Fairphone (Gen. 6+) Review: Repairable, Faster, Still Compromised

Fairphone returns with an upgraded version of the Fairphone (Gen. 6), released just a year earlier. That model paired the company's modular approach with a more modern design, and the Fairphone (Gen. 6+) now concentrates on faster internal hardware while retaining the same repair-focused structure.

Fairphone says more than 50% of the materials are recycled. The handset is organised into twelve replaceable parts that can be reached with an ordinary screwdriver, making modular repair the defining feature rather than a decorative promise.

Fairphone presents this as its fastest phone yet. It is the first model from the brand to pair 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM with a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 under Android 16. The company also promises software updates until 2033, positioning long support and replaceable hardware as its answer to established rivals such as the Xiaomi 17T, Honor 600 and Samsung Galaxy S25 FE.

The Fairphone (Gen. 6+) keeps the industrial design of its predecessor, with careful finishing, sharp edges and a straight-sided silhouette. Its 156.5 x 73.3 x 9.6 mm and 191 g make for a compact handset whose thickness registers more to the eye than in the hand. Construction leans heavily on plastic, a choice that does not stop the device feeling genuinely robust. The matt coating on the back improves grip and holds few fingerprints, although it becomes less secure with sweaty summer hands.

The camera modules are no longer boxed into an island and are integrated directly into the shell. They barely stand proud of the chassis, so the phone stays stable on a table. Two of the three are used to take pictures; the third is there for show. On the front, the selfie camera sits in a central punch-hole at the top of the screen. The bezels around the panel have not been slimmed since the Fairphone (Gen. 6) and remain fairly wide, with a slight asymmetry. The display occupies just 84% of the available surface, and The display uses Gorilla Glass 7i.

The real distinguishing feature hides beneath the removable rear cover. Two visible screws hold it in place; loosen them and the cover slides off to give access to the battery, the screen and other replaceable parts, with no specialist workshop required. The manufacturer sells those parts separately. This design makes repairs far easier, while Fairphone lists an IP55 rating.

The Fairphone (Gen. 6+) supports Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC and 5G with either a nano-SIM or an eSIM. Storage can be extended to 2 TB via microSD. The volume keys sit on the left. On the right, the power key incorporates the biometric reader, and above it a sliding switch can trigger a simplified mode called Fairphone Moments or be assigned to other functions in the manner of Apple's Action button. Fairphone also plays the customisation card with accessories that are not supplied, such as a card holder or a lanyard, which attach to the back using the same two screws.

The Fairphone (Gen. 6+) uses a 6.31in LTPO OLED panel displaying 1116 x 2484 pixels, or 431 ppi. The move to an adaptive refresh rate of 10 to 120 Hz is a clear advance on older panels capped at 90 Hz: fluidity adjusts automatically to what is on screen in order to spare the battery without sacrificing comfort, and it can also be fixed at 60, 90 or 120 Hz. The OLED panel adds deep blacks, practically infinite contrast and no image persistence, which makes the display particularly pleasant day to day.

Colour rendering is convincing straight out of the box, with a measured Delta E of 3.05 and a temperature of 6,622 K. Natural mode refines the result further, to 2.67 and 6,565 K, which is as close as it gets to the 6,500 K of the video reference standard. Maximum brightness reaches 1,133 cd/m² and drops as low as 1.89 cd/m², which suits dark-room use but is less impressive in strong sunshine. Reflectance close to 46% does not help outdoors either, where reflections can intrude on legibility.

Where the Fairphone (Gen. 6) relied last year on the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 and 8 GB of RAM, this upgraded version moves to the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, already found in the Honor 600. Built on a 4 nm process and now paired with 12 GB of memory, this mid-range Qualcomm chip combines a Cortex-A720 Prime core at 2.7 GHz, three units at 2.4 GHz and four more at 1.8 GHz, with an Adreno 810 GPU. The result is convincing: browsing, launching apps and multitasking all stay quick and fluid. The light interface contributes to that sense of responsiveness, a long way from the limits of the IoT-derived chips used up to the Fairphone 5.

Mobile gaming does not trouble it either. Under test it held a stable frame rate of around 92 frames per second. That is nonetheless a lower figure than the Fairphone (Gen. 6) managed, probably the price of a more cautious tuning intended to contain heat and preserve the battery. It does not stop the phone being comfortable with demanding titles such as Genshin Impact or PUBG, and the vast majority of the Play Store catalogue should run without particular difficulty.

The Fairphone (Gen. 6+) carries a 50 megapixel Sony Lytia 700C main sensor, with a wide-angle lens opening at f/1.88 and optical stabilisation, plus a 13 Mpx ultra-wide at f/2.2.

In daylight the main sensor delivers convincing images. The centre benefits from fine precision and plenty of detail, at the cost of contours that are far too heavily accentuated. Colours stay natural, exposure is accurate and dynamic range preserves bright and dark areas properly. Taken together it shows appreciable progress and produces reliable shots in good light.

In dim conditions the results remain usable but show their limits more clearly. Detail gradually fades, especially towards the edges, while the software processing suppresses noise effectively at the cost of very visible smoothing. Colours stay faithful, with a warmer cast. Shadows become less legible, highlights hold up better, but contrast loses some of its vigour.

The ultra-wide is acceptable during the day without rivalling the best. The centre stays sufficiently precise, but the edges soften quickly and textures sometimes lack naturalness. Colours are broadly accurate, if a little less saturated than those of the main module. Vignetting is contained, while a slight distortion typical of this focal length appears.

Night suits it far less well. Sharpness falls across the whole frame, textures disappear and noise becomes clearly visible in the darker areas. The processing tries to clean up the scene, but removes a great many small details along the way. Colours also lose fidelity and vignetting increases. The result is therefore fairly weak as soon as the light drops.

The 32 Mpx selfie camera produces successful self-portraits in full light, with detailed faces and well-controlled shadows. Portrait mode isolates the subject correctly, even if the cut-out can look slightly heavy-handed and stumble on hair or other fine elements. In video, the Fairphone (Gen. 6+) films in 4K at 30 fps with both the front and rear cameras. The optical stabilisation on the main sensor limits unwanted movement effectively.

The Fairphone (Gen. 6+) keeps the same 4,415 mAh battery and returned 17 hours 26 minutes on a mixed-use test protocol. That is nearly an hour less than the Fairphone (Gen. 6), but it remains a very good result by the brand's standards and clearly ahead of earlier generations. Against considerably more enduring competitors the gap is still substantial: it will see out a full day, but an evening charge will probably be necessary.

There is no wireless charging here, despite how common it has become elsewhere. The Fairphone (Gen. 6+) does support up to 30 W over a cable and takes around 1 hour 14 minutes to fill up. Neither a charger nor a cable is supplied. Its modular construction does offer a practical alternative, since the battery can be swapped quickly using a part sold by the manufacturer, which helps keep the handset going for as long as possible even if it runs out of puff sooner than others.

Accessible repairability, a replaceable battery, microSD expansion and software updates running to 2033 are the pillars of the Fairphone (Gen. 6+) argument. On a straight specification comparison it does not win: the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE feels more premium and lasts noticeably longer, the Xiaomi 17T is brighter and more versatile in photography, and the Honor 600 is unbeatable on battery life. The Fairphone plays a different game, and it is a game none of them plays at all.