Fairphone taps industrial Qualcomm chip for 5G phone tackling e-waste
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European phone maker Fairphone has used an industrial chip from Qualcomm to give its latest repairable 5G hardware the same decade of support as the software.
The Fairphone 5, released this week for pre-orders, is based around the QCM6490 eight core IoT chipset rather than a SnapDragon mobile phone chip. There are ten replaceable and repairable modules, from the 90MHz OLED screen and 4200mAh battery to the Sony camera modules, dual SIM holder and the micro SD card holder. It comes with 8GB RAM, 256GB internal storage that is expandable up to 2TB, and a clean version of Android 13.
The chipset is designed for industrial grade tablets with a longer lifetime with software support for the next five updates until 2028. After that, Fairphone commits to extend support until 2031 and is aiming for 2033, giving a total of eight to ten years of software support.
The phone from the Dutch manufacturer is also its most sustainable for its components. More than 70% of the 14 focus materials used in the device are either from recycled or responsibly mined sources.
This includes fair tungsten, fair lithium (IRMA audited), and Fairtrade gold integrated into the supply chain. It contains recycled materials such as aluminium from suppliers audited against the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), tin, rare earth elements, nickel, zinc, copper, magnesium, indium and plastics, with the back cover made of 100% recycled plastic.
In an industry first, Fairphone is the first company to use and implement mineral credits with organizations such as the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and The Impact Facility (TIF) with support from the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA). With this, the company matches its material use with fairer production.
It is also weatherproof with an increased rating from IP54 to IP55, extending its longevity, with a 50 MP IMX80 Sony sensor as the main sensor, 50 MP IMX 858 Sony wide angle sensor with a 121 degrees field of view (FoV) and a 50MP front facing ‘selfie’ camera with a 90 degree FOV.
The 4200 mAh battery is not only replaceable but combines fast-charging with an Eco Charge mode to make the battery last longer. The Fairphone 5 battery also holds its capacity for over 1000 full cycles for years to come.
It uses responsibly sourced lithium and Fairtrade gold, and all of Fairphone’s cobalt supports the improvement of working conditions for artisanal and small-scale miners. It also comes with a living wage bonus for workers that make the battery and a commitment by our battery suppliers to science-based targets on CO2 reduction and social auditing.
“With the Fairphone 5, we continue to push the boundaries of sustainability. Designing for sustainability always comes with trade-offs and yet despite these, we’ve made our best smartphone yet. We designed a thinner device, without compromising on repairability and durability. After multiple design studies, we were able to reduce the Fairphone 5’s thickness by 9% and ended up with a well-balanced design that sits well in your hand and feels sturdy and premium,” said Miquel Ballester, Co-Founder and Head of Product Management at Fairphone.
“We also managed to go up a notch in terms of water and dust ingress protection with an IP55 rating. We continue to be unique in working with our suppliers to pay a living wage bonus to the people who make our phones and in an industry first, we have now started supporting living wages for the people who make some of our phone components. On top of all of this, we partnered with Qualcomm Technologies and made a unique choice to use a chipset created for enterprise grade hardware and will work together to achieve over eight years of software support while keeping a healthy balance between affordability and a great user experience.” 
This aims to tackle the growing electronic waste stream caused by the 1.4 billion mobile phones sold each year. The average phone has a short lifespan of around three years and only 15% of discarded phones are collected for recycling.
In addition, mining these materials has a negative environmental impact. Extracting the necessary materials for a smartphone can also have serious social consequences, as it could be associated with child labour or dangerous working conditions.
“The Fairphone 5 is better than ever, but more importantly, it’s madewith more fair and recycled materials and contributes to improving the lives of over 54,000 people in its manufacturing chain. We want to enable people to make sustainable choices without having to compromise on their user experience and the quality of their device,” said Ballster.
“Imagine if the biggest companies in the industry were to shift their supply chains to even a fraction of fair sourced materials or implement even a few of our living wage initiatives? The impact would be enormous and our industry could change the world. Instead, it is lagging behind in its response to the big environmental and social challenges on the horizon. It’s time the industry steps up its effort and takes responsibility to make a real impact. Only then will we be able to make meaningful change in the electronics industry,” he said.
The Fairphone 5 will be sold by over 20 large operators in Europe and is now available for pre-order for €699.
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