Here is a selection of the most environmentally friendly, eco friendly and sustainable mobile phones available right now. There are a lot of factors to consider, but we take all the most important factors that make a green mobile phone, mash them together and give you our verdict.
Fairphone 4
This series of phones coming out of the Netherlands just keeps on getting amazing reviews and people across the world are loving the concept. Being friendly to the environment and giving everyone in the supply chain a fair bite at the pie.
The features you see in this phone give you a lot of freedom and choice to upgrade it yourself. One thing that seems a bit alien in today’s world of smartphones is that you can still change the battery!
Here’s a video that shows you the great options when it comes to replacement parts and a review of how good the whole package is.
You can take pictures, run your favourite apps and Fairphone 4 has some resistance to water, though it’s not as good as some other waterproof phones. By the way, it’s super easy to replace your screen, unlike those other phones.
Fairphone 4 can be purchased on several websites including sellers on Amazon and also independents like XMA: https://store.xma.co.uk/product?pid=F4FPHN-2GR-EU1
You can also snag some stylish, though perhaps not eco friendly mobile phone cases on etsy! https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/fairphone_4
iPhone 13 Pro
Yeah, the latest iPhone is actually a decent green option. Apple have been pulling their finger out in recent years to make their phones more environmentally friendly. They take back old phones to recycle rare earth metals and other parts where the materials can be recovered.
With all iPhone 13s, we got to see 100 percent of the gold used to make it come from certified recycled sources. Apple also got rid of a load of hardly heard of but terrible chemicals like arsenic, beryllium, brominated flame retardants, mercury, phthalates and PVC. Man, that’s a great step forward from the past when they didn’t seem to put much effort into producing green smartphones.
Realme GT 2 Pro
Realme is a less known manufacturer from China, but they’re making moves into the environmentally friendly mobile phone market.
The Realme GT 2 Pro makes it onto our list of environmentally friendly phones because it has great eco friendly elements and Realme have worked on its sustainability. For example, the GT 2 Pro’s back cover uses an eco-friendly bio-polymer as an alternative to oil based plastics. Bio-polymers can be recycled conventionally along with regular oil-based plastics, or be left to degrade much quicker and without all the negative aspects of fossil fuel based materials. Also, Realme have dropped the amount of plastic it uses overall to just 0.3% as a ratio to the other materials used in the GT 2 Pro.
The phone still packs a punch, with a decent 8GB of RAM and triple rear camera (seems to be almost standard nowadays?) and a nice selfie camera. Other technology you get includes a Wi-Fi enhancer, sure to help you conserve battery by staying on Wi-Fi longer instead of switching to using mobile data.
Running on Android 12, the GT 2 Pro is a great option for an eco friendly smartphone that is available worldwide at a slightly smaller price point than some other better known phones.
You can buy the Realme GT 2 Pro from various places like https://www.giztop.com/realme-gt-2-pro.html. Get it sim-free and use your current network.
Conclusion
Our verdict is to go with a Fairphone because it offers the perfect compromise. It’s a green phone and gets the closest to being as totally eco friendly as possible that we’ve seen. The price is a little less than the super top end phones on the market.
The only downside is the tech isn’t going t be the most cutting edge. However, we are not buying it for the latest tech, we’re buying the Fairphones 4 to be kind to the environment and workers in the mobile phone supply chain.
Choosing a mobile phone that ticks all the boxes is a super difficult task when saving the planet is also super important to you. We hope that this list of mobiles that are both environmentally friendly and packed with the features you need has helped you make a great choice.
Let us know on Twitter what other phones should be on our list and why. @Greenermobiles