Phones with removable batteries are finally making a comeback. After reading about them, I really want to buy one!

I'm sure everyone has had such a whimsical thought:

That is, the hardware configuration of a certain brand of mobile phone + the operating system of a certain brand of mobile phone + the price of a certain brand of mobile phone...

In this way, a "perfect" mobile phone that belongs exclusively to our own minds will be born!

Dare you say you haven't? Let's not talk about you guys~

I myself, when I was in high school and knew a little about mobile phones, had the idea of imagining a Snapdragon 801 + Apple iOS + Huawei P9 Leica dual - camera + Meizu MX4 appearance.

At that time, I even showed off to a few good classmates in my class. If a manufacturer could come up with such a mobile phone, it would definitely sell like hotcakes!

It's a pity that no mobile phone manufacturer at that time could understand my "ahead - of - time" idea.

Looking back now, it's a good thing they didn't understand. If they did, there would probably be a few less major mainstream mobile phone manufacturers... Hahaha, it's really a pity!

However! At that time, in 2016, there were indeed manufacturers that had started to develop such mobile phones...

Compared with my so - called "random combination", they gave such models a very fashionable and futuristic name - modular mobile phones.

For example, Google, which was the most highly anticipated at that time, created Project Ara!

The biggest feature of this mobile phone is that it can be arbitrarily assembled like "Lego":

The main body of Project Ara is a "metal plate".

The metal plates are divided into three sizes: Large, Medium, and Mini...

This also determines the size of the mobile phone and the number of expandable functions.

There are reserved interfaces of different specifications on it. Through special functional module components with electromagnetic adsorption...

You can install, disassemble, and replace the camera, screen, speaker, microphone, battery, and memory card.

Google has also uniformly divided the module sizes here:

If there are interfaces that you don't need, Google also thoughtfully provides decorative pieces to "fill them up"!

It not only adds personalization but also increases the fun:

In short, Google had a great idea and thought of N possibilities for the expandability of Project Ara.

The hardware and standards were also more or less ready...

They were basically just waiting for consumers to pay according to their needs~

However, just like my previous idea, everything seemed wonderful! But ideas are just ideas, and reality is cruel.

Due to the high cost and the difficulty of unifying modular matching, Project Ara, just like its project name "Project", finally only remained at the project level.

Some of you may not quite understand what is meant by the difficulty of unifying modularization...

Let me simply explain it here:

For example, if a high - pixel camera module is paired with a low - end processor, won't it not work? Or it may lag. This also involves system drivers, reading, etc...

If Google wanted to ensure that each module was compatible and matched with each other, it had to conduct very complex tests and establish a new development standard!

This was still very difficult in 2016.

Even if Google finally achieved it, the risks would far outweigh the commercial value.

It can only be said that the idea was good, but it was too ahead of its time, and the implementation was not easy.

Similarly, there is also a manufacturer that specializes in modular mobile phones...

Although it's not well - known, domestic friends may not even have heard of it, but it has survived until now.

Moreover, this brand once launched the world's first commercial modular mobile phone before Google:

It is FairPhone from the Netherlands!

This brand was established in 2013 and focuses on "environmental protection".

However, it's not like Apple, which claims to be environmentally friendly by removing a charging head or simplifying the packaging~

From the company's concept to its measures to its products, it has implemented environmental protection thoroughly...

Take its products for example. They advocate the so - called "sustainable mobile phones"!

The materials used in the mobile phones are all recyclable:

A 5 - year long - term warranty and extremely long - term system updates are just basic operations for them.

So, you can often see that even for mobile phones of this brand that were released 4 - 7 years ago, their systems are still being updated and maintained...

It can be said that it is even more impressive than iPhones.

In addition, the special "modular design" further extends the service life of the mobile phone. You can really replace the broken parts easily, so easy!

Note that you can do it yourself.

Recently, they launched the latest FairPhone 6!

This model also continues FairPhone's consistent excellent tradition...

It provides a full 5 - year warranty and 8 - year long - term system update maintenance.

How about that?

Should domestic manufacturers learn from this?

And I think the most interesting part is its modular design.

Just as I said before, you can replace the broken parts!

The specific operation is also very simple...

First, for the accessories, the FairPhone official website provides all the parts that can be replaced for each generation of FairPhone. You can just go there and choose.

Even for the newly released FairPhone 6, they have already put the parts on the shelves:

Battery, screen, ToP sensor, main camera, ultra - wide - angle camera, front - facing camera, back cover, USB - C interface, speaker, earpiece...

Then, prepare a T5 Phillips screwdriver and a plastic pry bar!

With the step - by - step tutorial on the FairPhone official website:

Even a novice can easily get started.

Mainly because FairPhone's modular design is really user - friendly~

You just need to use simple tools, pry here and there, and the whole mobile phone can be almost disassembled!

This is why the well - known disassembly media iFixit gave it a full score of 10 for ease of disassembly.

And it's been like this for several consecutive generations...

From the second generation all the way to the previous generation, FairPhone 5!