This 2015 smartphone just got its fifth official Android version bump
Fairphone has just updated its six-year-old Fairphone 2 to Android 10, making it the longest officially supported Android phone out there. While it might not sound too impressive given that we’ve moved on toAndroid 12last year already, it’s an engineering achievement given that Qualcomm doesn’t support or update the software for its 2015 processors any longer, forcing the company to develop and test everything on its own.
The Fairphone 2 originally launched with Android 5.1 Lollipop — the same Lollipop that the Google Nexus 6 initially introduced the world to, complete with Google’s first push for a universal design language across its products, Material Design. A lot has changed since then, but the Fairphone 2 has always trotted along, with the company behind it continually providing it with security updates and now, its fifth major Android version bump.
Initial beta testing for the Android 10 update began in November 2021, roughly half a year after the companyreleased Android 9 for the Fairphone 2.
As for the future of upgrades, Fairphone says it has reached the end of the line here, with further updates to Android 11 or 12 not feasible due to too many incompatibilities with the Linux kernel it’s using for the Fairphone 2. There’s simply no chance of passing the certification Google requires for all Android phones running its official software. Still, Fairphone wants to support its second-gen phone with security updates as long as Google provides them for Android 10, so while you may not get all the hot new features introduced with Android 12, you can still get some peace of mind knowing your Fairphone 2 is protected from any upcoming security problems.
While six years of software updates are impressive for an Android device, this isn’t exactly unheard of on other platforms and devices. Apple routinely provides iPhones with six or more years of current iOS releases, and PCs can basically run the latest version of Windows until they fall apart (even if not all devices are officially supported by Windows 11). It’s great to see Fairphone pushing the Android market into the same direction, showing other manufacturers that long-term support can be achieved even if processor vendors don’t care for updating their older CPUs. Samsung is moving in a similar direction withits promise of up to four years of software supportfor its higher-end Galaxy devices, so we can only hope that the industry keeps improving in this regard.
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