Fairphone Launches New Gen 6 Phone with Improved Specs and Repairability Options

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Fairphone Launches New Gen 6 Phone with Improved Specs and Repairability Options
Photo: Engadget
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  1. We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Fairphone has been making sustainable and repairable phones for more than a decade. However, if you wanted to buy one in the US, up until now, you were forced to go through third-party retailers and figure out carrier compatibility on your own. But that changes today with the Fairphone Gen. 6+, the company's first handset to be officially available in the US.

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    The Verge

    Fairphone’s latest repairable phone is going on sale in the US The Fairphone 6 Plus is a refreshed version of the 6, with more RAM and a faster chipset.

    Wired

    But it doesn't have to be this way. What if you could order the part from the manufacturer and do the repair yourself? That dream is finally being realized for American consumers, thanks to Fairphone. The Dutch company is bringing its repairable and sustainably built Android smartphone—the Fairphone (Gen 6+)—to the US. Each one comes with a screwdriver.

  2. The new Fairphone (Gen 6+) is a small upgrade over the Gen 6 the company launched last year. It has a newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor and double the RAM at 12 GB, but is otherwise largely the same device (hence the “plus” in the name). It now comes in Cobalt Blue, a nod to the miners who extract the cobalt used to make phone batteries, and the company's efforts to improve working conditions in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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    The Verge

    There’s also a range of modular accessories, including a card holder and lanyard, which screw onto the phone’s rear. These are also identical to last year’s Fairphone 6 range, apart from a new blue color, also available for the phone itself. It’s named Cobalt Blue, in a nod to the company’s ongoing efforts to support more ethical cobalt mining.

    Engadget

    As its name implies, this model is the follow up to last year's Fairphone 6 and it sports some notable upgrades. Not only does it come with a faster Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chip, it's also the company's first handset to offer 12GB of DDR5 RAM. In front, it sports a 6.3-inch OLED display with a variable 120Hz refresh rate along with 256GB of onboard storage, plus a microSD card slot for even more room if you need it. And in back, the phone features a main camera powered by a 50-megapixel Sony Lytia 700C sensor. Fairphone even created a new Gallery app for photos, which had been a long-running request from previous customers. That's a very solid foundation when you consider that this is a mid-range phone that costs just $650 (or £569 in the UK).

  3. The design is the same too, meaning this phone is likely to match the 10/10 repairability score that iFixit gave to the 6. Replacement parts will be sold in the US, ranging from $7.99 for a SIM tray to $89.99 for a new display, and almost the entire phone can be disassembled with a single Torx T5 screwdriver, something I put to the test with last year’s Fairphone 6.

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    Wired

    A replacement screen from Fairphone costs just $90. A new USB-C port is $20; a fresh battery is $40. In all, there are 12 modular elements you can swap yourself. It remains the only smartphone series with a 10/10 repairability score from iFixit, not to mention an unmatched 5-year warranty and software updates through 2033.

From the margins

3 details only one outlet reported

Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.

  1. 01 Engadget

    Meanwhile, when it comes to sustainability and ease of repair, similar to previous releases, the Gen. 6+ holds true to the company's goals by being made out of more than 50 percent fair or recycled materials by weight. Furthermore, Fairphone says this model has the smallest carbon dioxide footprint of any of its handsets yet at around 30 kilograms per device, while also claiming that the Gen. 6+ is the only fully e-waste neutral smartphone on sale in the US. And with the previous model having earned a perfect 10 for repairability from iFixit, servicing and maintaining the handset post-purchase should be a breeze.

  2. 02 The Verge

    Fairphones from the 4 onwards have been available to buy in the US, but never from Fairphone itself. They were exclusively sold through a partnership with Murena, the developer of /e/OS, a “de-Googled” version of Android. That meant buyers were forced to use Murena’s software — which is capable, but certainly an acquired taste — and paid a significant premium for the phone. Last year’s Fairphone 6 sold for $899.

  3. 03 Wired

    Your iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, and Google Pixel have a 1-year warranty. Unless you cough up extra dough for an extended service plan, you'll pay a hefty fee if you damage the screen and need a replacement (around $329 for an iPhone 17 done directly from Apple).

Assembled from 3 corroborated claims drawn from 3 independent outlets. Every passage above is taken verbatim — Dorothy doesn't paraphrase or summarize.

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Sources (3)

  • verge
  • wired
  • engadget

Original Articles (5)

Consumer Fairphone is finally releasing its first official handset in the US — Engadget
Consumer Is an iPhone 15 still worth your money in 2026? — Engadget
Consumer Is buying a OnePlus phone in 2026 still a good idea? — Engadget
Consumer Fairphone’s latest repairable phone is going on sale in the US — The Verge
Culture Exclusive: You Can Finally Buy a Fairphone—a Sustainable, Repairable Smartphone—in the US — Wired