The Fairphone 2 celebrates 6 years of support with an Android 10 beta

Didn't get up to an upgrade every year, but we'll take it

Imagine what it would be like if Android OEMs could or would update software for as long as Apple does with its products? There's no need to for owners of the Fairphone 2 as they are set to test and receive Android 10.

The Dutch firm says it worked with a volunteer developer to expedite production and get the OS update to users in 10 months compared to the 18 months it took for Android 9. The public beta is rolling out over the next week while a stable release is expected for early next year.

In addition to the Fairphone 2, Fairphone 3 and 3+ customers are also getting betas of their own this week for Android 11. No timeline on a public launch for those phones just yet.

Owners of both phones are getting promotional offers which you can read up on in this company forum post.

The Fairphone 2 shipped to consumers in December of 2015, so next month will mark a full 6 years of software support. It booted with Android 5.1 and moved to 6.0 in 2017, then 7.0 in 2018, and finally 9.0 this past March. It also had playtime with Jolla's Sailfish OS and there's a LineageOS build still getting nightly updates 4 years after its launch which you can check for here. It's no iPhone or iPad with annual OS upgrades seemingly guaranteed, but it does pretty much match the iPhone 6s series in pure longevity.

Fairphone offers a 5-year warranty on support and software updates. That means this year's Fairphone 4 — we gave some positive remarks in our review here — will be patched against vulnerabilities until 2026.

Smartphone owners have trended towards keeping their devices for way longer in many cases whether it's a Fairphone or not, so having those assurances in addition to the ease of repair and a ethical supply-gathering policy definitely goes a long way.

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