Fairphone 1 review: The 2013 phone built on fair-trade materials and ethical supply chain.
Ethical electronics, born of crowdfunding.
Fairphone 1 was a Dutch startup's answer to phone-industry exploitation — conflict-free tin and tantalum, public supply-chain audits, dual-SIM and a removable battery. 25,000 backers funded its first run, launching a brand that proved ethical phones could exist.
01Display
56/10056/100 is one of the weaker display results among mid-range phones of 2013 — 7 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker camera results among mid-range phones of 2013 — 6 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
44/10044/100 is one of the weaker performance results among mid-range phones of 2013 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
56/10056/100 trails the 62-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2013.
05Build
60/10060/100 trails the 64-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2013.
06Value
56/10056/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2013.
- First phone built on fair-trade conflict-free materials.
- Dual-SIM, removable battery.
- Transparent supply-chain reporting.
- Funded via crowdfunding (25K units).
- Modest hardware for the price.
- qHD resolution.
- 1 GB RAM.
- Limited availability.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 28-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .