SAR, spare parts and everything you need to know about your Fairphone 2

Update: as of October 2017, the SAR values stated here are no longer applicable, the correct Specific Absorption Rate values for the Fairphone 2 are 0.65 W/kg for the head and 1.1 W/kg for the body.

During the past week the Fairphone office has been filled with excitement and anticipation as we put the finishing touches on everything that needs to be done as we are getting closer to production. And we’re pleased to report that the final ratings we were waiting for have finally arrived – with excellent results.

For those of you who have already pre-ordered a Fairphone 2, keep reading to learn more about the delivery process and pricing of spare parts. And for anyone who is still considering whether the Fairphone 2 is right for you, our SAR results and iFixit repairability score might help you make your decision!

Deliveries set to start mid December

Once we’ve produced enough phones to ship, they’ll be leaving from the Hi-P factory in Suzhou, China and arriving in batches at our distribution center just outside Eindhoven. They will be processed in the Netherlands and sent to the very first Fairphone 2 owners across Europe.

As soon as your order leaves the distribution center, you’ll get a confirmation email with your expected delivery date, as well as a track and trace code. The phones will be shipped in the same order that they were purchased. Soon we’ll publish a detailed overview of when the remaining phones will be produced and shipped so that you have a better idea of when to expect your phone.

We’re happy about our SAR results: 0.288 W/kg for the head and 0.426 W/kg for the body

SAR results are in for the Fairphone 2

SAR stands for specific absorption rate, which is a measure of how much radio frequency (RF) energy is absorbed by your body when using an electronic device like a mobile phone. In the EU, SAR limits are governed by the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC). Here, any mobile device with a SAR of 2.0 Watt per kilogram (W/kg) or less averaged over 10 grams of tissue is considered safe for consumer use.

SAR is calculated for two areas: the head and the rest of the body. During testing, the phone’s radio is set to its highest transmission level for each frequency. For the head rating, the phone is placed directly next to the head to simulate actual calling behavior. For the body rating, the phone is positioned 5 mm away from the body.

We have now completed the final round of tests, and the good news is that the Fairphone 2’s SAR is relatively low: 0.288 W/kg for the head and 0.426 W/kg for the body. There’s a lot of research out there about the effects of exposure to radiofrequency, but many remain inconclusive. If you would like to research more, see the World Health Organization and we invite you to share your opinions with us below.

Fairphone 2’s SAR is relatively low:
0.288 W/kg for the head and 0.426 W/kg for the body

A peak inside the microphone/USB module

Spare parts: Some in stock now, others coming soon

Accidents happen, and when they do, we want Fairphone 2 owners to be able to repair their phones themselves. But of course, if you don’t want to do it yourself, we have a friendly customer support team who can do it for you. We also want to ensure that DIY repair offers an affordable alternative to replacing a damaged phone. Therefore, we’ve carefully calculated the price of each of these parts to ensure that they are as reasonable as possible while covering our own costs and enabling us to continue investing in our projects and innovations! This is especially important for the display module, as cracked or broken screens are the most common smartphone repair industry-wide.

Some of the replacement parts are already available in our online shop (back cover and battery), while others will be available in the coming weeks. In the rare instance that you need a replacement module before it is available in our shop, our repair center will be happy to help.

Overview spare parts of pricing and availability

Repairability score exceeds our expectations

We keep talking about how we’ve designed the Fairphone 2 to be easy to repair, and we finally have an external review to back up that claim. Last week, iFixit completed a teardown of the Fairphone 2 and awarded us a repairability score of 10 out of 10! It’s the highest score ever awarded to a smartphone, and of course, we’re delighted with the result. To learn more about their process and why we got this score, read our guest blog post from iFixit.

In addition to the teardown and their repairability assessment, iFixit is busy putting together Fairphone 2 repair guides in four languages. We’ll let you know as soon as they are ready!

Fairphone 2 scores 10/10 from iFixit. Image: iFixit

Detailed delivery information coming soon

We know you’ve been waiting for some of this information, so thanks for taking the time to keep up with all of our updates. Between our website, support site, forum, social media and this blog, we hope you now have a complete picture of what makes the Fairphone 2 different. But if you already pre-ordered a Fairphone 2, we’re assuming you still have one more question: When will my phone arrive? And we hear you! You can expect to see a detailed overview of delivery deadlines from us very soon.