Company:Fairphone

From HandWiki
Fairphone B.V.
TypePrivately held company
IndustryTelecommunications equipment
FoundedJanuary 2013; 13 years ago (2013-01)
Headquarters
Amsterdam
,
Netherlands
Area served
Western and Central Europe except Malta and Cyprus
Key people
ProductsSmartphones, headphones
RevenueIncrease €55 million (2023)[1]
Website{{{1}}}

Fairphone is a Dutch electronics manufacturer that designs and produces smartphones and headphones. It aims to minimise the ethical and environmental impact of its devices by using recycled, fairtrade and conflict-free materials, maintaining fair labor conditions throughout its workforce and suppliers, and enabling users to easily repair their devices through modular design and by providing replacement parts.[2] As of June 2025, the company's most recent smartphone is the Fairphone 6, a highly modular and easily repairable device for which it plans to provide seven years of Android OS updates and eight years of security patches, as well as a five-year warranty.[3][4]

Fairphone has been dubbed "the most ethical smartphone in the world", scoring 98 out of 100 possible points by the British magazine Ethical Consumer.[5]

History

A Fairphone employee meeting tungsten miners at the New Bugurama Mining Company in Rwanda
Back of a Fairphone 2 with transparent cover, showing its modular design

Fairphone was founded by Bas van Abel, Tessa Wernink and Miquel Ballester[6] as a social enterprise company in January 2013, having existed as a campaign for two and a half years. In April 2015 the company became a registered B Corporation.[7]

Since version two, the Fairphone is produced in Suzhou, China, by Hi-P International Limited.[8]

In November 2021, the Fairphone 4 was made available.

As of February 2022, Fairphone had sold around 400,000 devices.[9]

In 2023 a consortium of impact investors led by new shareholders Invest-NL, the ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund, and existing shareholder Quadia, with its Regenero Impact Fund, invested €49 million in Fairphone.[10]

Products

Name Release
date 		SoC CPU GPU Memory
(GB) 		Storage
(GB) 		Display Camera Initial
Android
version 		Battery
capacity
(mAh)
Type Speed
(GHz) 		Cores Type Speed
(MHz) 		Size
(inches) 		PPI Rear Front
Fairphone 1 2013 MediaTek MT6589 Cortex-A7 1.2 4 PowerVR SGX544MP 286 1 16
+up to 64GB 		4.3 256 8MP 1.3MP 4.2.2 2000
Fairphone 2 2015 Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Krait 400 2.26 4 Adreno 330 578 2 32
+up to 2TB 		5 446 12MP 5MP 5.1 2420
Fairphone 3 2019 Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 Kryo 250
Gold+Silver 		1.8+1.8 4+4 Adreno 506 600 4 64
+up to 2TB 		5.65 427 12MP 8MP 9 3060
Fairphone 3+ 2020 48MP (12MP output) 16MP 10
Fairphone 4 2021 Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G Kryo 570
Gold+Silver 		2.2+1.8 2+6 Adreno 619 950 6/8 128/256
+up to 2TB 		6.3 409 48MP OIS,
48 MP Ultrawide,
(ToF + Color) sensor 		25MP 11 3905
Fairphone 5[11] 2023 Qualcomm Snapdragon QCM6490[12] Kryo 670
Prime+Gold+Silver 		2.7+2.4+1.9 1+3+4 Adreno 643 812 6/8 128/256
+up to 2TB 		6.46 459 50MP OIS,
50 MP Ultrawide,
(ToF + Color) sensor 		50MP 13 4200
Fairphone 6 [lower-alpha 1] 25 Jun 2025[13][14] Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 Kryo 7s Gen 3
Prime+Gold+Silver 		2.5+2.4+1.8 1+3+4 Adreno 810 1050 8 256
+up to 2TB 		6.31 431 50MP,
13 MP Ultrawide 		32MP[15] 15 4415

Corporate affairs

Since the introduction of the Fairphone 3 in 2019, Fairphone has reported steadily increasing annual sales, surpassing 100,000 units sold in both 2022 and 2023. The company’s best-selling year to date was 2022, with 115,681 units sold. In 2024, sales slightly exceeded the company’s internal goal of 100,000 units, reaching 103,053 units sold.

