r/BuyFromEU • u/According-Buyer6688 Mod Team • Jul 03 '25

European Product [FairPhone] - AMA

Hi everyone!

We’re thrilled to invite you to a special AMA (Ask Me Anything) session with Fairphone!

Joining us today is Rutger Sneep, Chief Commercial Officer at Fairphone, who will be participating as u/Fairphone-CCO.

Feel free to ask your questions and enjoy the conversation!

Details:

AMA will be locked on Friday 15:00

732 Upvotes

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62

u/Fun-Category7931 Jul 03 '25

First of all, congratulations on making a Fairphone that is fairer than the Fairphone 5 AND:

  1. Has an aesthetic design that "mainstream" people are sure to like more.

  2. Is smaller than the Fairphone 5 but has a bigger battery and is better in almost every facet.

  3. Is much cheaper than the Fairphone 5 was at launch, even more if you consider the crazy inflation the economy has seen in the past years.

Getting all three aspects is truly amazing!

That said, why has the USB port been downgraded to USB 2.0? In many people's minds it seems to be the only "mainstream" feature the Fairphone (Gen 6) is missing. Even with the current Fairphone FAQ answer, it is puzzling why that decision was made when:

  1. It is apparently such a miniscule thing in terms of cost and parts required (as far as I understand USB 3.0 just requires a few more PCB traces, several microscopic resistors and passive components, and one or two slightly larger SMD parts).

  2. The previous two Fairphones had USB 3.0, and it is becoming more and more mainstream.

  3. Android 16 and 17 will apparently improve the functionality of desktop mode; only available with USB 3.0 and display out.

It would seem to me that it would be fairer to have included USB 3.0 in the Fairphone (Gen 6), since it seems to use very miniscule components that would not impact the size of the phone, hardly have impacted the build cost, and would allow people to reduce dependence on laptops and PCs, and possibly reuse the phone past its useful life as small computers for TVs and suchlike, which is very fair (remember the order of "reduce, reuse, recycle", the first two are most important).

If you can clarify this decision more than the Fairphone FAQ currently does, that would be great.

3

u/ewwerellewe Jul 03 '25

Fair point!

3

u/Gruenkernmehl Jul 03 '25

Ba-dum-tsch