Ethical Mobile Phones

Finding an ethical phone or smartphone

This guide to ethical mobile phones, with our in-depth independent research plus ratings table, helps you make decisions about which phone brands are ethical or not. 

We look at how each mobile phone brand addresses the important ethical issues faced by the sector, including: the sourcing of key minerals used in phones, product longevity including repairability, energy emissions, and upholding workers’ rights in the supply chain. 

So if you prefer not to fund unethical practices, we've got recommendations and one best buy brand for you. 

This guide features the main players in the mobile phone industry (Apple has 50% of UK sales, followed by Samsung at 30%), as well as smaller challengers shaking up the market. 

But as well as helping you choose a more ethical mobile phone, we also explain why our main recommendation is to buy less often, to make the phone last as long as possible, and to buy refurbished and secondhand phones where possible.

You may also be interested in our guide to mobile phone networks.

Why is it important to look for a sustainable and ethical phone?

Almost all adults in the UK own a mobile phone, and 92% of these own a smartphone. We also dedicate a large chunk of our day to using them, almost four hours of use on average.

These stats, which some years ago may have been surprising, are evidence of what most of us already know: the mobile phone is an almost essential facet of the modern world. Love them or hate them, with so many services now primarily available through smartphone apps, life without one can be a hassle.

Given that they are almost universal, their impact is significant. A mobile phone has an environmental and ethical impact during all phases of its life, from production and use to end of life. We cover these impacts in this guide so that you can make informed choices about what you buy.

Environmental impact of mobile phone production

The production stage is very resource intensive, and life cycle assessments show it to be the stage with the greatest environmental impact due to the extraction of materials and the energy-intensive manufacturing processes.

Over 50 materials are used in a smartphone. Although this varies by brand and model, phones are mostly made of the same materials, primarily: metals, glass, ceramics, and plastic. 

How brands source these materials is of vital importance. 

Do mobile phone brands use recycled materials?

Using recycled materials is more environmentally sustainable than using virgin materials. 

Firstly, it generally requires less energy to process recycled materials – the carbon intensity of recycled aluminium, for example, is 96% less than that of virgin aluminium. Also, using recycled materials reduces demand for virgin materials, the sourcing of which always has an environmental impact, especially in the case of precious metals which need to be mined.

Our tech sustainability rating gave up to 30 points for companies that were using a significant amount (20%+) of recycled materials across their whole product range. These were: 

• Apple
• Fairphone
• Google
• Lenovo (including its Motorola brand)
• Nothing

Fairphone was a sector leader in this regard, using significant proportions of recycled tin, copper, plastics, and rare earth metals across all of its products. It also goes above and beyond in ensuring that its virgin materials are sourced fairly and sustainably.

No brand has yet to make a phone from fully recycled materials, so all brands use some virgin materials.

Although Apple fared poorly on repairability and warranties, it has made impressive progress on recycled materials and received the maximum 30 points in this section.

Buying a secondhand or refurbished phone is the best way of getting a sustainable phone because it doesn’t directly increase demand for virgin materials. 

Environmental impact of using phones

The energy used to charge your phone represents a significant proportion of its climate impact. 

Fairphone states that product use accounts for 10.6% of its overall greenhouse gas emissions, while Apple puts that figure at 29% (though Apple also produces computers which have greater energy requirements than phones).

Though this figure is significant, and there isn't much you can do to reduce it, we outline some steps you can take below.

The climate impact of charging your phone will vary depending on what time of day you charge it (at peak times such as later afternoon and early evening fossil fuels will likely make up a greater proportion of the energy mix), and which country you are in when you do so, as some countries rely more heavily on fossil fuels than others.

There are two important changes that need to happen for the climate impact of product use to really decrease: national electricity grids need to be decarbonised and companies need to improve the efficiency of their products. The former is happening in the UK and to a varying degree across most countries, and the latter is something most brands are addressing.

Preserving your phone's battery life

There are some measures you can take to minimise the energy your phone is using, such as adjusting your settings so that unnecessary wireless functions (Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS) are turned off when you aren’t using them. 

You could also choose a phone that requires less energy to run e.g. a low-spec ‘dumbphone’ will require far less energy than a smartphone. Higher-spec phones, especially devices used for gaming and those with 4K screen resolution, will require more energy.

It is also advised that you keep your charge between 20-80% because it isn’t great for your battery to fully die or reach full charge. 

