Just googled Fairphone, and looks like it’s a very obscure brand. And seems like it’s available in Europe but not elsewhere. I think European jellies can answer this question.

From what I can find, the two things that are the most prominent about the phone Fairphone 3 at least are ethicality of course and repairability. Everything else ranges from average to poor. And it’s way more expensive that other better phones out there. I really admire the company’s aim to strive for a way to manufacture phones without crossing ethical line, but I’m hesitant to pay for something that is so expensive but has average performance. The phone sounds to me more like an excuse to raise awareness on an issue than an actual functional phone.

That is what I gather on Google. I have never seen the phone before, and my opinion simply comes from what I read. I think people who know about the phone can answer this question better.

But I wonder why you are still going for Fairphone after hearing about the backlash, considering how expensive the phone is.

It’s a mid-range phone that’s double the price of any other mid-range phone.

How is that remotely a good thing? It’s a gimmick. It’s for people who can afford to indulge in performatively being “ecological conscious”, like wealthy middle-class people who can buy an expensive electric car, or spend a fortune to live in a carbon neutral home. That’s the niche, and it will never be affordable or the norm.

For the vast majority of people, it’s just a hugely overpriced mediocre phone. Smartphones have become almost essential now, and as long as capitalism exists, their production will be necessarily exploitative and environmentally damaging. The same with everything else.

@Kropotkin According to Wikipedia, the company admits that there is no way to make the production 100% “fair”. But they are still trying.

But yeah, I agree with you. There is nothing particularly great about that phone other than it’s ethical and it’s repairable. If you have to put ethics out front to compete with other products, then something is wrong with your product’s quality. I’ve seen my fair share of his type of marketing in my country, and most of the time people are just paying so that they don’t look like a bad person.