You Can Build This Smartphone

**The Fairphone 2: A Modular Smartphone That Lets You Swap Parts Like a Pro**

Hey guys, this is Austin. Today, I'm going to talk about something pretty exciting—a smartphone that’s completely modular. Meet the **Fairphone 2**, a device that takes phone repair and upgrades to an entirely new level.

### What Makes the Fairphone 2 Different?

If you’ve ever used a phone like the Essential or the Moto Z, you know they’re all about adding functionality through external modules. But the Fairphone is different. Instead of just adding features, it’s designed so that if something breaks—like the screen or the camera—you can literally pop those parts out and replace them without tossing your whole phone away.

### Opening Up the Fairphone 2

Let me show you what I mean. Open this guy up, and you’ll see a sleek design inside. The Fairphone is built to be as user-friendly as possible when it comes to swapping parts. Not only can you remove the battery, but there are tabs on the bottom that let you pop off the screen in just **eight seconds**! It’s pretty wild—I’ve never taken apart a phone this easily during an unboxing.

### Inside the Fairphone 2

With the screen gone, you’ll have access to several other modules:

- The headphone jack and front-facing camera.

- The main camera module.

- The speaker and micro USB cable on the back.

This phone is basically built like a Swiss Army knife of smartphone parts. There are **seven different modules** that you can buy if something breaks or if you want to upgrade it. Check out the Fairphone website to see all your options!

### Breaking It Down

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty. With just a couple of screws, I managed to remove the camera module. What makes this possible is the little pins on each module that connect everything together. These are the same pins you’ll find on other modules, which means swapping parts is seamless.

Inside what they call the **core module**, you’ll find all the essential components like the CPU and radios. It’s a cool setup that makes the phone both functional and customizable. Once everything is put back together, you’ll notice it supports dual SIM cards and microSD cards up to 64GB.

### Specs and Performance

Now, let’s talk about the specs. The Fairphone isn’t exactly a flagship device, but it holds its own. It’s got a **quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor**, **2GB of RAM**, and **32GB of storage**—all specs straight out of 2014. While this might sound outdated, it still performs well enough to keep up with budget phones today.

The screen is a decent **5-inch HD display** with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. It’s not the most cutting-edge, but it gets the job done. The battery, however, is on the smaller side at **2420 mAh**, which might not hold up well compared to modern phones.

### Camera and Features

The Fairphone comes with an **8-megapixel rear camera** and a **2-megapixel front-facing camera** for selfies. While the images aren’t top-tier, it’s on par with other 2014-era smartphones like the HTC One M8. Video recording is also limited to 1080p.

### The Real Selling Point: Modularity

The real star of the show here is the **modular design**. If a part breaks or you want to upgrade, you can just swap it out. For example, replacing a screen costs about $100, and even the camera module is only around $40. This approach not only extends the life of your phone but also reduces waste—a big win for sustainability.

### Downsides

But before you get too excited, there are a few drawbacks to consider:

- **Availability**: The Fairphone 2 is currently only available in Europe.

- **Price**: At **530 Euros** (around $600), it’s not exactly cheap. It’s right up there with full flagship phones.

- **Dependence on Fairphone**: The success of this phone relies heavily on Fairphone continuing to produce modules and supporting the device long-term.

### Final Thoughts

While the Fairphone 2 isn’t perfect, its modular design is a game-changer. Imagine being able to upgrade your phone with better components as new tech becomes available—no need to toss it out after a year or two. It’s a bold concept that could change how we think about smartphone ownership.