Fairphone’s revenues grew significantly between 2018 and 2022, rising from €10.8 million in 2018 to a peak of €58.9 million in 2022. However, the company faced a challenging year in 2023, when it recorded a negative EBITDA of €14.3 million despite revenues of €54.8 million. In 2024, the company returned to profitability with a positive EBITDA of €1.7 million on revenues of €54.4 million.[16]

Fairphone sales, revenue and EBITDA (2018–2024)[16]
Year Units sold Revenue (€) EBITDA (€)
2018 22,623 10,822,000 –5,592,000
2019 53,844 19,185,000 –4,590,000
2020 94,985 35,930,000 3,732,900
2021 87,936 40,457,000 5,687,000
2022 115,681 58,899,000 4,483,900
2023 100,107 54,798,000 –14,271,900
2024 103,053 54,350,250 1,745,840


Social impact and competitors

The phone is modular, which makes it easily repairable and customisable by the user, in keeping with right to repair principles. According to the company, increasing the lifespan of a phone by two years reduces CO2 emissions by 30%.[9]

The gold and silver in Fairphone 4 has the Fairtrade label, also metals used are said to come from conflict-free mines.[17] The company promises a 5-year warranty period and long-term support for software updating and spare parts.[18] In 2017, Fairphone's founder Bas van Abel acknowledged that it was currently impossible to produce a 100% fair phone, suggesting it was more accurate to call his company's phones "fairer".[19][20]

In an interview with Will Georgi, Fairphone founder Tessa Vernink mentions:

“There might be a misconception that as a social enterprise, we don’t operate like a ‘normal’ business, but that’s not true. In many ways, most of our choices are the same — we still need to make money and sell phones — but the outcome and the goals are different. Our focus is investing in social innovation, instead of purely technical innovation. When other phone companies design a new phone, they research new technology — we research supply chain improvement.”[6]

A survey conducted by Franziska Verna Haucke in the Journal of Cleaner Production found:

A sustainable lifestyle represents the dominant factor explaining the involvement with the Fairphone. Surprisingly, the findings show that alternative consumption seems to negatively influence the involvement with the Fairphone and social commitment seems to play a minor role in the model. These aspects point to the Fairphone as a technical artifact, centered on a choice for a sustainable lifestyle.[2]

Shiftphone is another small mobile telephone manufacturer with a focus on sustainability, who also developed a modular smartphone. The founder of Shiftphone considers that the two companies working in collaboration could have more influence on bigger competitors.[9]

Recognition and certifications

Tessa Wernink (right) receiving the Tech5 award at The Next Web Conference 2015

In 2016, Fairphone's founder and first CEO Bas van Abel was one of the three recipients of the German Environmental Award.[21]

The Fairphone 4 was one of the first TCO Certified smartphones, receiving its designation in 2021.[22] However, the company had previously suggested its phones exceeded the TCO Certified criteria; indeed, a 2015 side-by-side comparison conducted by Südwind Association, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, and the GoodElectronics Network, found the Fairphone 1 to exceed industry standards on more sustainability and social criteria than even the TCO Certified label.[23]

Fairphone has also received three consecutive annual Platinum ratings from EcoVadis,[24] scoring as high as 88/100 in a rating system that covers four different categories measuring environmental and social metrics. This score placed Fairphone among the top 1% of businesses rated by EcoVadis worldwide.

Operating systems

Fairphones can run several operating systems, including CalyxOS, DivestOS, /e/, iodeOS, LineageOS, Ubuntu Touch, and more.[25] Murena, the company associated with the /e/ foundation, also sells Fairphones with /e/ pre-installed and offers a warranty for them.[26] As of February 2025 the official /e/ support for FP3, FP4 and FP5 is based on Android 13.[27]

See also


Footnotes

  1. ↑ Announced as “The Fairphone (Gen. 6)”

