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Fairphone 2 hits London Design Festival

Fairphone 2 assembled

We all love our mobile phones, and in many ways, rely heavily on them for our needs of communication as well as entertainment. However, most of us are either blissfully unaware of the complete process and effort that goes into our phones, or often choose to ignore any ethical or moral issues revolving around them. This is often due to the fact that there is a lack of options available to most of us. Fairphone, though, are having a go at changing all this. They have made a phone which gives you the complete story of every part and every person involved in the manufacturing process, and gives you the peace of mind that the whole thing is done in a completely ethical and morally sound way.

My favourite part, however, is the fact that unlike any other manufacturer that I am aware of, they are actually willing to sell spare parts of the phone, letting you repair most of the phone itself. It isn’t quite Project Ara, and it isn’t a modular phone, but the components available include mother board, daughter board, camera modules, batteries, even down to screws. Whether the future versions will allow you upgrade these parts remains unknown. You can see the complete list of spare parts available at the following link:

http://shop.fairphone.com/catalog/category/view/id/11

Fairphone 2 disassembled

Fairphone 2 is on tour around Europe this month, and it is hitting London Design Festival next week. You can read more details on all of this in the press release below. The phone is being funded on a crowd-sourced model, and if they manage to sell 15000 (they have already sold over 11000) by the end of the month, they will be able to produce a production run.

Modular and ethical Fairphone 2 hits London Design Festival

Experience firsthand the game-changing smartphone design made by social enterprise Fairphone

 

Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 15 September 2015 – Starting Saturday, 26 September, Fairphone will showcase its latest smartphone at the London Design Festival. Their two-day pop-up event will be a hub of interactive workshops hosted by renowned industry players who are using design to change the way we connect to our products. This is the first UK opportunity to see and play with the device and to meet the people behind the social enterprise.

 

Designed to disrupt systems from the inside out

 

Founded in 2013, Fairphone is a social enterprise that wants to shake up the electronics industry by producing a mobile phone that makes social and environmental improvements throughout the electronics supply chain. Their latest product, the Fairphone 2, features an original modular design that reflects the organization’s ambitions for fairness.

 

Developed and engineered completely from the ground up, the Fairphone 2 uses innovative design to change the way products are made meanwhile building a new approach to the way people interact with their products. The smartphone has been designed to allow the organization to build stronger relationships with suppliers, as well as influence production processes and select more responsibly sourced components and materials. In addition, the modular architecture is easy to open and repair, resulting in a longer-lasting device that encourages owners to take more responsibility for keeping their phones in working order.

 

Pop-up space in London on 26 & 27 September; more to follow across Europe

 

Over the weekend of 26 and 27 September, Fairphone will host a hands-on display of the Fairphone 2 at Kwamecorp, the organization’s software partner. Inside Kwamecorp’s Impossible shop — dedicated to products with transparent supply chains — Fairphone’s pop-up space will give visitors the opportunity to disassemble the new phone, take part in workshops and gain new insights into the consumer electronics sector to understand the issues behind mobile phones.

 

In line with their social objectives, the Fairphone event will feature interactive workshops with The Restart Project, Seymour Powell and Kwamecorp, and a chance to hear from social business experts such as The Phone Co-op and Bethnal Green Ventures, plus a film screening and Q&A on the politics of campaigning with experts like Global Witness.

 

This two-day event is open to the public from 10 am to 6 pm. Additional information is available on the Fairphone Facebook page and the London Design Festival website.

 

While this is the first time that the Fairphone 2 will be on display in the UK, the organization has already received high-profile exposure in London with the first edition Fairphone as a part of exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the London Design Museum.

 

The UK launch at the London Design Festival marks the kickoff of Fairphone’s Europe-wide tour. In the coming months, the Fairphone 2 will be on display at a number of events, including:

Like the London event, this upcoming roadshow will feature hands-on demonstrations and workshops.

 

Fairphone 2 now available for pre-order

Pre-orders of the Fairphone 2 are currently in full swing through the organization’s online shop and will also be available for purchase in the UK through The Phone Co-op later this year. Fairphone is using a crowdfunding model to finance the production of its phones, and aims to sell 15,000 by the end of this month. The first phones will be produced in November and delivery is expected to start shortly after.

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