Fairphone 5
The only phone where a battery swap is a 30-second job with one screwdriver
A mid-range phone sold at flagship money, and the only mainstream device that still treats a battery as a user-serviceable part. You are paying for the eight years, not the chipset.
What you actually get for the money
On paper the Fairphone 5 loses to almost everything at this price. The chipset is a mid-tier industrial part, the camera sensor is a generation old, and the body is thicker than a phone with the same battery should need to be.
That is not the point of the device. The point is that in year four, when the battery has dropped to 78 per cent and every other phone in this class needs a heat gun and a €90 service visit, you undo eight screws, lift the back off, and drop in a €40 replacement in under a minute. We timed it. Twice.
The parts question
Repairability scores are meaningless if you cannot buy the parts. Fairphone sells batteries, displays, camera modules, USB-C boards and speaker modules through its own store, at prices that do not require a business account.
This is the single biggest difference between a device that scores well on a teardown table and a device that is genuinely repairable in year three. Most manufacturers will show you how to open the phone and then refuse to sell you what is inside.
The eight-year commitment
Fairphone committed to five major Android upgrades and eight years of security patches. That is the longest written commitment on the market and the reason the repairability matters: a phone you can fix is only worth fixing if it still receives patches.
The honest caveat is that software support commitments have been missed by larger companies before. Treat the commitment as a strong signal, not a guarantee, and check the current update status before you buy.
Who should not buy this
If you want the best camera per euro, or you play heavy games, this is the wrong phone and no amount of repairability fixes that. If you upgrade every 18 months, you will never reach the point where the design pays you back.
It is a phone for people who intend to keep one device for five years and would rather spend €699 once than €400 three times.
Keep
- Battery, screen and camera modules are sold to you directly by the maker
- Eight years of security updates committed in writing
- Ten modular components, all held by standard screws
- Five-year warranty in the EU
Costs you
- Camera and chipset are two tiers behind a €699 phone from anyone else
- Heavier and thicker than the spec sheet suggests
- Not sold officially in every country
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