Fairphone 3 review: The repairable 4G phone that started the modern Fairphone story.
The phone that proved repairable could work.
Fairphone 3 was the original modern Fairphone — fully DIY-repairable, swappable battery, transparent back, fair-supply-chain materials — and the one that got the support extension promise right (six years). Performance was modest even at launch; the values are why anyone bought it, and why it became a cult favourite.
01Display
52/10052/100 is one of the weaker display results among mid-range phones of 2019 — 21 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
52/10052/100 is one of the weaker camera results among mid-range phones of 2019 — 12 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
48/10048/100 is one of the weaker performance results among mid-range phones of 2019 — 15 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
60/10060/100 is one of the weaker battery results among mid-range phones of 2019 — 12 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
86/100At 86/100 this is one of the strongest build showings among mid-range phones of 2019 — 15 points above the cohort average.
06Value
56/10056/100 is one of the weaker value results among mid-range phones of 2019 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
- Fully repairable, transparent-back design.
- Swappable battery, microSD + jack.
- Fairtrade-sourced minerals, recycled plastics.
- Software support extended into 2025 — six years.
- Snapdragon 632 was dated even at launch.
- 4G only, 3,040 mAh small.
- 60 Hz LCD, single speaker.
- 12 MP single camera.
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 101-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .