Fairphone has now released the Fairphone 5, its first new smartphone in almost two years. In short, the Fairphone 5 is a huge step up in all areas from the Fairphone 4. However, the upgrades that Fairphone brought to its new smartphone have also pushed up its price relative to older models.
Fairphone charges €699 for the Fairphone 5 in the Eurozone and £649 in the UK; the company has not revealed US pricing yet. Thus, the Fairphone 5 is 20% more expensive than its predecessor in the Eurozone and costs 30% more in the UK. Part of the reason for the price increase is Fairphone's removal of its entry-level 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage SKU. Instead, the Fairphone 5 is only available with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. In other words, the new Fairphone is 14% pricier than the comparable Fairphone 4 in the UK and just 7% in the Eurozone.
Still, the Fairphone 5 features the Qualcomm QCM6490, a chipset that Fairphone chose because of its long software support cycle. According to Fairphone, the Qualcomm QCM6490 allows it to provide the Fairphone 5 with at least five major Android OS updates to Android 18 and eight years of security patch updates through to 2031. As always, the new Fairphone remains easy to disassemble and swap in spare parts should original ones fail.
Additionally, the Fairphone 5 has a 6.46-inch, 2,700 x 1,224-pixel and 90 Hz OLED display that peaks at 880 nits. Moreover, Fairphone has included a trio of 50 MP cameras, with the ISOCELL JN1 serving as a front-facing camera. Meanwhile, the Fairphone 5 utilises the Sony IMX800 as its primary camera and Sony IMX858 as its ultra-wide-angle camera.
Elsewhere, the Fairphone 5 packs a 4,200 mAh battery that supports 30 W wired charging, plus dual SIM connectivity and microSD card expansion. Currently, Fairphone hopes to begin shipping the Fairphone 5 in its Matte Black, Sky Blue and Transparent Edition colour options on September 14, with deliveries scheduled for between September 15 and September 21.