How many years should a mobile phone last for?

Users generally expect phones to last around five years, but surveys have suggested that on average the replacement cycle is significantly less, with one study finding that in Great Britain it was just over two years. 

Due to the many harmful effects of producing phones, the longer you keep your current phone, the better.

The length of a phone’s active life is primarily down to technical and behavioural factors. Technical factors include how long hardware is designed to last, how long software is supported, and how easily repairable a phone is.

Consumer behaviour also drives the demand for new products, with around 69% of mobile phones replaced for reasons other than being broken beyond repair. Keeping up with trends and the desire to have the latest products is one of the main drivers of mobile phone replacement.

Which lasts longer, a Fairphone or Apple phone?

In terms of technical longevity, Fairphone is well ahead of the pack. It offers a five-year manufacturer extended warranty, and for its Fairphone 5 model, extended software support until the end of 2031 (eight years total). 

For comparison, while Apple’s products are not easy for consumers to repair themselves, the company provides security updates for longer than many other brands. Apple offers a manufacturer warranty of only one year, but does generally offer software support for many years (unlike Fairphone it doesn’t give a guarantee, but Macword.com states that Apple’s “software support lasts more than eight to ten years”).

Mobile phone brands and sustainability

Our new tech sustainability rating looks at mobile phone companies’ approaches to repairability and longevity, and also assesses their use of recycled materials.

Can mobile phones be repaired at home?

We looked at how repairable mobile phones are. The highest marks were available for companies that placed repairability at their core, such as Fairphone.

We based our ratings on scores from iFixit, which describes itself as “the world’s largest free repair manual” and assesses whether tech products have been designed with repairability in mind.

iFixit takes devices apart to assess their repairability, considering how easy key components are to replace and whether manufacturers provide repair guides. We collected iFixit’s product scores to calculate a mean average score for each company. We supplemented this data with our own research in a few cases, where a company had yet to have any products rated by iFixit.

Fairphone had an average score of 10/10 on iFixit. Apple had the lowest scores, averaging 2.5. 

Our own score for tech sustainability reflects a company’s approach to repairability as a whole, so is not necessarily a guarantee that all of its products will be repairable. We’d recommend looking up individual products on the iFixit website.

Does the Right to Repair regulation apply to phones?

The UK’s ‘Right to Repair’ bill currently only applies to dishwashers, washing machines, washer-dryers, fridges, televisions and electronic displays, but groups like the Restart Project are campaigning to extend its scope and strengthen its regulation.

In general, things appear to be travelling in the right direction. In terms of regulation on information for consumers, France has led the way in Europe. Since 2019, it has required companies to display clear information on the repairability of electrical and electronic equipment, via a score out of ten. Groups like Repair.eu and iFixit are campaigning to extend similar laws to the entire EU, and there are similar movements making progress across Australia, Canada, and the US. 

You can view a Repair and Reuse Declaration, and find out how to influence your MP on the Restart Project’s website.

Why is it ethical to focus on repairability?

You might question why we’ve focused so heavily on home repairability, when even poor scorers like Apple and HONOR offer professional authorised repair services. 

The first reason is environmental. 

Right-to-repair advocates like Louis Rossman argue that many ‘authorised’ technology repairs are pointlessly wasteful. If a single component on a phone’s logic board fails, authorised repair shops often replace the entire board rather than simply soldering on a replacement component. This is a system designed for speed and efficiency, not waste reduction.

The second reason is more social. 

Right to repair allows domestic and independent repair businesses to flourish, rather than just centralising profits for multinationals like Apple. 

This is particularly pertinent in the Global South. 

India, for example, has a rich cultural legacy around repair, reuse, and restoration, with everyday artisans mending everything from shoes to TVs on street corners. A 2024 journal article by Drs George and Baskar asks whether this “generations-old ingenuity around mending, scavenging, and improvising (will) withstand the glossy onslaught of planned obsolescence business models?”. 

When Apple restricts access to repair tools and knowledge, or uses software to block replacement parts from working in a device without its permission, it does so at the expense of local communities, waste reduction ambitions, and consumers themselves.

Mobile phone warranties

Our tech sustainability rating also looks at what warranties are available. 

In this category we awarded 20 marks to companies which offer 4+ year warranties as standard. 

Only Crosscall, Fairphone, and Teracube received these marks (Fairphone actually has a two-year warranty in the EU but offers a complimentary three-year extension, bringing it to five years in total). 

