Android 10 six year old Fairphone 2. coming in

Sustainable smartphone maker Fairphone has released an Android 10 update for the six-year-old Fairphone 2, a device that originally launched with Android 5 in 2015. The update is currently in beta, but the company says it expects to release a stable version early next year. Along with this, the company is also planning to start beta testing the Android 11 update for the 2019 Fairphone 3 and 2020 Fairphone 3 Plus.

Although receiving an Android update two years after its original release generally wouldn't be a cause for celebration, it's basically unheard of for an Android manufacturer to still be updating a handset six years after its original release. Is. Only Apple comes close to this type of support period and recently released its latest iOS 15 update for the 2015 iPhone 6S.

Meanwhile, Samsung provides four years of security updates and three generations of Android updates for its most recent phones. Google has promised security updates for five years and Android version updates for three years for its latest Pixel 6 devices.

It hasn't been easy to deliver updates for so long, as Fairphone explained in a blog post when it released its public beta of Fairphone 2 running Android 9. One of the big challenges is that chipset maker Fairphone only uses Qualcomm. Provides support for its processor for a few years. As of last December, Qualcomm backs its chips to three major OS updates and four years of security updates. However, once this support ends, manufacturers like Fairphone want to continue to keep their phones updated.

For the Fairphone 2's Android 10 update, the company says it has collaborated with its community to expedite the update process. Fairphone, with the help of Indian software developer Bharat Ravi Prakash, says the Android 10 update for the Fairphone 2 took just 10 months to develop, compared to 18 months for Android 9.

Today's news will be welcome for anyone using the Fairphone 2 who wants to benefit from Android 10 features like gesture navigation and support for OS-level dark mode. But it's reassuring for anyone thinking of picking up its latest phone, the Fairphone 4, which the company hopes to support for six years through 2027.