More lasting phones are not necessarily fantasy.
What would it look like if a smartphone could last for 10 years?
This is a question that most of us don’t have time to think about. This is because many smartphones are designed to be replaced every two to three years. Apple , Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers launch new models every year and carry out large-scale marketing activities to encourage us to upgrade.
But please tolerate me and fantasize.
If a smartphone has a design lifespan of 10 years, then it may be made so that we can simply turn it on, replace parts like a battery drain or a broken screen. Many of its components can be upgraded – if you want a better camera, you can swap the old one for a new one. You can also download software updates from phone manufacturers indefinitely.
wise and sustainable, right?
Now, with the phone season – the season when tech companies launch new models every year – it’s especially important to think about what such a device might look like. On Wednesday, Apple released the iPhone 14, a strikingly similar phone to the previous generation. Also this week, Google announced plans to launch a new Android phone in October. Last month, Samsung launched a series of phones that can fold like books.
These latest products highlight that today's smartphones are not born for longevity. Most electronic products are tightly sealed with glue to prevent you from touching them. Accessories, such as cameras and screens, are impossible to upgrade. The guarantee period for software updates is limited, usually for two years for Android and about five years for iPhone.
keeps us doing such a short smartphone usage cycle good for tech companies and their vaults, but may not be that good for us and our wallets.
Don Norman, who served as senior vice president of technology at Apple, has written nearly 24 books on design. He said smartphone manufacturers use consumer technology products as fashion, and launch products that are harder to repair every year, adding features to accelerate aging, which makes them feel guilty.
"You want to make a computer with a piece of metal, you want to make it as thin as possible," Norman said. "So you have to make a battery without a shell, so it's very difficult to get. You use glue instead of screws."
Once the shell is removed, the key parts of the Fairphone 4 can be replaced.
Camera can be removed with a small screwdriver
However, the idea of a longer-lasting phone is not necessarily a fantasy. There is now a phone: the $580 Fairphone 4, made by Amsterdam-based startup Fairphone. The Fairphone 4 is only sold in Europe and it has a plastic shell that can be easily removed to reveal the interior structure. Its components can be replaced in minutes by removing several ordinary screws. The idea behind the
Fairphone is that if you want a phone with new technology, you don't need to completely replace the existing device to get it - if something goes wrong with the phone, like falling to the ground, it can be easily repair. This makes the Fairphone the opposite of most smartphones today, and also shows how tech companies design unique products in terms of durability and sustainability. How could this be the case with
hardware?
Pick up your iPhone or Android phone and observe it carefully. Notice how it is tightened with a special screwdriver. Apple even invented its own screws.
But Fairphone comes with a small screwdriver that allows you to turn on your phone. So, when I started testing it, this is the first thing I did.
It is actually a breeze to disassemble the Fairphone phone. After removing the plastic case, the camera, battery, speakers and other components are visible. They are fixed with regular screws and can be quickly removed with a screwdriver. In less than five minutes, I removed all the parts. In about the same time, I reassembled my phone.
The experience of disassembling the phone makes people feel very powerful.I'm confident that if I need repairs or some basic maintenance, like a new camera or battery replacement, I can do it at a cheap price in a few minutes. (Fairphone charges $30 for new batteries and $80 for new cameras.)
On the other hand, dismantling my iPhone was simply a nightmare.
In a previous test, I took this Apple device apart, used a special screwdriver to remove the special screws, and melted the glue that fixed the shell. In order to remove the battery, I had to use tweezers to clamp the small strip of glue under the battery. Although I ended up successfully replacing the battery, I broke the iPhone’s screen during the replacement process—it would cost about $300 to replace one display.
Fairphone's plastic shell is not beautiful, and if the phone falls on a hard surface, it will likely bounce off. But what's even less fun is that you'll throw the glass-in-back Apple or Samsung phone to the ground, break it, and then spend hundreds of dollars to repair (or replace).
What does it feel like to use it
using Fairphone is quite ordinary. It runs plain Android software, which means it can load apps and software that Google downloads through the Play Store.
But Fairphone CEO Eva gouwen said the company is committed to providing software updates as long as possible to its phones. These updates are essential to protect your hardware from the latest cyber attacks and malware; they also ensure that your phone runs the latest applications. A Fairphone launched by
6 years ago is still updating the Android system. Most Android phones are no longer updated after two years.
However, the Fairphone 4's computing processor and camera still have many shortcomings. In speed tests using the Geekbench app, the Fairphone 4 is about 35% slower than Google's $600 Pixel 6 when it comes to mail checking and taking photos. Compared to iPhone and other mainstream Android phones, the photos taken by Fairphone 4 are rougher and less attractive.
However, I don't expect a small team of 110 people on Fairphone to compare with the big tech companies in computing and camera technology.
Fairphone said the company is making money, achieving millions of euros in 2020 and 2021. In addition to selling phones and easy-to-install parts, the company is also trying to sell services such as helping people repair equipment or maintain smartphone software, Guwens said. It's a slow and steady source of revenue, rather than a faster model of selling new phones every year.
She said: "If you design a durable phone, your users will actually save your device and use it for longer, then your profit will be greater."
How do we think of our individual Tech
This column is not intended to recommend people to buy Fairphone 4. The broader view is that tech companies with amazing wealth can do better, making their phones easier to repair and more environmentally friendly to our wallets. Norman said that as consumers, we can do better by changing our perspective on personal technology.
"Consumers do have considerable power, but only if people are united," he said.
An important step is to maintain our equipment like a car - for example, consider sending the broken equipment to the repair shop before replacing it. Another move is to resist the marketing hype caused by every new feature introduced by every new phone.
Because if we are already satisfied with our smartphones, then we may continue to be satisfied – as long as they are still useful. Now we know that some models can work for a long time.
