The Fairphone 2 is a smartphone designed to be easy to repair and upgrade. The internal components of the Fairphone 2 are split into modules, which can be replaced with minimal tools or expertise. Fairphone 2 is the first truly modular phone on the market, beating even Google’s Project Ara to actually going on sale. Ara has remained a pipe dream that’s always a little further away while Fairphone has actually delivered on the vision.

Instead of buying a new device every year, Fairphone wants consumers to get to know their phone, repair it themselves, and keep it for as long as possible to minimize the use of conflict minerals in the device. The company says that most of the environmental impact on the phone happens during the production stage, so if you use it for twice as long, the impact can be reduced twice as much. Their aim is to create a more ethical device with an emphasis on reparability and sourcing key minerals used in the phone’s construction from conflict-free areas.

Launched in October 2015, Fairphone 2 comes with a 5.00-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels at a PPI of 446 pixels per inch.

The Fairphone 2 is powered by 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and it comes with 2GB of RAM. The phone packs 32GB of internal storage cannot be expanded. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Fairphone 2 packs a 8-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 2-megapixel front shooter for selfies.

The Fairphone 2 runs Android 5.1 and is powered by a 2420mAh non-removable battery. It measures 143.00 x 73.00 x 11.00 (height x width x thickness) and weighs 148.00 grams.

The Fairphone 2 is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts two Micro-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 4G. Sensors on the phone include Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, and Gyroscope.

The case around the edges of the phone is rubber, and removable fairly easily. Getting it on snug is a little more difficult, however, as it takes getting the lip of the case slotted around the screen just right.

A range of colours will be available for purchase in the future and can actually be entire peripherals themselves, thanks to a small group of pogo pins on the back of the device. Underneath that case is where it gets exciting, though. On the bottom of the device are two clips that make it easy to slide the screen right off the device in a few seconds, no screws required. One can then get to the guts of the Fairphone, which are all user-serviceable in less than a few minutes. Each component is clearly labelled, and only takes a handful of screws to replace.