Fairphone has spent close to a decade selling repairable smartphones, but until now they haven’t exactly been the easiest tech to come by. Buying one in the U.S. has always required some finagling. The newly announced Fairphone (Gen 6+) will switch up this model by allowing American consumers to purchase the phone directly from Amazon or Fairphone, no workarounds required.
In order to purchase past iterations of the Fairphone, prospective owners had to go through a third-party middleman called Murena, the developer of a “de-Googled” version of Android (the “e/OS” fork). The Fairphone 6+ is the company’s first new phone to be released in the U.S. running full-fledged Android software. It’s even available for use on AT&T and T-Mobile’s cellular networks.
Fairphone’s pitch remains the same as ever: it’s a phone you can actually take apart at home to repair. The 6+ maintains the same repairable design as last year’s model, allowing owners to swap up to 12 parts with just a screwdriver. That includes the battery, USB-C port, display, cameras, and more. Buying new parts will run you anywhere from $7.99 for a SIM tray to $89.99 for a new screen.
The only big change from the Fairphone 6 to the Gen 6+ is its chipset—the new version has been upgraded to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4. Alongside 12GB of RAM, this should be a noticeable step up in power from the Fairphone 6. Pretty much every other spec here is the same: a 6.31-inch OLED screen, two rear cameras (50-megapixel main and 13-megapixel ultrawide), 256GB of storage, and a 4,415mAh battery. The 6+ comes in a new “Cobalt Blue” color, speaking to the company’s support of ethical coal mining.
A number of modular accessories are available for purchase now, too, including a card holder, a finger loop, a lanyard, and a protective case, all of which retail for $30 or less.
At $650, the Fairphone 6+ isn’t exactly cheap—especially for a device running this particular processor—but it is much less expensive than the $900 U.S. buyers had to fork over for last year’s Fairphone 6 via Murena. And you do have to factor in the repairability here, which is the Fariphone’s raison d’être. You’re not just paying for a midrange Android phone; you’re paying for a phone that can be repaired at home for years to come.
