Nokia launches smartphone you can fix yourself, jumping on 'right to repair' trend

The adjacent smartphone to travel from mobile icon Nokia is simply a handset that users tin repair themselves.

The Nokia G22, developed by Finnish shaper HMD Global, is simply a modular smartphone with a 6.5-inch surface and a 50-megapixel main camera.

But it's the phone's outer ammunition and insides that marque it special. The handset includes a recyclable integrative backmost which tin beryllium easy removed to swap retired breached components.

Armed with tools and repair guides from hardware repair advocacy steadfast iFixit, a idiosyncratic tin region and regenerate the phone's backmost cover, battery, surface and charging port.

Adam Ferguson, caput of merchandise selling astatine HMD Global, said that this process would outgo connected mean 30% little than replacing an aged telephone with a caller one.

Smartphone companies are progressively moving to marque phones past for longer amid unit from regulators to marque electronics devices much sustainable.

Lawmakers successful the European Parliament, for example, are calling for authorities that would unit manufacturers to springiness users the "right to repair."

Right to repair refers to a question among user rights campaigners to marque it easier for consumers to repair their gadgets.

The European Commission's Green New Deal seeks to marque the bloc a alleged circular system by 2050, making it truthful that astir each carnal goods tin beryllium repurposed, repaired, reused oregon recycled to minimize waste.

Repairing phones, successful particular, has gotten much analyzable owed to however tightly the artillery and different components are sealed by glue. 

Apple, which had agelong been reluctant to changes its repair policies, decided successful November 2021 to motorboat a self-service repair programme that lets customers bargain parts to hole their ain devices.

In December, the iPhone shaper expanded this programme to 8 European countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.

"As consumers progressively request much sustainable and longer-lasting devices, the quality to repair smartphones easy and affordably volition go a cardinal differentiator successful the market," said Ben Wood, pb expert astatine CCS Insight.

Around fractional of mobile telephone owners successful Europe would person their instrumentality repaired if it broke extracurricular their warrant period, Wood said, citing CSS Insight's research.

There is 1 drawback with the Nokia G22 — it lone meets the IP52 benchmark connected absorption against damaging substances, meaning it is not immune to h2o damage.

Ferguson said it couldn't execute this diagnostic astatine the phone's terms point.

The G22, which volition beryllium released successful the U.K. connected Mar. 8, starts astatine a terms of £149.99 ($179.19). Replaceable parts tin beryllium bought individually from iFixit. For the battery, it'll outgo £22.99; for the display, £44.99, and for the charging port, £18.99.

Ferguson said that, connected average, consumers would wage 30% little replacing their breached parts than buying a caller phone.

Nokia isn't the lone mobile marque processing climate-conscious smartphones. Dutch steadfast Fairphone, for example, sells a scope of phones that use repairable and replaceable parts.

Once a titan successful the handset industry, Nokia has since taken a backseat arsenic electronics giants Samsung and Apple roseate to the apical of the rankings. The steadfast is present known mostly for telecoms infrastructure sold to carriers.

Nokia sold its mobile concern to Microsoft for 5.4 cardinal euros ($5.8 billion) successful 2014. The portion was aboriginal bought by HMD, which was formed by Nokia executives successful Finland, for $350 million. Nokia pockets a royalty interest connected each telephone HMD sells.

HMD said it's besides readying to root much manufacturing of its phones successful Europe. The institution didn't specify where, citing information reasons. In a property release, the steadfast said it was "developing capabilities and processes to bring 5G Nokia instrumentality accumulation to Europe successful 2023."

The determination highlights an ongoing question from ample tech companies of their proviso chains distant from China and different East Asian countries.

WATCH: Apple's caller repair argumentation is simply a bully measurement for 'right to repair' — but it's a tiny one