What you need to know
- Fairphone rolls out new updates for Fairphone 3 and 3+.
- Despite the chipset not supporting Android 12 and above, the company's internal team has taken over the software department.
- Fairphone 4 is also promised to receive Android 13 by the end of 2023.
After bringing the popular Fairphone 4 to the U.S. early this month, the company has announced the Android 13 update to its Fairphone 3 and 3 Plus.
The update is quite significant because it's an Android 13 update, skipping the previous iteration of Android 12. Interestingly, the Fairphone 3 is powered by a Snapdragon 632 that seemingly lacks support for Android 12 and above. Henceforth, Fairphone says that its internal team has taken over the device's software support bringing the latest official Android 13 for a four-year-old device.
#Android13 is now available for Fairphone 3 and 3+ 🎉 pic.twitter.com/vmFxtXtHAEJuly 10, 2023
The sustainable phone maker further aimed to offer Fairphone 3 software support for at least five years from the launch, meaning there would be just one year remaining. However, Fairphone is again aiming extra two years of support as part of the sustainability aspect that the company believes in, meaning it will retain software support until 2026.
In an accompanying tweet in the replies to the announcement, Fairphone has assured that the Fairphone 4 will also be getting the Android 13 by the end of this year. Users in the U.S. must bear in mind that Fairphone 4, launched in the country via Meruna, is shipping with a deGoogled operating system, dubbed e/OS/. Fairphone also provides the flexibility to unlock the bootloader and load up an alternative software system altogether, like LineageOS, for instance.
Hi Max 🙂 Our team is working hard to have Android 13 rolled out to Fairphone 4 users by the end of 2023 💙July 10, 2023
In other news, Fairphone was recently found working on the next iteration of the Fairphone 4, which is the Fairphone 5. The leaked renders of the device implied a more modern design as opposed to the previous Fairphone devices. For example, the company has finally opted for a punch-hole front camera, wherein the older models opted for a water-drop camera cutout. The Fairphone 5 will likely be seen in a new blue hue colorway when it arrives later this year.
