The dream of a modular phone has long died out, but one among the explanations for that dream continues to measure on. Quite just being upgradeable, modular phones also bring the promise of repairable and sustainable devices whose parts are often easily swapped out when broken. The Fairphone has long offered such “ethical” phones, but those intelligent devices often lagged behind their peers. The upcoming Fairphone 4 might still qualify as a mid-range phone, but it’ll a minimum of hop on the 5G bandwagon.
Fairphone’s choice of hardware is, of course, strategic. Additionally to keeping prices down, the corporate also works to make sure that these hardware pieces add a modular fashion. Unfortunately, most smartphones aren’t designed to be modular, and therefore the parts that structure the entire are made likewise.
That is perhaps one among the explanations why the 2020 Fairphone 3+ used a Snapdragon 632 from 2018. additionally, to being slower than Qualcomm’s 2020 mid-range chipsets, the Fairphone 3+ also misses out on one of the most important trends within the smartphone market. Consistent with WinFuture, however, which will be changing in a big way with the Fairphone 4.
An entry within the Wi-Fi Alliance reveals that Fairphone’s next model will accompany 5G support, a primary for the corporate and the niche sustainable phone market. This minimum means a newer chipset from 2020 onward, though that would mean anything between a Snapdragon 765G right down to a Snapdragon 480 5G. Even MediaTek’s Dimensity is prey, though Fairphone won’t have much experience thereupon platform yet.
Sadly, not much else is understood about the Fairphone 4, aside from the Android 11, which will be running on the device. However, that would hint that its launch could come this year, hopefully with other upgrades that would make the phone more enticing to consumers beyond its repairability.