Fairphone - front view

For Christmas, Richard bought me a Fairphone. I’ve had my iPhone 4 for 3+ years. It still works and I hadn’t really been looking for a replacement. But, then I heard about the fair phone. And I wanted to support it and what it stands for.

We want to make a phone that puts ethical considerations first, and doesn’t just focus on technological improvements. By creating an alternative in the smartphone market, our ultimate aim is to raise the bar for the entire industry.

A lofty aim, but by ethically sourcing components, paying fair wages to workers etc it means that my first world luxury item doesn’t cause as many issues for other, less fortunate, people.

As I mentioned, I’ve swapped from an iPhone, so this is also my first first-hand android experience. And as with many android based phones, it isn’t vanilla android. This runs the Fairphone OS.

My fairphone has arrived. Nicely, simply packaged

It arrived on Thursday, nicely and simply packaged and I started setting it up. On Friday I finished making a case for it (of which more in a later post) which meant I could start to use it (Richard’s rules!). So I popped my SIM card in and started it up properly.

Fairphone - Rear view Back on

So, initial (2-3 days of poking/using it) things I really like are:
* that the screen seems clear, bright and responsive
* the fact that I can send photos to other apps via the gallery - this makes it much easier to add photo notes to evernote, or send them to instagram
* the fact that I can swap the camera being used from the unlock screen to be the app that I bought
* the lack of a home button - my iPhone one has been used a lot, and is temperamental and doesn’t always respond, resulting in me jabbing my finger at it a lot. It is really nice to be able to stroke the phone rather than prod at it
* I like the swipey keyboard although I think it’ll take me a while to get used to it
* I like that bits of it are replaceable/upgradeable when the time arises

Fairphone - Back off

Obviously, first experiences aren’t the same as the ongoing experience, but I wanted to document them as a record and reference point.