14 DAY TRIAL // If you care about the environment as well as about your hard-earned cash but still need a powerful smartphone to use every day, there aren’t that many solutions out there that can tick all three checkboxes. Not yet, anyway.
The Puzzlephone wants to change that, and is nothing short of ambitious. This device is said to last for a decade while its user can easily swap three main modules that carry the handset’s electronics, battery, and even the display. It’s highly customizable and it has a killer design too. When one part needs repair or upgrade, there is no need to replace the entire phone.
Designed in Finland
While the name doesn’t exactly have an elegant ring to it, the phone is indeed very promising. The people who made it strongly believe that consumerism impacts the world in a harmful way, and that customers should not be forced to upgrade their electronics once every year, wasting money and generating tons of e-waste in the process.
Alejandro Santacreu, CEO of Circular Devices, says that “The main goal is to have a device that will be more sustainable in terms of life cycle and environmental footprint.” He estimates that vendors like Apple and Samsung are responsible for around 90 million tons of CO2 (each) every year.
He adds, “Shiny-shiny will remain as bait, but not for everyone. Once processing power and broadband become commodities, the 'need ' to move to something new because your device is obsolete will be there no more. Now there are no options but to change the full car when the tires are worn out. That's a complete senseless waste that only benefits a few.”
It runs Android, will be open for all hardware developers
The Puzzlephone can be customized both on the inside (software) and on the outside (hardware), while the technical specifications will be dished out to hardware developers to allow them to design replacement modules for the device. It isn’t clear how Circular Devices plans to monetize a phone that lasts for 10-years.
Slated to ship this year, the phone will come in three different sizes and will run Android.
