Fairphone

Warning: This device DOES NOT yet run Firefox OS yet, but this is the eventual aim. This page aims to be a central information point for the community coordinating the porting work.

The Fairphone is a fair-economy smartphone targeting sourcing, production, distribution, self-repairing and recycling of electronics. It's not completely FOSS hardware, but it supports the ideal of giving back at least some hardware control to its users.

Device release information

Fairphone has released two devices so far — the Fairphone v1 FP1 (first edition) was released on Dec 30, 2013, and the FP1U (second batch) was released on Jul 22, 2014. Sales have now come to an end for the v1 device. The Fairphone v2 was released on Jul 16, 2015 and can be ordered from Fairphone.

Fairphone v1 Fairphone v2
A picture of the Fairphone v1 device, showing lockscreen and the back. Credit : Fairphone. CC BY-NC-SA. Fairphone 2 Black Matte

Note: You can follow the progress on the Fairphone blog, and check out the announced strategy and approach.

Porting Firefox OS to the Fairphone device

This has not yet happened, but it is being worked on.

Actual issues

Fairphone v1 couldn't upgrade its customized Android OS because the chipset manufacturer didn't release an updated baseband source code or build.

At Mobile World Congress 2015, Fairphone made a call for possible alternative operating systems available for the upcoming Fairphone v2. Out of these conversations came the action of beginning the work to port Firefox OS over to the Fairphone. A Firefox OS port may be a way to save the Fairphone v1, as well as avoiding such issues for future phone generations. Mozilla's collaboration with the three major chipset vendors would also help.

Fairphone v2 is open source-oriented with community contributions to Fairphone OS source code / build.

Progress & solution

Right now the porting project is just starting (ignition phase). We hope that the porting work could start soon — watch this space for more information.

Contributing

If you are interested in finding out more or contributing to the porting effort, the following links will get you where you need to go.

Project tools

Firefox OS

If you are a porting developer and want to know more about Firefox OS:

XDA porting community

If you are a Firefox OS developer and want to know more about porting an OS:

Device specifications

Fairphone v1

You can find a detailed list of specifications on the Fairphone specs page.

Network

  • 2G/GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
  • 3G/WCDMA: 900/2100MHz
  • Wifi: 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n
  • Bluetooth: v2.1 + EDR / v3.0 + HS
  • SAR rating: Head: 0.329 W/kg; Body: 0.693 W/kg

Hardware

  • Mediatek MT6589M (1st edition) / MT6589 @ 1.2 Ghz (second batch) Chipset: Quad-core CPU with full HD video playback and recording
  • Front camera: 1.3 MP for photos and video calls
  • Rear camera: 8MP AF (stabilization + image sensor) for photos and video calls
  • Screen: 4.3 inches qHD IPS (960x540 pixels) (256 ppi); Capacitive touch-screen
  • Internal storage: 16 GB
  • RAM: 1GB
  • MicroSD: Adds up to 64 GB of additional memory
  • Headset jack: From a variety of formats
  • Gelocation: A-GPS, plus an E-Compass and Gyroscope
  • Dual SIM: One SIM: 3G; one SIM: 2G. Standard format miniSIM card
  • Data & charge port: Standard MicroUSB 2.0, Type B; USB 2.0
  • Battery: 2000mAh (replaceable battery)

Software

  • Operating system: Based on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), with a special Fairphone interface
  • Root access: Immediate superuser access

Fairphone v2

You can find a detailed list of specifications on the Fairphone specs page.

Network

  • 2G/GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
  • 3G/WCDMA: 900/2100MHz
  • 4G LTE: 900/1900/2100MHz Cat. 4 150 Mbps download — Cat. 4 50 Mbps upload
  • Wifi: 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac up to 433 Mbps
  • Bluetooth: v4.0 LE
  • SAR rating: Head: 0.288 W/kg; Body: 0.426 W/kg

Hardware

  • Qualcomm MSM8974AB @ 2.26 Ghz Chipset: Quad-core CPU Krait 400 with Qualcomm Adreno 330 GPU and full HD video playback and recording
  • Front camera: 2 MP Omnivision OV2685 for photos and video calls
  • Rear camera: 8MP AF Omnivision OV8865 (stabilization + image sensor) for photos and video calls
  • Screen: 5 inch Full HD (Gorilla Glass 3 — 0.7mm thick) LCD TFT/IPS (446 ppi); Capacitive touch-screen
  • Internal storage: 32 GB eMMC5
  • RAM: 2GB LPDDR3
  • MicroSD: SDHC, SDXC, UHS up to 64 GB of additional memory
  • Headset jack: From a variety of formats; CTIA standard
  • Gelocation: A-GPS, plus an E-Compass and Gyroscope
  • Dual SIM: Dual-SIM Micro-SIM (3FF), Dual-Standby (DSDS)
  • Data & charge port: Standard MicroUSB 2.0 with OTG support
  • Battery: 2420mAh (replaceable battery)

Software

  • Operating system: Based on Android 5.1 (Lollipop), with a special Fairphone interface
  • Root access: No root access

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: chrisdavidmills, Erotavlas, NicolasWeb, Dietrich, ddbeck, kscarfone
 Last updated by: chrisdavidmills,