Fairphone 2 makes modular debut
Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - 16:27:21
The world’s most ethical mobile manufacturer has just revealed that it is also breaking new technological ground with its latest handset. The Dutch-developed Fairphone 2 is set to be the first smartphone in the world to embrace a modular design, beating rivals like Google to the punch.
The Fairphone 2 will be on sale before the end of the year and will cost the equivalent of £378; some would argue this is a small price to pay for a device which is not only less morally dubious than its rivals but also an eminently upgradable, sustainable and recyclable gadget to boot.
The modular chassis will allow components to be swapped in and out as they become outdated, meaning that the Fairphone 2 should remain relevant for half a decade, rather than the 12 to 24 month life cycle currently experienced by most other mobile devices.
It is also getting a good start in life, thanks to the powerful hardware that it will feature as standard, including a five inch full HD display, a Snapdragon 801 processor from Qualcomm and 32GB of storage space, which can be increased via the addition of a microSD memory card.
Camera capabilities are a little more modest, as an eight megapixel snapper sits on the rear. But presumably the modular design will mean that, eventually, it will be possible to replace components like this with more capable alternatives.
Some experts argue that modular smartphones must become mainstream if the industry is to achieve any semblance of sustainability, since upgrading devices rather than getting rid of them once every two years will reduce the ecological impact of mobile use.
The fact that the Fairphone 2 has managed to make it to market well ahead of Google’s Project Ara handset, which also embraces modularity, may remain its greatest achievement.
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