It’s not just about the cost though. They’re inferior to pretty much any other mid-range or high-end smartphone too. Expensive but good would be fine. Cheap and mediocre would be fine. Expensive and mediocre though? Nah.
My £250 used phone has a faster processor, more RAM, better screen (higher resolution, brighter, bigger and higher frame rate), and a higher capacity battery with faster charging. It’s a mid-range Xiaomi from a couple years ago, not a high end or flagship phone.
They should take notes from pinephone. Offers something unusual at a low cost. Since enthusiasts eat that stuff up you get extra help with software and ROMs too. Yes it’s low spec, but it’s good enough for enthusiasts to play with and is of good value as the price reflects the quality.
Well, yeah… Xiaomi is a Chinese phone! Why do you think it’s so cheap and more powerful?
Unless Fairphone also uses Chinese labor?
Plenty of other brands which aren’t Chinese are both better and cheaper. Samsung, Apple, Google, Asus even.
Do they all use cheap Chinese labour? Sure. Do you actually think Fair phone doesn’t? Even if they somehow completely avoid China for the whole supply chain, they will inevitably get cheap labour from somewhere - like Taiwan or Costa Rica. After all they are using standard Qualcomm parts, so that’s going to be either TSMC in Taiwan or Samsung in China and Korea.
According to their own website their living wage bonus is only $2.63. It doesn’t even say if that’s per hour or per day.
