Sustainable smartphone maker Fairphone obtained Google certification for upgrading from Android 9 to Fairphone 2. Getting certified for an almost three-year-old version of Android does not sound so impressive until you realize it’s working on a phone originally launched five years ago when running Android 5. The software release starts today and will continue until April 18, Fairphone says.
It is a support extension that is basically unprecedented among Android phone manufacturers. While Fairphone 2 owners may not enjoy the latest features of Android 11, the most important thing is that they are running a version of Android that is still officially supported. This month’s latest Google security bulletin for Android includes several fixes for security issues on Android 9.
The Android 9 update for Fairphone 2 has been in development for some time and was released in beta in June 2020. At the time, Fairphone described the challenges it faced when trying to support such an old phone, including the fact that Qualcomm no longer offers support for the processor inside the device, a Snapdragon 801, which was originally announced in 2014.
“Getting Google certified for Android 9 for Fairphone 2 as we achieved five years of smartphone support is a major achievement for Fairphone,” said Fairphone CEO Eva Gouwens. “To get certified, we had to pass approximately 477,000 tests by Google.”
“We want to show the industry that this kind of thing is possible, that a smartphone does not need to be discarded after 2 to 3 years, we can extend its useful life,” added the CEO.
The only other smartphone maker that offers similar support for their devices is Apple, which last year released iOS 14, its latest phone operating system, for the iPhone 6S 2015. Android makers, although behind Apple, are improving. Samsung now offers four years of security updates for its latest Galaxy devices, while Google offers three years of updates for its Pixel phones, and OnePlus says it plans to launch Android 11 for its 2018 OnePlus 6 and 6T.
Upgrading Fairphone 2 to Android 9 long after launch bodes well for the company’s long-term support for its latest Fairphone 3 and 3 Plus phones. The company says the phones should be upgraded to Android 11 in the second half of this year, with “another major Android update” coming later. Software support and spare parts availability are expected to continue until 2024.