Fairphone 2 from 2015 is now receiving an update to Android 9
Fairphone did not have completely smooth sailing for the update since the Snapdragon 801 chipset (remember that component, folks?) used to power the device was no longer being supported by Qualcommn. The update did have to go through a large number of tests. “To get to where we are today, we had to go through approximately 477,000 Google tests and pass them all in order to get the certification,” Fairphone said.
The Fairphone 2 sports a Gorilla Glass 3 protected 5-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920. 2GB of memory is included along with 32GB of storage. An 8MP single camera adorns the back of the unit while the phone carries a 2MP front-facing selfie camera. A removable 2420mAh battery keeps the lights on. The device was also the first modular phone according to the company. Fairphone notes, “The FP2 was the first modular phone. It was a revolutionary concept for the electronics sector that hadn’t been done before. However, producing the first modular phone presented new challenges in the supply chain. While the modular design enables users to easily repair their phones with spare parts, thus extending its lifespan, the availability of those parts becomes crucial. In fact, recently we ran out of stock of the bottom modules due to this very issue. Understanding this aspect was key and we had to continuously tweak our process, jumping over hurdles to make sure we had enough spare parts available, even once production of the phone ended.”