For all its talk of longevity, Apple only offers a one-year manufacturer’s warranty as standard on iPhones, and the company’s optional AppleCare+ insurance plans have expensive excess rates for accidental damage. 

The vast majority of companies only offered one- or two-year warranties.

The most ethical mobile phone companies for sustainability

If we look at our tech sustainability rating overall, some companies are doing far better than others. 

The best for for tech sustainability were Fairphone which scored 100/100 and Teracube close behind on 90/100. 

Teracube phones are designed to be home repairable, and the company sells spare parts for its key components on its website. Its four-year warranty includes accidental repairs (although these incur a small fee), but we did note that the warranty was voided by “repairs conducted by unofficial repair centers”. This appeared like slightly odd messaging – the phone is home repairable, but if you attempt to repair it at home you may find yourself no longer covered?

The lowest scorers for tech sustainability were TCL (also owns Alcatel) and HONOR, which both failed to acquire a single mark. 

Samsung only scored 10/100; Doro, Huawei, and Xiaomi each managed only 20/100; and Apple, Nothing and Sony scored 30. 

Nothing markets its flagship ‘Phone (2)’ as “one of the most sustainable smartphones on the market”. Its phones have a visually striking transparent back cover, but according to iFixit, this “attention-grabbing complexity actually makes it more difficult to repair”. The company is redeemed somewhat by its focus on recycled materials, however, with bio-based and recycled materials accounting for 20% of the Phone (2)’s weight.

Are any phones TCO Certified?

TCO Certified is a global sustainability certification for IT products which you can look for when buying a phone. 

This label looks at a range of social and environmental factors in the lifecycle of a product.

For a product to achieve the TCO Certified label, it must meet numerous criteria relating to both the design and manufacture including criteria on workers’ rights, conflict minerals, hazardous chemicals, user health and safety, durability, and recyclability.

Currently the only TCO Certified phone listed in the TCO Certified product finder is the Fairphone.

Recycle phones rather than abandoning them in a drawer

It is best to keep your phone as long as possible, and when you are finally done with it you should recycle it because it is full of precious metals and other materials which can be reused. 

Unfortunately a huge number of phones are not recycled, with many just kept at home – probably shoved into an old drawer with a load of other old gadgets and gizmos, never to be seen again. 

A 2015 study suggested that up to 125m phones are “hibernating” in UK households alone (a figure now likely to be significantly higher), while around 700m are thought to be hibernating across the EU.

How to recycle your phone

iFixit offers free manuals and repair guides to help people repair a range of tech devices including phones. And if you’d like company, the Restart Project encourages handy people to organise ‘Restart Parties’ to share their skills.

However, once items truly reach the end of their life, you should recycle them. Electronics should never go straight in the bin because of the hazardous substances they contain. By recycling them, you can also ensure that precious metals and other materials will be reused.

Since 2007, retailers in the UK have been legally obligated to either take back electrical items for recycling or to help finance national collection facilities. Many – such as Currys – have opted to provide their own disposal service. They will take back goods even if they weren’t purchased from them. 

Phones can be recycled at most recycling centres or can often be returned to the mobile phone brand itself. 

The impact of e-waste 

The UK is the second highest producer of electronic waste per capita in the world. 

Many items are thrown away long before they need to be. In fact, one London charity recently surveyed almost 600 items brought for recycling and found that almost half could be immediately reused or needed only minor repairs.

An average smartphone may contain over 60 different types of metals, mined in various corners of the world, as well as plastics and ceramics. This array of materials means that properly disposing of devices is complicated and fraught with issues. 

As a global society, we are currently accumulating electronic waste or e-waste at a rate of over 62 million tonnes every year. This figure is expected to rise by 32%, to 82 million tonnes, by 2030. According to a 2024 UN report, only around 25% of e-waste is properly collected and recycled. The report also found that e-waste is growing five times faster than documented e-waste recycling worldwide.

Much of the rest ends up in landfills or in informal ‘recycling’ operations in developing countries, where the toxic chemicals used in production are released into the surroundings causing untold damage to human health and the environment.

Plastic in phones

All phone brands use plastic in their phones, although some are moving towards using a greater proportion of recycled plastic.

Fairphone is most notable in this regard: the back cover of the Fairphone 5 is 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, and recycled plastic is used throughout the phone making up 69% of the total plastic used, an increase of 9% compared to the Fairphone 4.

