Fairphone 2 - first thoughts and unboxing video

First, a little self-phone background:

My last phone was a Nokia C3. If my math is correct, I got it about 8 years ago, when it had just came out. I loved it, so when smartphones arrived, I didn't want to get one since I didn't want to leave my phone. Eventually, since my father was insisting, I switched to an iPhone 4 that had been his (he didn't need it since he had bought a new model that had just came out). I hated it! It was constantly malfunctioning and it got to a point in which the battery would die in 20 minutes. I couldn't take it anymore, so I switched back to my Nokia... but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

My beloved Nokia C3

Everyone expects you to have a smartphone now. College without internet access on my phone was a real challenge. I had to wait to get home to sign up for group projects or exams, and sometimes that would be to late. If a class gets cancelled, or the classroom changes, they announce it on the internet... And not to mention the times when teachers ask you to take pictures of stuff to analyze at home!

So after a year back on my beloved Nokia C3, I knew I had to get myself a smartphone. I didn't want a new  regular smartphone though, for ethical reasons. My birthday was coming up, and I asked my father for a second-hand phone. I had mentioned the Fairphone a couple of times, but it was really expensive and my father was very skeptic about it... so I never expected him to get me one! I am very happy and thankful... Here's my first impression on this awesome phone. 

Fairphone 2 - white slim case

Why a Fairphone?

There are millions of smartphones being produced each year, and to get the best prices, there must be sacrifices: either by the workers, that are exploited by being forced to work in dangerous and harmful conditions, for long hours and low wages, or the environment, by getting materials irresponsibly or using polluting procedures. Unfortunately, it's usually both, so the company can get the biggest profit. 

Fairphone is the only phone (that I know of, at least) that actually cares about more than just profit. Not only it is ethically sourced and respects the workers, it is also a modular phone - that is, the components are made to fit together rather than fixed to each other, which means, if a piece stops working, it's easy to replace just that piece by yourself, while with most phones if something breaks you'll probably need a new phone, or to go to a specialist. In the fairphone shop you can buy each piece separately. You should definitely head there and read more about this amazing project. 

If it is to expensive for you, please try to avoid supporting unethical brands. Look for second-hand phones before buying a new one - you might find exactly the one you want, in great conditions and a much better price. 

Things I noticed
 Photo Quality:

Front Camera (I'm sorry I'm weird)

Main Camera

• The phone came in quite a bit of packaging, which is to be expected and practically unavoidable. I don't know if the packaging is recycled or not. It would be really cool if it was, and since the website mentions recycling a lot, I wouldn't be surprised, but for now I didn't find that information. 

• The phone cover reminds me of a toy - it is made of a kind of plastic that I honestly really like. Again, I don't know how sustainable that specific material is but it should be taken into consideration that this phone is supposedly sturdy enough so you won't need to buy another one for a very long time.

• For me, it is kind of hard to take off the cover and open the phone, but it might be because I'm used to fragile phones that aren't suppose to be handled like that so I'm unconsciously too afraid to break it to apply the right strength. 

• It is a big phone, but I was expecting it to be huge, so it's actually smaller than I thought.

• I'm fascinated, probably because I never had a new smartphone on my hands, but I find it so beautiful and magical looking, I'm in love

• It's supposedly sturdy enough so it doesn't break when it falls, but I'm so afraid to scratch it that I have been super careful not to let it fall, so I can't exactly tell you my experience on that... for now. I know I'm too clumsy for the phone to stay this perfect for long.

• I was surprised that the phone didn't come with a charger, but since it uses micro USB, I had plenty compatible chargers at home, so that wasn't a problem for me. After the initial confusion, I actually was very happy about this since a charger would be an unnecessary waste of resources in my case (since I have more than one already) and I would probably need an electrical adapter to use it.

Unboxing the Fairphone 2

I decided to record my first reactions to the phone and ended up with a silly video of me struggling to do everything (can you believe I'm actually an engineer?)

Anyway, here it is:

I don't remember any more useful details to mention, but I've only had my Fairphone for two days. Hopefully I'll be able to make a more helpful review in a while. Until then I'll be enjoying internet access without my laptop and exploring the world of Android apps...