Recently aired the website of the Shiftphones team the crowdfunding campaign for the Shiftphone 8. The first 33 devices were sold within four minutes at a price of 333 euros, although the device is still in the planning phase. The final selling price of the Shiftphone 8 should then be 555 euros.
555 pre-orders required for the Shiftphone 8 to be built
Delivery is not scheduled until the end of 2023, if pre-financing can be successfully guaranteed by the beginning of April. The phone can currently be pre-ordered for EUR 444, with 440 of the 555 devices sold required to reach the “funding threshold” still being available. But what does the customer get according to the current status?
There is not much more to see of the Shiftphone 8 than this teaser image
According to the will of the developers from the small town of Falkenberg near Kassel, the Shiftphone 8 is to be realized in a “fully modular design”, with more than 13 easily exchangeable modules planned, which can be changed with a simple screwdriver. As with the Fairphone from Holland, the customer should be able to carry out repairs himself in the simplest possible way.
Waterproof despite the modular design, 5G & eSIM support
With the Shiftphone 8, the makers also want to offer 5G support, an IP-certified, waterproof and dustproof housing, eSIM support and Android 13 for the first time. The 5G support is made possible by using a processor from the chip supplier Qualcomm, whereby the choice should fall on a premium mid-range SoC from the Snapdragon 7 series.
According to the team, this is combined with eight gigabytes of RAM and at least 128 GB of internal flash memory. The latter can be easily expanded by up to four terabytes using a microSD card slot. Two rear cameras and one front camera are also planned. The developers are also aiming for hardware kill switches for the physical separation of microphones and cameras to ensure maximum privacy protection.
The Shiftphone 8’s display is said to be six inches diagonal and offer Full HD+ resolution, while the screen cover will be made of Corning Gorilla Glass. All of these features are to be guaranteed using raw materials that are as climate-neutral and socially fair as possible. Production continues to take place in China, where Shiftphones operates its own “manufacture” whose employees work under “fair” conditions.
Shiftphones obviously wants to move a little further out of its niche with the new model and achieve actual modularity instead of simple accessibility of the hardware components. So far, the devices of the company from Hesse differed in this respect from the competitor Fairphone.
See also:
