It’s clear that, at this point, Fairphone has nailed down the fundamentals of building an ethically and environmentally conscious smartphone.
So much so, in fact, that the newly unveiled Fairphone 6 (officially ‘The Fairphone (Gen. 6)’ makes for a more versatile and personal phone than ever, without compromising on the company’s core values.
Building on 2023’s Fairphone 5 , the sixth-generation model has enviable sustainability credentials. It’s made from more than 50% recycled material (the most of any phone currently on the market), uses ethically-mined cobalt, gold, silver and tungsten, is made in factories powered by 100% renewable energy, is 100% e-waste neutral, and promises better working conditions and fair wages for workers throughout its supply chain.
However, it’s one of the new hardware features which is likely to catch your eye. The Fairphone 6 includes support for a new run of modular accessories, including lanyards, card wallets, a finger loop and a flip case.
Sound familiar? It’s very similar to the offering from Nothing, whose CMF Phone 1 and CMF Phone 2 Pro both also support modular accessories. However, Fairphone has made no mention of making its system open source, something that Nothing did, which resulted in a wealth of community-designed and made accessories for the CMF Phone 1.
Of course, Fairphone’s priority remains a high-quality device that will stand the test of time.
This latest model still boasts a hardy construction, with IP55 and MIL-STD 810G certification against drops and temperature extremes, as well as Corning’s Gorilla Glass 7i (the same glass used to protect the Xiaomi 15 Ultra ‘s camera system).
Fairphone also pairs its most recent devices with an extended five-year warranty, not to mention the Fairphone 6’s construction, which allows for 12 different components to be replaced by the user.
Should you need to replace the Fairphone’s attractive and compact new 6.31-inch adaptive 120Hz LTPO pOLED display, for example, it’ll cost you £76.70/€89.95 for the replacement part, direct from Fairphone. Compare that to having to send your base iPhone 16 off to Apple for a screen replacement – such a fix would set you back a comparatively gargantuan £289/€338.99.
The camera modules are also once again replaceable, with Fairphone letting you swap out the likes of the new Pantone-validated Sony LYT-700C main sensor, which promises improved low-light performance, plus 4K and 240fps slow-motion video capture options.
With the Fairphone 5, the company made the interesting decision to opt for Qualcomm’s QCM6490, a chipset more commonly used in smart home devices.
The reasoning was that Fairphone would be able to offer software support for a longer term than even Qualcomm has planned for, but with the 2025 Fairphone, users are getting a far more conventional Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (the same great chip powering the Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro ), whilst still benefitting from the company’s impressive long-term commitment to OS and security updates.
At the launch event in Amsterdam, Fairphone committed to at least seven generations of OS updates (equal to that of Google and Samsung), with the phone arriving on Android 15, while wider support for the phone was promised to last until at least 2033 (that’s eight years, on par with the Fairphone 5).
Speaking of software, along with a familiar, near-stock build of Android, the Fairphone 6 boasts a new lime hardware switch, which is used to activate the ‘Fairphone Moments’ experience.
Much like Minimalist Phone , ‘Fairphone Moments’ strips back UI elements, notifications and most of your apps, resulting in a clean, distraction-free mode designed to help you disconnect from your smartphone with greater intentionality. The fact that this is a subscription-free experience helps it stand against otherwise-similar stripped-back Android launchers, too.
Those with privacy concerns will also have the option of a “deGoogled” version of the 2025 Fairphone, running on the Android Open Source-based /e/OS .
The Fairphone 6 launched on 25 June in the UK and Europe, and you can buy one now from the Fairphone website .
It’s priced at £499/€599 for the base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, though the latter can be expanded via Micro-SD card up to 2TB. That makes it very much a mid-range phone , though it’s unlike anything else you can currently buy.
US availability is reportedly planned for August this year, with more details on pricing and availability to follow nearer the time.
Author: Alex Walker-Todd, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Having covered every smartphone, tablet and wearable worth shouting about over the past ten years, Alex lives and breathes tech.
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