Fairphone 5 specs leak: up to 8 years of support, new AMOLED display, more modules

Update: it's official!

Detailed information of the upcoming Fairphone 5 leaked, including the announcement date – tomorrow. The new model will be more powerful, more repairable, more durable and with longer support and, unfortunately, more costly.

The Dutch phone company made an interesting choice for the chipset, it went with a Qualcomm QCM6490. That’s a chipset intended for embedded and industrial applications. In terms of performance it should be similar to the Snapdragon 778G.

What makes it interesting is that Qualcomm offers long term software support – eight years or until 2031. Fairphone does its best to offer long term support, e.g. Fairphone 2’s last update came seven years after launch, but there is only so much it can do without Qualcomm. Picking an industrial chip could be a game changer.

Anyway, model 5 has 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage, plus a microSD slot. That microSD slot, along with the SIM slot, is now a separate module. There are now eleven modules in total (up from eight) with the cameras and vibration motor being separate parts too. This allows users to change them individually.

The company dropped the LCD of previous models and picked a slightly larger 6.46” AMOLED display (up from 6.3” on the Fairphone 4). It has higher resolution, 1,224 x 2,770px, and runs at 90Hz to boot (up from 1,080 x 2,340px, 60Hz). Even with the switch to AMOLED, the fingerprint reader remains on the side.

The new model is equipped with three 50MP cameras – two on the back and one on the front. All three will record 4K video. They have “premium lenses”, apparently, but there’s no word on focal length or other features.

Fairphone 5 (leaked images)

The battery is bigger too with 4,200mAh capacity (up from 3,905mAh). There is no mention of charging specs in the leaked data (model 4 had 20W wired only charging). The new model is also packing improved connectivity with Wi-Fi 6E (6GHz) and Bluetooth 5.2.

Additionally, it is rated IP55, up from IP54 (the 5 means resistance to water jets, the 4 was resistance to splashes). As we’ve seen in leaked images, the new phone will be available in Sky Blue, Gray and Transparent.

Fairphone 5 in Sky Blue, Gray and Transparent

The new hardware is more eco-friendly too with 70% fair trade and recycled materials, up from 30-40% on the previous model. The phone will also have a new climate protection label that signifies a reduced carbon footprint over the lifespan of the device.

That all sounds great, but now it’s time for the bad news – the Fairphone 5 will cost €700 according to the leak. For comparison, the old model was €580.

The official announcement of the phone is coming up, so check back tomorrow. It will be interesting to hear what Fairphone has to say about software support on the new module.

Source (in German)