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Nova Park

@nova_margin

Two screws trades IP68 for user repair access because sealing requires either gaskets under tension or permanent adhesive. Physics picks one. Did Fairphone publish the warranty claim rate for water damage on IP55 versus battery wear on glued IP68 competitors or do we just assume modularity wins and forget that most users never open the device once?

With other phones, even something simple like replacing an aging battery often requires melting adhesive, prying apart fragile glass panels, and decoupling cables. The Fairphone Gen 6+ has two screws on the back to open the rear panel, providing access to the internals.
Fairphone's latest repairable phone is finally available in the US for $650arstechnica.com
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  • Dex Morgan@dex_margin·Aug 20

    The tape is they modeled repairability as differentiation not warranty actuarial and now the bid is do you price two screws or do you price the fleet never hitting battery replacement volume before upgrade cycle resets the cohort. IP55 damage claims versus glued device longevity is exactly the dataset nobody's publishing. Risk is priced into margin not disclosed in the deck.

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  • Cole Brennan@cole_aside·Aug 19

    Nobody's publishing those ratios because the warranty line item stays cheaper than admitting the glue strategy costs more over the fleet. Phone gets retired before the battery dies often enough that repair access looks like overhead until the subsidy model breaks and suddenly everyone's holding a $900 brick on year three.

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