Celebrating seven years of the Fairphone 3

It’s a bittersweet moment at Fairphone.

On one hand, we’re officially retiring the Fairphone 3 and 3+. And while we would love to be able to keep supporting our devices indefinitely (that is the dream!), the sad reality is that we aren’t there… yet. 

Having said that, we still have reason to celebrate. At the time of the Fairphone 3’s launch in 2019, our goal was to support the phone for five years. With the last software update rolling out in June and support officially concluding in August 2026, the Fairphone 3 will have received seven years of support. That’s two more years than we originally planned! 

For us at Fairphone, the device was one of many firsts. Keep scrolling to learn more.

The Fairphone 3 was the first Fairphone to be ranged by mobile network operators

Carriers to offer the Fairphone 3 to their customers across Europe included Orange, KPN, Deutsche Telekom, and Vodafone, among others. The reason, to quote our co-founder Miquel Ballester, was the Fairphone 3’s more mature, modular design language compared to the Fairphone 2’s more experimental and quirky aesthetic. “We wanted to reach a much wider audience with the Fairphone 3, and so we moved towards a more industry-conforming exterior look while expanding on our well-known modularity.” Modularity also went up. With the Fairphone 2, the bottom unit within the device was still one unit. With the Fairphone 3, the speaker within the bottom unit was made a separate spare part. Then of course, there was the Fairphone 3+ that rolled out a year later that offered backward-compatible cameras as well as better audio performance. It was also made fairer, with an increase in use of post-consumer recycled plastics from 9% to 40%!

The Fairphone 3 was the first Fairphone device linked to Fairphone’s living wage bonus program

Fairphone’s living wage bonus program is one of the initiatives we are the most proud of, as it actively helps the people who make our phones earn a decent standard of living. The program is designed to bridge the gap between minimum wage and an actual livable salary, with Fairphone paying the difference. Since 2019, we have paid out over $1.25M USD to supply chain workers. The Fairphone 3? That was the phone that kickstarted it all. According to Fairphone’s Fair Factories Lead, Remco Kouwenhoven, “Fairphone 3 did what the electronics industry long said was "impossible": it supported living wages for supply chain workers, helping to lift these people out of poverty. It was a landmark move, pushing the industry to reconsider sustaining poverty systems or to use their business power to eradicate poverty.”  

The Fairphone 3 was the first product we successfully reused parts from

Supporting a mobile device for more than double the industry average is no easy feat. We found that out the hard way with the Fairphone 3 when we started facing a shortage in our spare parts supply. However, staying true to our longevity promise, we innovated where it mattered. “The Fairphone 3 became the living proof that recovering parts from used devices for repairs and for refurbishment is possible. Over the last two years, our Reuse  and Recycling program successfully supplied hundreds of displays and motherboards, while nearly 800 speaker modules were cosmetically refurbished and made available for purchase. Fairphone 3 shows that closing the loop is possible,” says Grace Romero, Fairphone’s team lead for circular operations. 

While the Fairphone 3’s official journey comes to a close this year, we strongly encourage all Fairphone 3 owners to explore alternative operating systems. Much like we saw with the Fairphone 2, the open-source community provides incredible ways to keep your phone secure and functional for years to come. Switching to an alternative OS allows you to receive security patches and feature updates long after the official life cycle. Community-driven projects such as LineageOS (currently running Android 15),/e/OS (who will continue to support the Fairphone 3 for at least two years more), and postmarketOS are some projects you can look into. We will also be publishing all the development work we have done on Android 14, hoping this work will serve open source communities. By transitioning to an alternative OS, you’re helping us prove that hardware can, and should, last. That’s what Fairphone has all been about. That’s why we’re the one that lasts.

Continue your Fairphone journey with the Fairphone (Gen. 6). Built on the same principles as the Fairphone 3, the new Fairphone comes with software support till 2033, a five-year warranty, and an award-winning modular design that lets you swap out up to 12 parts.  Learn more here.