The Dutch company Fairphone, famous for its modular phones and ethical practices, announced that their 2015 model Fairphone 2 would be updated to Android 10. The announcement raises the bar for other Android-based OEMs in terms of sustained support.
Our 6-yr-old Fairphone 2 is being upgraded to Android 10. That’s 7 years of software support! An industry first for an Android device! 🙌 Together with the open source community we built the operating system. Proving it is possible to put sustainability at the heart of tech. 🌿 pic.twitter.com/TuUjJWTi5J
— Fairphone (@Fairphone) November 23, 2021
Fairphone is gearing up to update its 6-year-old Fairphone 2 from Android 9 pie to Android 10. The phone on release came with Android 5 pre-installed and has received three Android updates (skipped Android 8 Oreo) since. The beta testing for Android 10 has begun, and the company expects to release a stable version by early 2022.
The company stays true to its motto of ethical and sustainable smartphones by providing seven years of software support and modular, replaceable components like screens, batteries, and even the camera module.
You would be correct to think that Android 10 is two generations behind the latest and greatest Android 12 and therefore is nothing special, but with most smartphone companies promising Android update support for three years after the launch of the device, getting a major Android update for a six-year-old smartphone certainly is an impressive thing.
Thankfully, some companies are raising the bar. Samsung now supports almost all of its phones with three Android upgrades and four years of security patches. Google now offers a slightly better program of three upgrades and five years of patches (only for the Pixel 6 series right now). Things are improving; however, an excessive number of companies still treat aftermarket software support as a pointless endeavor.
For those wondering what this 2015 phone is capable of, the Fairphone 2 features a 5-inch 1080×1920 IPS display with a pixel density of 446ppi. Under the hood is a 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Fairphone 2 on the rear packs an 8-megapixel camera. It sports a 2-megapixel camera on the front for selfies. A 2420mAh non-removable battery powers the device.
Nothing to write home about in 2021, but a testament to prove what can be possible if a company cares.
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