References

  1. ↑ Fairphone, B.V. (31 December 2023). "Fairphone-BV-Annual-report-2023" (in English). Fairphone B.V.. p. 11. https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Fairphone-BV-Annual-report-2023.pdf. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Haucke, Franziska Verena (2018). "Smartphone-enabled social change: Evidence from the Fairphone case?". Journal of Cleaner Production 197: 1719–1730. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.014. 
  3. ↑ Preston, Dominic (4 July 2025). "Fairphone 6 gets a 10/10 on repairability". The Verge (Vox Media). https://www.theverge.com/news/698363/fairphone-6-ifixit-teardown-repairability-perfect-score. 
  4. ↑ Williams, Andrew (29 June 2025). "Fairphone Has a New Plan to Get You to Care". WIRED (Condé Nast). https://www.wired.com/story/fairphone-proves-you-really-dont-give-a-damn/. 
  5. ↑ "Shopping guide: Mobile phone". 25 October 2024. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/sites/default/files/flipbook/Issue211Preview/10/#zoom=true. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Homerun.co (27 January 2017). "Fairphone: Calling for Change". https://interviews.artofwork.co/fairphone-calling-for-change-e4a54db6d90c. 
  7. ↑ "Fairphone - Certified B Corporation - B Lab Global" (in en-us). https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/fairphone. 
  8. ↑ Hebert, Olivier (19 February 2015). "The path to finding our new production partner: Hi-P". https://www.fairphone.com/en/2015/02/19/the-path-to-finding-our-new-production-partner-hi-p/. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Schweiger, Francesca (22 February 2022). "The mobile phones you can take apart and repair yourself". Berlin. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60374806. 
  10. ↑ "Impact investor consortium invests €49 million in Fairphone". https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Impact-investor-consortium-invests-E49-million-in-Fairphone.pdf. 
  11. ↑ Vonau, Manuel (2023-08-30). "The Fairphone 5 is here, and it's the sleekest repairable phone yet". in Vonau, Manuel. Berlin, Germany. https://www.androidpolice.com/fairphone-5-announcement-sleekest-repairable-phone/. Retrieved 2023-08-30. 
  12. ↑ Qualcomm® QCM6490/Qualcomm® QCS6490 SoCs, 2021, https://www.qualcomm.com/content/dam/qcomm-martech/dm-assets/documents/qcs-qcm6490-soc-product-brief_87-28733-1-b.pdf, retrieved 2023-08-30 
  13. ↑ "Fairphone 6 wordt 25 juni 2025 aangekondigd" (in nl). https://www.nieuwemobiel.nl/061607/25004/Fairphone-6-wordt-25-juni-2025-aangekondigd.html. 
  14. ↑ "Switch to the new Fairphone (Gen. 6)". 25 June 2025. https://www.fairphone.com/en/2025/06/25/switch-to-the-new-fairphone-gen-6/. 
  15. ↑ D. de Vries, Dennis (25 June 2025). "Fairphone Gen 6 krijgt fysieke knop voor minder meldingen en kost 599 euro". https://tweakers.net/nieuws/236570/fairphone-gen-6-krijgt-fysieke-knop-voor-minder-meldingen-en-kost-599-euro.html. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Fairphone Impact Report 2024 (Report). Fairphone. 2024. https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Fairphone-Impact-Report-2024.pdf. Retrieved 29 August 2025. 
  17. ↑ Gibbs, Samuel (2021-10-15). "Fairphone 4 review: ethical repairable phone gets big upgrade" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/15/fairphone-4-review-ethical-repairable-phone-gets-big-upgrade. "It includes fair trade gold and silver, ethically sourced aluminium and tungsten, plus recycled tin, copper, rare earth metals and plastic." 
  18. ↑ "Fairphone's latest sustainable smartphone comes with a five-year warranty". 30 September 2021. https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/30/22700014/fairphone-4-release-date-news-features-warranty-price-sustainable. 
  19. ↑ Douglas Rushkoff (24 July 2018). "How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/23/tech-industry-wealth-futurism-transhumanism-singularity. Retrieved 13 March 2020. 
  20. ↑ Bas van Abel 'Fingerprints on the Touchscreen', March 2017
  21. ↑ Lomas, Charlotta. "Fairphone creator: Success is a signal to industry". http://www.dw.com/en/fairphone-creator-success-is-a-signal-to-industry/a-36174183. Retrieved 28 October 2016. 
  22. ↑ "New Fairphone 4 5G meets tough sustainability criteria in TCO Certified". 5 October 2021. https://tcocertified.com/news/new-fairphone-4-5g-meets-tough-sustainability-criteria-in-tco-certified//a-36174183. 
  23. ↑ "‘Fair’ smartphones compared – Fairphone scores better than TCO-certified smartphones". 20 July 2015. https://goodelectronics.org/fair-smartphones-compared-fairphone-scores-better-than-tco-certified-smartphones/. 
  24. ↑ Hall, Christine (15 December 2023). "EcoVadis Awards Fairphone for Being Good for the Environment and Labor". https://fossforce.com/2023/12/ecovadis-awards-fairphone-for-being-good-for-the-environment-and-labor/. 
  25. ↑ "✏ Operating Systems for Fairphones" (in en). 2022-06-06. https://forum.fairphone.com/t/operating-systems-for-fairphones/11425. 
  26. ↑ "Smartphones" (in en-GB). https://murena.com/smartphones/. 
  27. ↑ "/e/OS Smartphone Selector" (in en-GB). https://doc.e.foundation/devices. 



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