The dream of a modular phone has long been extinguished, but one of the reasons for this dream continues to live. More than modular phones, more than modular phones, also bring the promise of repairable and durable devices whose parts can be easily exchanged when they are broken. The fairphone has long since offered such “ethical phones”, but these smart devices have often dragged behind their peers. The next Fairphone 4 could always be qualified as mid-range phone, but it will know at least skip on the 5G bandwagon.
The choice of the equipment of the Fairphone is, of course, strategic. In addition to reducing prices, the company also works that these hardware parts work in a modular way. Almost all smartphones are not designed to be modular and parts that make up the set are also made.
That may be one of the reasons why the 2020 Fairphone 3+ used a Snapdragon 632 from 2018. In addition to being slower than the 2020 Qualcomm mid-range chipsets, the Fairphone 3+ Also lacks on one of the biggest trends in the smartphone market. According to WinFuture, however, it will change in an important way with the Fairphone 4.
An entrance into the Wi-Fi alliance reveals that the next Fairphone model will come with 5G support, a first for the company and a first for the durable niche telephone market. This means at least one more recent 2020 chipset forward, which could mean something between a Snapdragon 765G to a Snapdragon 480 5G. Even the MediaTek dimension is a just part, although the fairphone does not yet have a lot of experience with this platform.
Unfortunately, no great thing is known on the Fairphone 4 at this point, other than the Android 11 that will be run on the device. This could indicate that its launch could come this year, hopefully with other improvements that can make the phone more attractive for consumers beyond its repairs.