Apple, for comparison, claims that its iPhone 16 uses at least 50% recycled plastic in 20 components, but it isn’t clear what proportion of plastic overall is recycled. 

The Teracube 2e comes with a “biodegradable case”, but this appears to be an extra case, rather than the phone’s essential casing, and it isn’t clear what it is made of or what evidence the company has for its biodegradability claims.

Climate impact of mobile phones

Most of the big tech companies have been taking some steps to reduce the climate impact of their activities, including the impact of their supply chains. But many have also been relying heavily on renewable energy certificates (RECs) to ‘reduce’ their emissions.

We’ve written about RECs (or REGOs as they are known in the UK) before in our guide to energy suppliers. Essentially, they are certificates which allow companies to claim that they have purchased renewable energy from the grid when much of the actual energy used was generated by fossil fuels. The logic is that by purchasing RECs you are supporting the production of renewable energy, though this logic is debated. They are also controversial because the purchase of RECs can obfuscate a company’s actual emissions.

Is Apple hiding core emission figures?

Apple, for example, reports the emissions from its electricity consumption as 0 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), and has done for many years, but that is a “market-based” figure and includes its purchase of RECs. Buried deep in its Environmental Progress Report Apple also discloses what is known as the “location-based” figure, which is the actual emissions from the generation of energy purchased. This was 1,206,700 tCO2e in Apple’s fiscal year 2023.

There is currently a battle underway around how companies should be allowed to report their emissions data, with Big Tech at the forefront. Some, such as Amazon and Meta, want the regime to be further liberalised so the RECs could be purchased from outside the country a company is operating in, whereas others, including Google, are arguing for a tightening of the current system, so that certificates could only be purchased from the local grid (not just the national grid) where the electricity is consumed.

Will the emissions of AI be visible in reporting?

The growing use of artificial intelligence is increasing overall energy use. Whether tech companies will be transparent about AI carbon emissions is debatable. 

The outcome of this dispute will determine how these major emitters are allowed to report their emissions. And it comes at a time when the emissions of the biggest players are rising (Google’s emissions rose 48% in the last five years, Microsoft’s rose 30% between 2020 and 2023). This is in large part due to their increasing demand for data centres, which are crucial for the development of AI models, which many of these companies are heavily invested in.

We explore this in a little more detail in our ethical laptop guide. 

Do phones display energy labels?

As part of its ‘European Green Deal’ the EU will soon introduce energy labelling and ecodesign requirements for smartphones and tablets, like those that are currently applied to white goods.

From June 2025, new smartphones and tablets placed on the EU market will have to meet certain minimum sustainability requirements and display information on their energy efficiency, battery longevity, protection from dust and water, and resistance to accidental drops.

The British government has stated that “There is no equivalent regulation in GB so products meeting these EU rules can be placed on the GB market.” So, while we may see energy labels on some products being sold here, it doesn’t appear that the government has plans to make this a requirement, unlike for smartphones in the EU.

Price comparison for ethical mobile phones

For a good deal on price, we recommend buying secondhand or refurbished phones, which is nearly always considerably cheaper than buying new. We have not listed prices for refurbished and secondhand phones here because they vary greatly.

If you do want to buy new, here are the prices from our Best Buy and Recommended ethical phone brands, plus a few others for comparison. Most brands provide a range of different models at different prices, and you can also buy many phones on contract to spread the cost.

The prices in this list are starting prices so do not include additional features or higher RAM that cost more. 

*Costs were correct as of September 2024.

Are mobile phones vegan?

Probably, but maybe not. 

We asked Fairphone about this issue and they said: “We are not aware of any non-vegan elements in the Fairphone 5. However, in some cases, there is a chance that small amounts of animal products are used to produce refined materials and manufacture sub-components. This is true for any electronic product. Since we do not have detailed information about all sub-processes, we cannot with 100% certainty claim that the phone is vegan.”

How do mobile phone companies rate for workers' rights?

The workers’ rights abuses in the supply chains of big tech companies are well documented, whether it be the sourcing of essential materials, or the assembly of electronic devices. The poor approach to upholding workers’ rights in laptop and mobile phone supply chains is clear in our workers' rights category:

• Only one brand, Fairphone, scored full marks.
• Only one other brand (Doro) scored above 20/100.
• 12 brands scored zero.

