As right-to-repair rules spread and buyers grow weary of sealed, disposable slabs, a handful of companies are betting that people will pay for a device they can actually open up and keep going for years.
Fairphone has been the standard-bearer for well over a decade, and its newest handset pushes that idea into fresh territory. The Fairphone 6+, also called the Gen 6+, is the first Fairphone to launch officially in the US, sold directly rather than through an unofficial retailer. It builds on the Fairphone Gen 6 we covered earlier this year, keeping the same modular chassis while nudging the internals forward.
Fairphone pitches the 6+ as "the Fairphone you already know, but better where it matters most," which is a reasonable summary of a phone that prizes longevity over spec-sheet bragging rights. For US shoppers who have watched flagship prices climb while repairs stay frustratingly out of reach, a mid-range phone designed from the outset to be opened, fixed, and updated for the better part of a decade feels like a whole new product category.
Under the hood, the 6+ is a measured upgrade on the base model rather than a full reinvention. It swaps in Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 and bumps memory to 12 GB, making it the first Fairphone with that much RAM, alongside 256 GB of storage that expands via microSD.
The 6.31-inch OLED screen runs at up to 120 Hz, and there's a 50-MP main camera, a 13-MP ultrawide, and a 32-MP selfie shooter, with the main sensor adding optical stabilization. The 4,415-mAh battery is removable and supports 30-W charging, and the whole thing carries an IP55 rating with Gorilla Glass 7i up front.
The real story, as ever, is repairability. Twelve components come apart with a single Torx screwdriver, with official spares priced from around $8 to $90, so a cracked screen or tired battery doesn't mean a new phone. Fairphone also keeps its lime-green Switch, which flips the phone into a stripped-back Fairphone Moments mode that blocks unwanted notifications and shows only a short list of essential apps. It's a hardware take on the anti-distraction idea we've seen elsewhere, like the Light Flip.
Pricing lands at US$649.99 (or €649 in Europe), for a single configuration in Cobalt Blue, Forest Green, or Horizon Black. Previously, Americans could only get a Fairphone through Murena, running a de-Googled version of Android, and the Fairphone 6 was considerably more expensive at $899. The 6+ ships with standard Android 16 and Google services, sold through Fairphone's own store, with support for T-Mobile and AT&T. It will soon be available on Amazon US too.
What you're paying for isn't raw power, since plenty of rivals offer similar performance for less money. It's the promise of a phone that sticks around. Fairphone backs the 6+ with a five-year warranty and years of software updates, stretching to 2032, plus Fairtrade materials and a carbon footprint the company pegs at about 30 kg of CO2 per device. That ethos runs back through the lineup to the Fairphone 5 and beyond.
In a market that still leans on yearly upgrades and glued-shut designs, the 6+ makes the case that the most sustainable phone is simply the one you keep. Its US arrival finally gives American buyers a shot at that.
Product page: Fairphone 6+
