The phone was initially set to receive the update in December
The Fairphone 4 is the company’s most recent attempt to fulfill its promise of building highly repairable phones made from ethically-sourced materials. Fairphone has been heavily invested in manufacturing modular phones in order to significantly reduce CO2 emissions while providing long-term software support to customers. The Fairphone 4 is proof of that, and it is now receiving a new Android OS update. Despite its late arrival, Android 12 is now making its way to the nearly two-year-old handset.
A Fairphone representative announced in a post on the official forum that the Fairphone 4 is being upgraded to Android 12 through a staggered release. The rollout started on February 1st, which comes after several weeks of delay, as the device was originally set to pick up the update in December. The initial release was postponed due to critical emergency calling issues affecting certain countries.
That said, Android 12 is skipping some countries, including France and Switzerland, due to quality control requirements. Fairphone says the update is not quite up to par with its quality standards in those markets, so local network carriers may have to wait a bit longer.
If you have received the update, some of the Android 12 goodies, like conversation widgets and the privacy dashboard, should now be up and running on your Fairphone 4. You should also be able to see when an app uses your microphone or camera via a status bar indicator. Additionally, the new update makes it easier to restrict an app’s access to only your approximate location data.
Meanwhile, those who are temporarily stuck with Android 11 are getting a maintenance update with a new security patch, while Android 12 isn’t yet ready for rollout.
Although picking up an Android update two years after its release isn’t normally cause for celebration, it’s basically unheard of for an Android OEM to commit to long-term software support for its smartphones. For the Fairphone 4, which debuted with Android 11 onboard, Fairphone promises a five-year hardware warranty and six years of updates.
The company’s commitment makes the Fairphone 4 eligible for Android 13 in the future, with Android 14 and 15 expected down the line as well. However, you may need to upgrade the SoC to do so, as Qualcomm promises only up to three years of Android OS updates for its entire line of chipsets.