Many of the smaller companies scored poorly because they lacked policy. 

Some of the bigger companies had some policies in place but lost marks because we found reports of actual workers’ rights abuses in their supply chain. (We look for reputable and significant reports published within the past five years.)

Companies criticised for worker abuses

In 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute published ‘Uyghurs for Sale’, a report on “‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang.” The report highlighted 82 brands across different sectors that were “potentially directly or indirectly benefiting from the use of Uyghur workers outside Xinjiang through abusive labour transfer programs.” For phone companies, these included Apple, ASUS, Lenovo, Nokia, Oppo, Samsung, Sony, and Xiaomi. 

Apple was criticised in a report published in March 2024, which alleged workers’ rights abuses linked to Foxconn’s “dormitory labour regime” at its factory in India. Foxconn is a Taiwanese company that has long been contracted by Apple to make its products.

The dormitory labour regime is a model that became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s and relies on housing workers (often migrants or internal migrants) in hostels where they have minimal freedom. The practice, which originated in China, allows companies to have a supply of labour “on tap” and extend working days when needed to meet demand.

Why Fairphone scored best for workers' rights

Even though most of its production facilities are in China, which is well known for its poor working conditions, Fairphone has taken significant steps to ensure the rights of workers in its supply chain are upheld. Unlike others, the company had a very comprehensive supplier code of conduct, published all its tier 1 suppliers and even suppliers in tiers 2 and 3, and even had taken steps to ensuring living wages were paid by instituting a living wage bonus in some factories in its supply chain.

The Fairphone is fair, but does it work?

Rating the usability and effectiveness of products is outside the scope of our research. It would take a lot of resources and other organisations already do a good job of it. So, we advise you to read user/expert reviews of products alongside our ethical ratings to make the best choice for your needs.

In the past, some readers reported difficulties with early Fairphone models, but it appears that many of these issues have improved with later versions. The Guardian, for example, gave the Fairphone 5 a rating of 5/5, stating: “It is a thinner, lighter and more refined device compared with its predecessors and one that makes leaps and bounds in terms of longevity, repairability and quality.”

How are conflict minerals used in smartphones?

‘Conflict minerals', typically defined as 3TG – Tantalum, Tin, Tungsten, and Gold – are key materials in phones and other tech devices. A large percentage of these minerals are sourced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the mining trade has, for many years, been used to fund brutal conflicts, hence being known as conflict minerals.

The minerals are used in various ways:

• Tungsten has twice the density of steel and is used as a counterweight in a spinning motor which makes your phone vibrate.
• Tantalum helps control the electricity flow in a phone’s circuits.
• Tin is used for many things in a phone, including in touchscreens.
• Gold is used as a conductor, great for use in phones because it’s corrosion resistant and reliable, meaning it can keep working in a phone for years.

Our conflict minerals rating also looks at other high-impact minerals, like lithium, nickel, and cobalt, (which are also tied to conflict and environmental harm), reducing the environmental effects of mining, and using recycled materials. The rating expects all manufacturers of laptops, mobile phones, solar panels, cars, and white goods to have a robust conflict minerals policy, regardless of whether or not they are bound to do so by law.

Most companies in this guide were awarded some points for their policies on conflict minerals.

However, with scores ranging from zero out of 100 (HONOR, Teracube) to 100/100 (Fairphone), there's plenty of room for some companies to improve. 

As well as Fairphone, companies earning higher scores for conflict minerals were Apple, ASUS, Motorola, Samsung and Sony, which all scored 60 or more out of 100 in this category.

Tax conduct of mobile phone companies

During the Covid pandemic, the charity Action Aid alleged that poorer countries are missing out on up to £2.2bn in tax revenue a year due to big companies including Google and Microsoft not paying their fair share. In 2024, Apple was ordered to pay Ireland €13bn (£11bn) in unpaid taxes by Europe's top court, with the European Commission accusing Ireland of giving Apple illegal tax advantages.

Unfortunately, tax avoidance is systemic.

While companies do have responsibility to ensure they pay the right tax, the problem is also a structural one. In response to the 2024 ruling regarding Apple’s tax debt to Ireland, Tove Maria Ryding, a representative from the European Network on Debt and Development stated: “our tax problem is more than just one rotten apple ... What we urgently need is a fundamental reform that can give us a tax system that is fair, effective, transparent, and predictable.”