End of life for Fairphone 3 by Fairphone in August 2026

/e/OS Devices Fairphone
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Celebrating seven years of the Fairphone 3

It’s a bittersweet moment at Fairphone.

On one hand, we’re officially retiring the Fairphone 3 and 3+. And while we would love to be able to keep supporting our devices indefinitely (that is the dream!), the sad reality is that we aren’t there… yet.

Having said that, we still have reason to celebrate. At the time of the Fairphone 3’s launch in 2019, our goal was to support the phone for five years. With the last software update rolling out in June and support officially concluding in August 2026, the Fairphone 3 will have received seven years of support. That’s two more years than we originally planned!

“Our goal is to challenge the entire industry to build products that last, and Fairphone 3 is a living proof of how well we did.”

Chandler Hatton, Fairphone CTO

For us at Fairphone, the device was one of many firsts. Keep scrolling to learn more.

The Fairphone 3 was the first Fairphone to be ranged by mobile network operators

Carriers to offer the Fairphone 3 to their customers across Europe included Orange, KPN, Deutsche Telekom, and Vodafone, among others. The reason, to quote our co-founder Miquel Ballester, was the Fairphone 3’s more mature, modular design language compared to the Fairphone 2’s more experimental and quirky aesthetic. “We wanted to reach a much wider audience with the Fairphone 3, and so we moved towards a more industry-conforming exterior look while expanding on our well-known modularity.” Modularity also went up. With the Fairphone 2, the bottom unit within the device was still one unit. With the Fairphone 3, the speaker within the bottom unit was made a separate spare part. Then of course, there was the Fairphone 3+ that rolled out a year later that offered backward-compatible cameras as well as better audio performance. It was also made fairer, with an increase in use of post-consumer recycled plastics from 9% to 40%!

The Fairphone 3 was the first Fairphone device linked to Fairphone’s living wage bonus program

Fairphone’s living wage bonus program is one of the initiatives we are the most proud of, as it actively helps the people who make our phones earn a decent standard of living. The program is designed to bridge the gap between minimum wage and an actual livable salary, with Fairphone paying the difference. Since 2019, we have paid out over $1.25M USD to supply chain workers. The Fairphone 3? That was the phone that kickstarted it all. According to Fairphone’s Fair Factories Lead, Remco Kouwenhoven, “Fairphone 3 did what the electronics industry long said was “impossible”: it supported living wages for supply chain workers, helping to lift these people out of poverty. It was a landmark move, pushing the industry to reconsider sustaining poverty systems or to use their business power to eradicate poverty.”

The Fairphone 3 was the first product we successfully reused parts from

Supporting a mobile device for more than double the industry average is no easy feat. We found that out the hard way with the Fairphone 3 when we started facing a shortage in our spare parts supply. However, staying true to our longevity promise, we innovated where it mattered. “The Fairphone 3 became the living proof that recovering parts from used devices for repairs and for refurbishment is possible. Over the last two years, our Reuse and Recycling program successfully supplied hundreds of displays and motherboards, while nearly 800 speaker modules were cosmetically refurbished and made available for purchase. Fairphone 3 shows that closing the loop is possible,” says Grace Romero, Fairphone’s team lead for circular operations.

While the Fairphone 3’s official journey comes to a close this year, we strongly encourage all Fairphone 3 owners to explore alternative operating systems. Much like we saw with the Fairphone 2, the open-source community provides incredible ways to keep your phone secure and functional for years to come. Switching to an alternative OS allows you to receive security patches and feature updates long after the official life cycle. Community-driven projects such as LineageOS (currently running Android 15),/e/OS (who will continue to support the Fairphone 3 for at least two years more), and postmarketOS are some projects you can look into. We will also be publishing all the development work we have done on Android 14, hoping this work will serve open source communities. By transitioning to an alternative OS, you’re helping us prove that hardware can, and should, last. That’s what Fairphone has all been about. That’s why we’re the one that lasts.

Continue your Fairphone journey with the Fairphone (Gen. 6). Built on the same principles as the Fairphone 3, the new Fairphone comes with software support till 2033, a five-year warranty, and an award-winning modular design that lets you swap out up to 12 parts. Learn more here.

