conscience, and that's great, but unfortunately [00:02:00] the phone isn't great with poor battery life and disappointing cameras being two of the bigger problems I found in my time with it. So let's take a closer look at the Fairphone five. Physically, it's not exactly the most beautiful phone around. Sure, it's slimmer and lighter than is predecessor, but it is still fairly chunky and plain looking. The back is plastic, which does feel a little bit cheap, but it is removable, which gives access to swapping out the battery or your SIM slots or if you need to replace any components. [00:02:30] So sure, it could have a luxurious glass back like an iPhone, but then you probably couldn't remove it as easily to do the repairs. Under that plastic back is a hidden gem, a micro SD card slot that lets you expand the 256 gigabytes of onboard memory with SD cards up to two terabytes in size, which again will ensure the phone stays useful for longer.
Speaker 1: As you should never run out of storage space despite the removable back, the phone is still IP 55 rated for water resistance. [00:03:00] Now, it likely won't survive a dunk in the swimming pool, but it is at least safe from spilled drinks or if you need to take a call in the rain, it has a fingerprint scanner built into the side of the phone, which I do find a little bit awkward to reach sometimes. But thankfully, it also has face unlock, which does work well most of the time. The 6.46 inch display is sharp and vibrant enough to do justice to UT videos or mobile gaming. And while it's not quite bright enough to counter the midday [00:03:30] summer sun, it is fine in most other conditions. The phone runs on a Qualcomm QCM 6 4 90 processor. It's an unusual choice because that ship is mostly designed for industrial applications and internet of things devices.
Speaker 1: But Fairphone says it's exactly that ship that allows it to give them much longer term support on benchmark tests. This processor didn't particularly impress, but it has got enough power to handle most of your everyday [00:04:00] essentials from web browsing and emailing to Instagramming and some gaming as well. Coped fine with Alto's Odyssey and Asphalt nine. Although I did notice with Genian Impact, a much more demanding game, it did start to slow down, particularly when I upped the graphics. Long story short, if you're a power user, it's probably not the phone for you, but if you are just a general everyday phone user, then it will be fine. The battery is definitely a let down though. It put in some of the worst performances I've [00:04:30] seen on our battery drain tests. And to be honest, I'd be a bit concerned about getting through a full day of use on a single charge.
Speaker 1: It dropped by 16% after 45 minutes of mixed use, including a bit of gaming and web browsing. So I definitely recommend keeping a spare battery or an external battery pack with you if you plan on playing games on the bus home from work. It holds its charge well in standby though. So if you're the sort of person that just casually checks notifications while you are at work, [00:05:00] then you should still have plenty of charge left later in the day. I suspect that that unusual processor is partly to blame here with the QCM 6 4 90 not being primarily designed with mobile devices in mind. It's unlikely to be optimized for power efficiency during intensive mobile tasks like video streaming or gaming, at least not in the same way that a mobile focus snapdragon ship might be, but that's just my theory. The phone runs Android 13 [00:05:30] software, which as I mentioned will get at least five major Android version updates in its time.
Speaker 1: The software itself is essentially stock Android 13, which makes it nice and clean and simple and easy to use, whether you are an Android veteran or this is your first smartphone. On the back of the phone is a 50 megapixel main camera and a 50 megapixel ultra wide camera. Unfortunately, I'm not impressed by either with disappointing results from both including drab colors and a noticeable shift [00:06:00] in color tone when you switch between the main and ultra wide lenses. The ultra wide lens also produced extremely mushy details, especially towards the edges of the frame. This wide shot of Let Shore looks fine and full screen, but zooming into the edge, it's clear to see the total lack of detail here. Compare that to the Pixel seven A and the difference is immense. In fact, the Pixel seven a's dual camera delivered better results across the board, which is particularly annoying as [00:06:30] the Pixel seven A is significantly cheaper than the Fairphone five.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately for Fairphone, the pixel seven A is the elephant in the room here. It offers not just better camera performance, but better processor performance, two better battery life as well as features like wireless charging, improved waterproofing, and a whole host of Google software additions. The Pixel seven A unfortunately, is a better phone and it comes with a much lower price tag, and that leaves me feeling very conflicted. [00:07:00] The technology industry seriously needs to clean up its act, and I massively applaud everything that Fairphone is doing to show the industry how things can be done. The Fairphone five is the culmination of that good work, and while I do appreciate that, the more people buy it, the more it will show bigger companies that this is what people want and maybe we'll encourage them to implement better policies of their own. But I have to stand by my principles of objective journalism in this review.
Speaker 1: [00:07:30] And unfortunately, the fair Phone five Well-Meaning though it is, has some problems. The battery life and the camera are very disappointing, and you can get better performing phones for much less money. But if you don't care about photography and you are not a power user, then you should definitely still consider this phone. It's huge software support and easy Repairability means that this phone will still be working a long time from now. So actually it could work out being much better value in the period of its life, [00:08:00] and you can pat yourself on the back for making a much more socially conscious decision. Well done you. But what do you think of the fair phone five? Is it the phone that we need or does the company need to try harder to encourage people to make better decisions?
