what's your use case that you need that kind of a phone?

I repair my phones when they break and the easy repair of a Fairphone is in no way comparable to the absolute pain it is to remove the display on a phone released in the last 5 years.

Especially considering they provide a 5 year warranty, source fair materials, 8 years of security updates and many more years to come with full access to replacement parts.

Fairphone also at least tries to create / source their phones fairly. Not important in terms of privacy, but somewhat explains the higher price tag.

it used to be cheaper, and with an audio jack. Add some environment and social consideration and I see many reasons to buy it.

Or you can buy a Google phone from Amazon and text about privacy or freeing Palestine while sipping your Starbucks coffee in your Tesla car.

Not everything has to be about how much do you personally get for the money you give.

I am so glad I could get the Faiphone 3 while it still had an audio jack. At that time the hardware was not too far behind, still too much for my use which is mainly scrolling through obscure left-ish forums and YouTube channels (thanks newpipe) and startups late-stage capitalist hacker news (I don't know any better about tech).

$550 is a lot which is why it's a future plan for me. I have a pixel 7a which is serving me well at the current moment but the repairability on this thing is egregious. To repair the battery you have to unseal the adhesive with a heat gun and then pull off the interior battery adhesive and there's no guarantee it'll reseal properly. I plan to get as much life as I absolutely can out of this phone, but when it gives up the ghost I want something that'll last a long time and is repairable because reducing e-waste is important to me. I also just enjoy being able to fix things by myself. By the time I need a new phone, all of the five year old phones will be the current shitty unrepairable ones we have today.

The reason why Fairphone charges so much is because their selling point is ethics, and they claim they put sustainability of raw materials and fair pay for workers first. Whether or not they check that goal, companies like Google, Apple, etc definitely keep their prices low by paying workers in the global south pennies.

minus mandatory communication services that are require to use any kind of a smartphone.

What?