Fairphone 3 are under Android 13:

https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048139032-Fairphone-3-Release-Notes

Murena want update FP3 to Android 15:

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FP3/3+ users on /e/OS do not need to panic. We are still looking at getting an A15/A16 build out for the device. No ETA as yet but definitely WIP

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Worth mentioning that /e/OS community builds for FP3 are Android 15 for quite a while already … /e/OS community FP3 download … so official should be possible to be at least Android 15, too, or is official too different from community?

Android 15 in itself could get security updates until early 2028, if prior Android versions are any indication.

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Community builds for A15 or A16 indicate that a build is possible for a particular device.

Community builds are relatively easier to compile. They usually require just a few configuration changes, and as long as nothing crashes during the build process, we get a working build that users can manually install. These builds require the user to manually download the ROM from our website and flash it on their device.

In contrast, official builds follow a more complex process. We put in extra effort to make the upgrade experience seamless for users — the official builds appear directly in the updater app, allowing users to upgrade the OS with just a few clicks. All the additional coding and testing involved takes significantly more time. That is why, while we are actively working on multiple official upgrade builds, we are unable to share ETAs at this stage.

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Week 16, Development and Testing Updates
Week 19, Development and Testing Updates
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Ah :light_bulb:, so OTA upgradability to the new Android version is now a requirement for official builds even to be released at all.
That wasn’t always the case, and I didn’t notice now, thanks for clearing that up.

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Great news that FP3 will be kept alive for a while, thank you!

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Official:

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Why just two years? I have two family members who have a Fairphone 3 (they don’t need the newer models) and it works perfectly well – why stop supporting them as long as they still work?

I even tried to find a FP3 for my dad, as it would be more than enough for him, but I can’t find one anywhere anymore (at a reasonable price).

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i also use the FP3 and don’t need newer device.

because it will be the end of “android security updates” for android 15 in 2028 march

after that, the device will continue to works but without updates from android side
(even still from /e/ for a short period)

100 € < leboncoin < 200 €

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@piero already said why, so just additionally …

  1. Please consider that Fairphone themselves with their stock Android OS are stopping support this year with Android 13 … March & April Forum Update 🪻 - The Industry - Fairphone Community Forum .
    They tried to still do a Google certified Android 14, but it sadly wasn’t feasible afterall.
    So, be happy that you and your family are in Custom ROM land where you get Android 15 and with it 2 additional years of “Android security updates” for the OS (the “Vendor security patch level” for the hardware components will probably not change anymore, though).

  2. Murena also plan to attempt to bring Android 16 to the FP3 to breath an additional year of support into it, but this is technically difficult and there’s no timeline.
    Well … they have roughly two years to try, after they get “official” Android 15 out on FP3 (“community” is on Android 15 already for a while). Week 17, Development and Testing Updates - #23 by Manoj

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Pour compléter les réponses ci-dessus.
Sur mon téléphone FP3, j’ai cette version du noyau:
4.9.337

Ce noyaux est sortie en 2017 et sa version Long Time Support s’est terminé en Janvier 2023. Debian 9 strectch qui s’est appuyé sur ce noyau n’est plus pris en charge depuis 2022!!

Malheureusement, Qualcomm qui fournit la puce du FP3 n’a permis la bascule sur un noyau plus récent. C’est qui a du bloqué Fairphone pour passer à Android 14

Il devient donc de plus en plus difficile pour une petite équipe de mainetnir le FP3. Je pense que Murena va continuer sur les parties de plus au niveau.
Et un moment ou un autre, ce bricolage ne va plus fonctionner.
Mais je serai Avocat, Journaliste, défenseurs des droits de l’homme, je basculerais sur un téléphone plus récent.

L’obligation européenne de prendre en charge au moins 5 ans un téléphone, va limiter ce gachis.

Translation:
To complete the answers above.
On my FP3 phone, I have this version of the kernel:
4.9.337

This kernel was released in 2017 and its Long Time Support version ended in January 2023. Debian 9 strectch which relied on this kernel is no longer supported since 2022!!

Unfortunately, Qualcomm, which provides the FP3 chip, did not allow the switch to a newer core. That’s who had to block Fairphone to upgrade to Android 14

It is therefore becoming more and more difficult for a small team to maintain FP3. I think Murena will continue on the more level games.
And at some point, this DIY will no longer work.
But I will be a lawyer, a journalist, a human rights defender, I would switch to a newer phone.

The European obligation to take care of a phone for at least 5 years will limit this waste.

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The FP3 is the last Fairphone having a real headphone socket and probably also the last one having real corners instead of these idiotic eye-carcinogenic rounded crap really nobody needs. These are values.