### What Do You Think?

Would you consider buying a modular smartphone like the Fairphone 2? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll catch you in the next video!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys, this is Austin.This is the Fairphone 2 and itis a fully-modular smartphone.What's different about thisis unlike something likethe Essential or the Moto Z, whichis more about adding things to your phoneto get more functionality,with the Fairphone,say something like the screen breaksor the camera is outdated.The idea is that youcan literally just popthe screen out and put a new one inwithout having to throw away your phone.Open this guy up and wesee the Fairphone itself,which actually looks really cool.So the idea here is that you shouldbe able to very, veryeasily swap parts out.So not only can we take out the battery,but there are actually a coupleof tabs on the bottom.So if we flip these back, in theory,I've actually done this before,but we can just pop the screen right off.Seriously, I just unboxed the phoneand took the screen outin like eight seconds.With the screen gone, we can get accessto several other modules.So up top here, we have the headphone jackas well as the front-facing camera.We have the main camera module here,and we also have the speaker as wellas the micro USB cable on the back.So what's cool about the Fairphoneis that there are seven different modulesthat you can buy.And so say somethingbreaks or you just wantto upgrade it, you can pretty much buy allof them on the Fairphone site.This might be the first time that I'vecompletely taken a phone apart beforeI've even finished the unboxing.So with just a couple of screws,we have the camera out of the phone.So what they're doinghere is they actually havethese little pins that areon the actual camera itself.And I assume that these are the same pinsthat go on all of the other differentmodules to connect things.So that, I believe, is theFairphone fully broken-down.So this is what I believethey call the core module.So inside here is where you have stufflike the CPU, the radios,all that kind of stuff.But when you look at it like this,it's a cool package.Once everything is put back together,you'll find that not only does it support dual SIM cards,but also a microSD up to 64GB.So the thing with the Fairphoneis, it's not a flagship.It's reasonably decently-specced,but don't expect too much.The real novelty here is the factthat you can really just takethe whole thing, tear it apart,put it back together, and youhave a working smartphone.And we are up and running.So, the first thing that jumps outto me about the fully-assembled Fairphoneis that it's a little bit chunky.This is definitely not the mostslim smartphone in the world.But of course, most smartphonesare nowhere near this easy to get into,so you do have some tradeoffs.Inside, this is rockingspecs straight out of 2014.So it's rocking a quad-coreSnapdragon 801 processorwith two gigabytes of RAM, as wellas 32 gigabytes of storage.This isn't that bad, but when you takea look at the benchmarks,it's definitely wellbehind a more modern flagship.Keep in mind thoughthat the Snapdragon 801was super high-end in 2014.Yes, that might not mean awhole lot three years later,but this is still going to perform justas well, if not better, thana lot of budget phones today.To be fair, the screen is pretty decent.So it is a five-inch panelwith a 1920 by 1080 resolution.It definitely won't shameany current flagships,but considering that most of the specsof this phone are from2014, it's actually kindof similar to the HTCOne M8 in that regard.Good, but definitely a coupleof years behind the times.It also has a 2,420 milliamp hour battery.That's fairly small fora smartphone these days.Now, I get it that the Fairphoneis definitely not meantto be a spec monster.The real benefit here isthe fact that it's modular.But, you're definitely giving upa fair few specs to get there.- (chuckling), fair few specs.- Eeeeey!(laughing)This guy's also rockingan eight megapixel camera.So if we line up Mr. Bolidohere, it doesn't look bad.It might not be the most punchy imagein the world, but again, 2014 specsare kind of a trend with this guy.We also have 1080p video.It looks decent, butagain, the camera hereis really nothing to bethat impressed about.Most importantly, we havea super-high resolutiontwo megapixel front-facing camerafor that awesome selfie action.Okay, well that actually looksa little bit crunchy, butyou can take it apart.The real advantage ofusing the Fairphone 2though is absolutely that modularity.So it does bring it a lotcloser to something like a PC.Say if some part goes down,you can just swap it out,or in theory, upgradeit with something betterwhen it comes out.And the parts themselves areactually not that expensive.So say you break the screenand you wanna replace it,it's only going to cost you about $100.Even something like the camera moduleis only going to cost you about $40to get a replacement.So it's not exactly like you're goingto break the camera very easily,but one of the bigdraws of the Fairphone 2is that in theory, asnew and better thingslike cameras come out, it's goingto be fairly simple to just throwa new one in your phone.And that's really where the ideaof the Fairphone 2 starts makinga lot more sense.So what's a decent phone today,instead of throwing it away ina year or two when you're readyto upgrade to your next phone,imagine instead where you throwin a new screen when something comes out,a better processor, bigger battery.All of that kind of stuff should in theorygive you a lot more life out of the phone.Unfortunately all this relies on the ideathat Fairphone is going to continuemaking modules and continuesupporting the Fairphone 2.That's obviously their idea, but untilmore stuff comes out, it's a littlebit of a risk.And that brings us around to oneof the bigger downsidesof the Fairphone 2.Now only is it only availablein Europe right now,but it's pretty hard to get your hands on.Once you do, it's not going to come cheap.This guy runs about 530 Euros,which in American dollars is like, 600?Actually, let me do thattranslation real quick,I didn't even think about.-The answer is $592.74.- I'm gonna pretend I knew that.That's pretty much infull flagship territory.While the phone is cool and there'sa lot of advantages, it's hardto justify that kind of price for it.To be fair, a lot of people on Twitterare really curious about the ideaof a modular smartphone.So, let me know in the comments below.What would it take for you to buya modular smartphone,Fairphone or otherwise?Let me know in the comments belowand I will catch you in the next one.