Fairphone is a niche company, which has the ideology of offering its customers fair and ethical smartphones. The company sells modular devices, which use recycled and sustainable materials that have been procured in an ethical manner. Sustainability is another major aspect the company focuses on, which is why it offers people very long update promises to its devices.
Today, the company has announced that it will soon start rolling out the Android 10 update to its six-year-old Fairphone 2 smartphone. While the public rollout will take a bit of time, Fairphone 2 owners can install and test the beta version of the update.
To recall, Fairphone 2 was launched back in 2015 running Android 5 Lollipop. Since then the device has been getting regular updates and currently runs Android 9 Pie. The company did skip Android 8 Oreo in favour of Android 9 Pie, making Android 10 the fourth different version that the phone will run.
While Android 10 might seem old to you, considering Google has already released Android 12. You have to also take note that the phone is six years old and Fairphone is not a company with deep pockets or major resources. Also, the company is releasing updates for its phones without the help of Qualcomm or other hardware companies that have already dropped support for the hardware.
Taking a look at Fairphone’s commitment, the question arises, why do other Android OEMs struggle to offer Android version updates. Many smartphones, which were promised two major updates are stuck on the original ROM or just got one update.
While companies like Samsung and Google are improving in providing updates, with Samsung now promising three Android upgrades and four years of security patches on most of its phones and Google with its Pixel 6 series offering its users three upgrades and five years of patches.