But in two years the FP3 will indeed be old. The standards get older and older, the FP3 allows only 2G, 3G and 4G. Many providers everywhere are currently switching their 2G and 3G networks off. This means the FP3 will then only find 4G networks. So, when you don’t have a 4G network in your environment you have no other network anymore.

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Hello everyone,
I’ve read your messages carefully and I’m well aware of all this, and that’s exactly what’s getting me down.

My view remains the same, however:

  • perfectly functional phones are going to be scrapped; admittedly, this happens less quickly than the market average, but it’s still ‘planned obsolescence’.

All we need to do is keep them as they are, since they work perfectly well as they are today.

And if we really needed to: my friends and family would happily pay Fairphone to send the phone back to the factory to have a new network card fitted, if we really needed it. Bearing in mind that 4G works very well at the moment.

In short, if we really wanted to, we could keep our smartphones for 30 years; physically, FairPhones are capable of it.

I was actually imagining an ideal world where smartphones send a monthly usage ping; and as long as more than 1,000 people are still using them, companies shouldn’t be allowed to discontinue them, on pain of a heavy fine. And the same goes for BIOS/motherboards/drivers…

We need to accept the fact that average users don’t need to always have the very latest technology.

A few typical examples:

- My 2007 Asus student PC has recently begun its third lease of life with a freshly installed Linux Mint (because that bloody Windows just wouldn’t work anymore).

- The INPN nearly lost 100% of its national databases following a massive cyberattack; what saved French history was a third and only backup on an older-generation server. The latter was spared thanks to the outdated technology it used, which prevented the attack from reaching it.

–FR————-

Bonjour à tous
J’ai bien lu vos messages et je suis bien conscient de tout ça, et c’est bien ce qui me déprime.

Mon constat reste malgré tout le même :

  • des téléphones tout à fait fonctionnels vont être mis au rebu, certe moins vite que la moyenne du marché, mais ça reste de l’“obsolescence programmée” quand même.

Il suffirait de les maintenir en l’état, puisqu’ils fonctionnent tel quel aujourd’hui.

Et si vraiment, on avait besoin de ça : mon entourage payerait volontiers Fairphone pour un retour en usine pour installer une nouvelle carte réseau, si vraiment on en a besoin. Sachant qu’actuellement, la 4G fonctionne très bien.

Bref, si on le voulait réellement, on pourrait garder nos smartphones 30 ans, physiquement les FairPhone en sont capables.

J’imaginai justement un monde idéal où les smartphones envoyer un Ping mensuelle d’utilisation ; et tant que plus de 1000 personnes les utilises encore, les entreprises ne devraient pas avoir le droit de les abandonner sous peine d’amende sévère. Et pareil pour les bios/carte mère/pilote …

Il faut accepter le fait que les utilisateurs moyens n’ont pas besoin d’avoir toujours la dernière technologie en date.

Quelques exemples types :

  • Mon Pc-Asus étudiant de 2007 a récemment entamé sa troisième vie avec un Linux-Mint fraichement installé (car cette saloperie de Windows ne fonctionnait plus).
  • L’INPN français a failli perdre 100% des bases de données nationales suite à une attaque informatique massive ; ce qui à sauver l’histoire française est une troisième et unique sauvegarde sur un serveur ancienne génération. Ce dernier fut sauvé grâce à ses vieilles technologies utilisées qui ont empêché l’attaque de l’atteindre.
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30 years? Already in seven years you won’t find a network anymore. And even if your provider gives you today a 4G network you will not everywhere find any network anymore because on some places where you currently still have 2G or 3G there will be nothing in future.

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Keeping them as they are means: Unpatched security holes can lead to the phone being hijacked by botnets in the background (that the user is not aware of this is an important part of the plan) to then use the phone’s computing power and network access to sabotage target entities and other people.
While for you as the phone owner everything will look fine. Hooray, good for you!

This is technically impossible currently.
A phone can be so small because everything is very highly integrated. There is no network card.

The hardware will deteriorate.
You can be happy if it even made it this far. Perhaps search the Fairphone forum for “sudden death”.

Fairphone users so far never had (I am one) :wink: .

Keep on dreaming, by all means, and asking “Why can’t this be ideal?” … Else there’s zero chance to get there, or even be on a way there.
But at the same time, it can’t hurt to bother with reality a bit.