Fairphone 6 review: a new high watermark for the eco-friendly phone

Dimensions:

156.5 x 73.3 x 9.6mm

Weight:

193g

Screen:

6.31-inch 20:9 FHD (1116 x 2484) 120Hz OLED

Chipset:

Snapdragon 7s Gen 3

RAM:

8GB

Storage:

256GB

OS:

Android 15

Primary camera:

50MP, f/1.6

Ultra-wide camera:

13MP f/2.2 116-degree

Front camera:

32MP, f/2.0

Audio:

Stereo speakers

Battery:

4,415mAh

Charging:

30W wired

Colors:

Green, white, black

As with past models, the Fairphone 6 is a pretty blocky handset, but it makes sense for reasons we’ll get to in a bit. It comes in white, green or black; my review unit was white but the accessories were green, hence the color clash, and I found the white model picked up marks and stains pretty easily.

The phone measures 156.5 x 73.3 x 9.6mm and weighs 193g, so it’s a little smaller than many other contemporary Androids but is pretty thick.

The bottom edge of the phone has the USB-C port but there’s no audio jack. On the left side there’s the volume rocker, which I struggled to readily reach, and replacing it on the right edge of the phone, just above the power button, is a slider.

The function of this slider can be picked from the Settings menu; you can use it to turn on Do Not Disturb, Flight Mode, Torch, Dark Mode, Battery Saver or to turn on Fairphone Moments, a stripped-back menu with quick links to the phone’s most useful functions (maps, messages etc). I personally switched it to torch, because I love it when a phone has a quick way to turn on the flashlight.

Housed in the power button is the phone’s fingerprint sensor, as the Fairphone 6 doesn’t have an under-display scanner. In testing, I found this reliable and quick to use.

The Fairphone 6 is one of the few phones that I don’t feel you need to buy a case for, as by default it feels like it’s clad in an armor of hard plastic. But there’s more; not only does it have IP55 certification against dust ingress and water, it has the military-grade MIL-STD-810H protection too. This means it’s passed tests designed by the US Department of Defense to check that it’s reliable in military situations, so it can withstand altitude, extreme temperatures, humidity, intense shocks and so on. You (hopefully) won’t need any of these protections, but it’s a useful little piece of mind so that you know the Fairphone is hardy.

The unique selling point of the Fairphone 6 is that it’s fully repairable; not by an expert or specialist but by you. If a part of your ecp-friendly phone is damaged you can easily buy a new one on Fairphone’s website and replace it with a screwdriver (the company’s video tutorials might help), saving you buying a whole new device if one component is damaged. This is that eco ethos in action.

It’s also the case with accessories, as you can remove the phone’s back panel and replace it with a card holder, a finger loop or similar. The ability to be easily modded like this is perhaps the Fairphone 6’s most distinct upgrade over its predecessor and, frankly, is pretty fun to do too (Fairphone sent me each of the accessories along with the phone, though they’re not included in-box).

Compared to the behemoth screens of some flagship Android phones, the Fairphone 6 might feel a bit small (or ‘compact’, which is the diplomatic word choice). The display measures 6.31 inches across, so it matches the iPhone 17 in this regard.

The resolution is 1116 x 2484, just a hair above FHD+, and it has a 120Hz refresh rate in a notable upgrade over the last-gen Fairphone. The max brightness is 1,400 nits which is fine, but not as bright as many rivals, and I wouldn’t have minded a bit of extra shine for use on sunny days.

Most of the time, though, the Fairphone 6 display works well, especially since it totes the same number of pixels as a much bigger display but crammed down into a smaller screen to increase the pixels-per-inch count.

Fairphone is one of the few remaining companies to use ‘true’ stock Android – not an Android fork, and not stock Android buried under so many customizations that it feels like a fork anyway.

In the case of the Fairphone 6 that means you’re looking at Android 15, and all the features that come with it: live location sharing, dodgy text warnings, screen time tracking and so on. The handset is due to get upgrades for the next seven years, which would take you up to Android 22 in the year 2033 (if that’s what Google decides to call it).

If you like a clean interface with no added bells and whistles, you’ll like the Fairphone 6’s software. You start free from bloatware and can build up your app library just how you like it.

Fairphone does have one addition: its own app is included on the device at start, and while you can remove it, there are some useful features. Firstly, it lets you find information about the device at a tap, instead of buried away in the Settings menu (although mine told me I had 0GB RAM and 0GB storage, perhaps an issue with a review unit. It lets you buy spare parts and accessories quickly too, providing video tutorials on how to add or replace parts.

