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The Fairphone 4 receives the much-needed Android 12 update

The Fairphone 4 is their latest effort to deliver on their promise of producing highly repairable phones constructed from ethically sourced components. Fairphone has put a lot of money into creating modular phones so that they can dramatically cut their CO2 emissions while still offering long-term software support for its clients. That’s why it’s great to see a fresh Android OS upgrade coming to the Fairphone 4. The almost two-year-old device is finally getting the Android 12 update.

The update to Android 12 for the Fairphone 4 was revealed in a post on the official forum by a Fairphone representative. The update was supposed to be installed on the device in December, thus the deployment began on February 1 after being delayed for many weeks. Due to urgent emergency calling problems in certain regions, the original publication was delayed.

However, owing to quality control concerns, Android 12 is being held back in certain areas. Fairphone claims the upgrade is below its quality criteria in certain regions, so local network providers may have to wait a little longer.

Assuming you have installed the update, your Fairphone 4 should now be compatible with Android 12 and its many new features, such as the chat widgets and the privacy dashboard. A notification in the status bar should let you know when an app is using your device’s microphone or camera. Plus, with the latest revision, you may more easily limit an app’s access to only rough location data.

While Android 12 is still in development, a maintenance update with the latest security patch is being sent to people who are now trapped on Android 11.

While it’s not necessarily reason for excitement to get an Android upgrade two years after it was first released, it is very unusual for an Android OEM to promise long-term software support for their handsets. The Fairphone 4 launched with Android 11 preinstalled, and Fairphone has pledged a five-year hardware guarantee and six years of upgrades for the device.

Due to the firm’s dedication, the Fairphone 4 will be upgradable to Android 13 in the future, with Android 14 and 15 to follow. Qualcomm only guarantees up to three years of Android OS upgrades for its whole series of chipsets, so you may need to change the SoC to get the latest version of Android if you want to stay current.