I have always loved the idea of the Fairphone. A fair-trade, repairable smartphone designed to be used for a long time, shedding the notion of upgrading every year or two. The idea makes it more environmentally friendly than every other phone. The goal is admirable, but the company's hardware always fell short in a few ways. The Fairphone 5, for example, had a mediocre camera and so-so performance.
I've now been using The Fairphone (Gen. 6) for two weeks, and I don't feel like the phone is severely lacking in a specific department. Could the camera be better? Sure, but many of the images in my photo library from my test period are perfectly serviceable. The biggest downside is that the company still isn't selling the phone officially in the US, though you can import it. US carrier support is spotty—it should be fine on T-Mobile and its mobile virtual network providers (I tested it on Google Fi without problems)—but you will likely face issues on AT&T and Verizon.
Find the idea of an ethical smartphone that runs Google's Android operating system perplexing? You'll be happy to know that you can buy the Fairphone (Gen. 6) with Murena's deGoogled /e/OS operating system (which we reviewed positively here). I didn't test this version, which costs an alarming $899, but the Fairphone is an investment, considering you'll be able to replace several components of the device throughout its life.
Core Update
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
The Fairphone (Gen. 6) continues the tradition of scoring a perfect 10 on iFixit's repairability scale like its predecessors, a rating no other smartphone has achieved. It comes with a screwdriver, and there are 12 easy-to-replace parts, from the battery and screen to the camera and USB port. You also get a five-year warranty, and Fairphone promises at least seven Android OS upgrades and eight years of total software support (it launched with Android 15).
I wasn't worried about repairability, but I did hold this review because I wanted to see how the company handled software updates. I've been dealing with a display refresh rate issue, where at certain times, the screen's refresh rate would ratchet well below 120 Hz, making the phone feel choppy and slow. A restart was an easy but annoying solution. Thankfully, the company identified this bug early and delivered a patch on August 11. It's not completely resolved, but it's definitely better. (There's a healthy community forum!)
I've run into two other problems intermittently. Twice, the phone froze, and I had to force a restart to fix it (I haven't seen this issue since the update). Second, the auto-brightness feature always makes the screen too dim, so I was constantly fussing with the brightness slider. (This could just be my need to have the screen at what my wife calls “blinding” brightness levels.)