But the most important is a phone health option, so you can see how much memory and storage you’ve used up, and also what the phone’s temperature is, giving you a little insight into its operations. The benefit of this is for the device’s longevity, so you can keep it ticking longer.

Judging by a look at the specs list, Fairphone 6 isn’t being dragged into the camera- sensor pixel wars, dropping many from the past model. Its main camera is a 50MP f/1.6 snapper and it’s joined by a 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide as well as a 3D time-of-flight sensor. Those specs are absolutely fine for a low-cost phone (except the TOF sensor, a relic of yesteryear, which nine times out of ten doesn’t contribute anything) but nothing to write home about.

Photos taken on the phone are… fine. Forgive the boring descriptor but it’s the most apt one. Snaps have lots of image quality but not much in the way of dynamic range, with a single cloud in the sky dooming the photo with a noticeable lack of color or vibrancy.

In well-lit scenarios things fared a little better, but only a little; the greens of a natural landscape blur into one and a little extra contrast would go a long way. Still, they’re fine-looking for sharing around, especially if you don’t mind going into the edit menu and sprucing them up a little.

Fairphone’s mobiles have rarely had much in the way of photo post-processing optimization, at least compared to competitors, and that’s the case again. It won’t impress anybody but this is a phone for saving the planet, not for capturing sparkly pictures flaunting all the air miles you’ve burned by going to a remote beach for your holiday.

On the front there’s a 32MP f/2.0 camera for snapping selfies and I generally found it pretty fit for purpose, if still indicative of the rear cameras’ issues; snaps could be a little washed-out and colorless.

For a brief whip around the other specs: you can record video at 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps, and down to 120fps at 1080p in slow-motion mode. Most of the other modes are ones you expect: Pro, panorama, time-lapse and night mode.

There are two modes I’ll flag. First is portrait, with the Fairphone 6 surprisingly touting one of the best iterations of this mode I’ve seen. While snaps weren’t exactly vibrant, the bokeh background blur was accurate and varied in intensity depending on the distance to the phone, which is something I rarely see; that could be the TOF sensor in effect.

The other mode is macro, which really didn’t work too well. Like on most phones without a dedicated macro lens it uses the ultra-wide one, resulting in a pixel-heavy pic, missing the depth of field that such pictures should have. In testing I always turned off macro mode and relied on the main camera for such shots instead.

Image 1 of 11

As is the way with Fairphone’s mobiles, the Gen 6 doesn’t have a top-end chip, but it has enough power that you won’t find it too slow for everyday use. The chipset here is the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, which we’ve also seen in the likes of the Nothing Phone 3(a) Pro and Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus.

This is a mid-range piece of kit, capable of handling gaming in a mostly fine fashion, though maybe not at the top graphics options if you don’t want stutters, and all everyday tasks.

When I put the phone through a Geekbench 6 benchmark test, it returned a multi-core average score of 3,430, which reflects the chipset; Snapdragon 600s often sit at around 2,000 points while 800s I’ve tested recently have gone to the mid 4,000s.

Paired with the chipset is 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, and there’s only one configuration available. While 8GB RAM is nothing to write home about, a spec that flags this as a mobile not designed for power-users, the storage is a solid amount that compensates for the lack of a microSD card slot.

It’s 2025 so of course there’s no 3.5mm audio jack for audio, Fairphone ditched that years ago when everyone else did. Instead you can listen to music using the Bluetooth 5.4 support or using a USB-C adaptor. The stereo speakers aren’t exactly impressive but that’s normal for a smartphone.

The Fairphone 6 has a 4,415mAh battery, one which the company estimates will keep you going for “almost two days” from 100% power. I wouldn’t go that far, and I’d put the lasting power at about a day, or a little bit longer if you’re not an intensive user.

That’s a fine battery life for a smartphone, even if 4,415mAh may seem anemic given that most contemporaries have pushed it to 6,000mAh. Fairphone’s own optimizations and software and spec choices often counter smaller-capacity batteries.

Of course, if your battery starts to diminish or go wrong, it’s one of the many parts of the phone you can swap out very easily.

Charging is done at 30W, which is again a little lower than rivals, and you’ll have to wait for well over an hour to get from empty to full. There’s no kind of reverse or wireless powering.

What price would you put on a phone that looks after the planet?

Rhetoric aside, the Fairphone 6 isn’t priced particularly competitively when you look at the specs, but what sets its apart is its lasting power.

Not only does its IP and military certification ensure it’ll survive damage much better than other handsets on the market, but the fact you can replace ailing parts ensures that the mobile’s lifespan will far outstrip anything else you might be considering.

After all, the average phone lasts for under three years, especially cheaper models. The Fairphone 6 will last you longer than multiple other models if you let it.