Fairphone 2 Modular is a Modular-like smartphone with replaceable components

Were you a fan of Project Ara already, and are just tired waiting for its modular phone to officially get launched, you might just want to still wait, or go with some alternatives. Talking of that, we recently saw a Fonkraft project coming alive and getting canceled, but now, the Fairphone 2 seems more of a realistic approach to the same concept. This isn’t going to be as good and flexible as Project Ara, but it at least breaks the barrier of unserviceable devices and lets the user repair the phone by themselves.

The difference between Project Ara and Fairphone 2, is that the former is the easiest with modular replacement, and the latter although allows replacing components, it isn’t that easy. There are a few building blocks that make the smartphone, and these are as follows.

• External case with several variations
• Battery pack – replaceable
• Core unit (or) the transceiver – There are several inclusions in this, like chipset, memory and flash storage, modem, radios and antennas, the SIMs and MicroSD card holders, motion sensors and power management.
• Display unit – LCD module, touch sensing driver, Gorilla Glass 3 layer
• Receiver unit – above the display, includes receiver, headset connector, front-facing camera, noise-cancelling microphone, ambient light and proximity sensor and the notification LED.
• Rear camera unit – Camera and LED light
• Speaker unit – speaker, vibration mechanism, main microphone and USB connector

The good thing here is that the repair isn’t very hard, though replacing might need some expertise, but things aren’t as complex as the other smartphones currently which end up at service centers as the users are clueless about opening up the phone. Even for a broken screen, there is a need of just removing the LCD which is secured with a magnesium frame.

Talking of what’s included in the core unit, it is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor. To add to it, is 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, Dual SIM, a 8MP camera on the back, and a 2420 mAh battery. The outer shell that is removable, makes the phone thicker than most of the devices around, but the good side is that it can resist falls from up to 2 meters.

This seems quite exciting, but we are looking at the early details of this. In the coming months, the makers of this interesting concept will be detailing more about it.