In the last few years, sustainability has become a big point of focus for tech companies given the alarming effects of climate change. OEMs like Apple, Samsung, and others now actively advertise how their products use recycled materials.

If that's the case, is it better to buy a sustainable phone? Well, it's complicated. Granted, sustainable phones are repairable and less harmful to the environment. But the tradeoff for that repairability is something you might not want to bear. Let's see what those limitations are.

Eco-Friendly Phones Can Never Beat Flagships

Creating a repairable phone comes with a big sacrifice: the more repairable a phone is, the less special it has to be. To put that in perspective, a flagship phone is only so because the parts used inside it are unique and scarce—justifying its high price.

Components-of-an-iphone-1

In comparison, sustainable phones like the Fairphone 4 need to be made from parts that are abundant and easy to distribute in the supply chain. Without such a system, Fairphone will not be able to supply its users with spare parts for repair.

A direct consequence of such a system is that every device Fairphone ever makes will be average in terms of design and performance. It will never be able to compete with flagships like iPhones or Samsung phones. After all, abundance fuels mediocrity.

Related: Smartphone Repair Myths Debunked

How Does That Limitation Affect You?

Despite this bad news, a sustainable phone might still make a lot of sense for you. You see, an average buyer doesn't look for the latest and greatest specs when buying a new phone but rather for a good deal, i.e., value for their money. And if that's the goal, sustainable phones can work wonders.

iPhone teardown battery

On average, regular Android phones last about three years before the OEM stops offering software updates and the battery degradation starts to become bothersome. This practice fuels a strategy called planned obsolescence that's designed to make buyers buy more.

In comparison, the Fairphone 2 released in 2015 got upgraded to Android 10 in 2021. That's seven years of software support on an Android device. Bonkers, right? And if your battery becomes problematic, you can simply replace it with a new spare one—just like the old days.

Sustainable Phones Need More Commitment

If you're buying a sustainable phone, chances are that you want to use it for an extended period of time, i.e., more than the average lifespan of a phone. This means you'll miss out on all the new tech advancements and features that regular phones will keep upgrading to.

If you're a power user, tech enthusiast, gamer, content creator, or anything such, a sustainable phone will not serve you well. It might even reduce your productivity and not perform some tasks as smoothly as a flagship phone would.

However, if you don't really care about new features and your usage is limited to less power-hungry tasks like using social media, light gaming, streaming movies, and such, a sustainable phone could be a good deal. The longer you use your phone, the cheaper it becomes.

One of the key selling points of Fairphone is how easy it is to repair it by yourself. You can disassemble it, swap out a damaged part with a new one, and assemble it back instantly without having to wait days for a repair shop to do it for you.

Surprisingly though, the Fairphone 4 doesn't have a dedicated headphone jack. This is strange because wireless earbuds are so much worse in terms of sustainability since they break, get lost, and lose their battery capacity easily. Fairphone explains why it did so, but we're not convinced:

So, in order to make this phone last for five or even more years together with our five years warranty, it is important that we remove any part of the phone that may break. And since the audio jack fulfills a function that can also be done via your charging port with the so-called USB-C (...), we said, "Hey, let's bring those two functions together and then let's just put it into one USB port or connector."

Related: Reasons Wired Headphones Are Better Than Wireless Headphones

Sustainable Phones Are a Risky Investment

Sustainable phones contribute to a noble cause. But as a consumer, you have the right to buy what makes the most sense for you. Sustainable phones can turn out to be a really good purchase, but you really need to know what you're doing.

When you buy such a phone, you are paying a premium price for the benefit of longevity and repairability. But if you don't enjoy using that sustainable phone for more than, say, three to five years, the device was not a good investment.