ISSUE387|COMPUTER SHOPPER|MAY2020
SPECIFICATIONS
Batterylife
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 88 forperformancedetailsPROCESSOROcta-core 1.8GHz QualcommSnapdragon632•
SCREENSIZE5.65in•SCREENRESOLUTION2,160x1,080•REAR
CAMERA12 megapixels•STORAGE64GB•WIRELESSDATA4G- NFCYes•DIMENSIONS158x72x9.9mm•WEIGHT189g•
OPERATINGSYSTEMAndroid9.0•WARRANTYTwoyearsRTB - DETAILSwww.fairphone.com•PARTCODEFairphone
14h20mHowever,brightness ishigh,with ameasured
peakof503cd/m^2 ,andcontrastisavery
respectable 1,649:1. All things considered, however,
it’s aprettymiddling screen. It does thejob,but
it’s easily beatenbythose found on cheaper
handsets, and you’d hope forbetter at this price,
even if it canbeeasilyreplaced should it break.
FEEBLE EXCUSE
Day-to-dayperformanceisreasonable,but
unspectacular –the result of using alower-end
CPU, even if the 4GB of RAM is plenty.The
Fairphone3’s Geekbench4scores put it behind
much cheaperhandsets,suchasthe £299 Google
Pixel3a(Shopper378): it scored 1,274 in the
single-core test and 4,858 in the multitasking
test, to the Pixel 3a’s 1,619 and 5,146.
It doesn’t frustrate outofthe box by any
means–no doubtaidedbythe bloatware-free
installationofAndroid9.0 –but counter-
intuitivelyfor aphone that values sustainability,
it willbecreaking soonerthanGoogle’s handset.
The difference is even starkerwith games. The
Fairphone3managed only 10fpsinboth the
onscreenand offscreenportions of GFXBench
Manhattan, meaningthe Pixel 3a can pump out
nearly three timesthe frame rate. The MotoG7
Power–which, remember,has the same SoC –
also produced 20fps in theonscreen test, though
this is largely down to its lower
In terms of battery ,
CAUGHTSNAPPING
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camerawithanapertureoff/1.8.Thismaysound
prettyweakinanagewheretriple-andeven
quadruple-camera arrays are increasingly
commonplace,but this isn’t necessarily a
disadvantage: the Pixel 3a also uses asingle
sensor,and takes someofthe bestphotos
around.Not only that, but bothphones happen
to use thesame SonyIMX363 camerasensor.
At aglance,the Fairphone 3does well with
outdoor shots, even if some of ourtest shots
came out alittle underexposed. Sadly,put up
against thePixel 3a, it’s not even close: Google’s
phone captures much finer detail, probably due
to its specialised processing software.
In trickylow-light conditions theFairphone 3
again appearstocope,but it just can’t compete
with the Pixel3a, withlots of visual noise
creepinginaroundthe edges of objects.
The Pixel3ahas someofthis–almost all
smartphone camerasstruggle in darkness –
but nowhere near as much.
The front-facingcamerausesan8-megapixel
sensor with an f/2.0 aperture.The results are
slightly lacking in detail, but goodenoughfor
lightheartedselfies.Ifvanityisyour main
concern, then chances are you’llbelookingata
more stylish-lookinghandset anyway.
There’salso no sugar-coating the fact that the
Fairphone’svideo recording is poor.Itlooks good
on paper,offeringsupport for720p,1080p or 4K
video capture at 30fps (with60fps for1080p,
sgrainyandthe
amera struggles to maintainfocus while panning.
Both720p and1080p footageshouldbe
stabilised –there’satoggle to enable stabilisation- bbbuuutttttthhheeevvviiidddeeeooobbbooouuunnnccceeesssaaallllllooovvveeerrrttthhheeeppplllaaaccceee.CCCooolllooouuurrr
accuracyispoor,andfootagecanturnoutmurky.
CONSCIOUSDECISION
In fairnesstoFairphone,thissmartphonedoesn’t
try to be thefastest one ever,ortohavethe best
camera; thefocus is primarilyonminimisingits
own environmental impact, and employing
better workingconditions forthe people making
it. On thesegrounds, the Fairphone 3has better
credentials than anything.
These values might be enough forprospective
buyerstoignoreanythingelse we sayhere and go
forthe Fairphone3on ethical grounds. That’s fair
enough as the Fairphone 3is, relativelyspeaking,
averyethical product, butasasmartphoneper
se,its repairability is the only thing it does better
than similarly pricedalternatives.
AlanMartin