The World's First Modular Smartphone Is Made By Fairphone, Not Google
Fairphone, a Dutch start-up whose claim to fame in 2013 was making the first "ethically sourced" smartphones, has bested Google in making the world's first ever modular smartphone. The company recently announced the Fairphone 2 which is a modular smartphone. It also has the same features of the company's first smartphone, the Fairphone, meaning its components were sourced from countries which are conflict-free, according to a Tech Times report.
The release of the Fairphone 2 comes way ahead of the release of Google's modular smartphone through Project Ara, which has been delayed to 2016. Being a modular smartphone, it has seven basic components which include the battery, display, main chassis (with houses the processor) and back cover, receiver, speaker and rear camera modules.
The good thing about modular smartphones is that the user can choose to install additional modules for other functions. Some of those mentioned in the report include NFC chips, solar cells and coils for wireless charging. The phone's back cover houses the expansion port. Modules are held to the phone with same sized Phillips screws.
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Under the hood, it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset paired with 2 GB of RAM. Its display is a 5 inch Full HD LCD, which has Gorilla Glass 3 for protection. It only has a rear camera, which is an 8 megapixel shooter. Its battery pack has a capacity of 2,420 mAh. It will initially run on Android 5.1 Lollipop, but Fairphone has plans to offer consumers with their choice of OS. Other choices include Canonical's Ubuntu, Jolla's Sailfish OS and Mozilla's Firefox OS.
The company's Chief Technology Officer Olivier Hebert said that its second smartphone is "a robust phone that's designed to last." The phone is also easily assembled and dis-assembled, so it's easy to use.
It will be selling for $580 and will be available in selected European countries starting December 2015. It will be brought to other countries in 2016.
