The Fairphone 6 is an ethical Android phone that | Tech News

Are you fearful concerning the setting, staff’ rights and e-waste as a lot as about your habit to social media and losing your time gazing apps? If so, then the Fairphone 6 is likely to be the smartphone for you.

It’s a succesful, handsome system made by a company that says it is dedicated to producing merchandise in a really ethical method. Fairphone (additionally the title of the Dutch company) says it ensures many people concerned in its provide chain are paid pretty, with as many elements as doable for its merchandise sourced ethically and sustainably.

The Fairphone 6 is its newest release, a £499 modular Android smartphone with replaceable elements, 5 yr guarantee and software program replace help for eight years, a promise that beats that of industry giants Google and Samsung.

I’ve been testing the phone to see whether or not or not you’re giving up efficiency ranges and digicam high quality to own a phone from a company with a heightened ethical conscience. One of the phone’s most notable distinctive perks is a mode that immediately switches the Android working system into a dumbed-down mode designed to current a easier system.

Without the attract of social media and different distracting apps, it makes an attempt to offer a dumbphone expertise that doesn’t drive you to offer up utilizing a smartphone, useful for whenever you need entry to the digital instruments and apps that a actual dumbphone would in any other case require you to offer up.

This new Moments mode is activated with the fluorescent yellow change on the facet of the phone. It clicks the entire working system from full Android to a black and white home screen with a listing of up to 5 apps, which you’ll select. Of course, you’ll be able to simply click on the change back and entry a entire world of distracting apps, however I discovered it fairly efficient to activate whereas working as a visible reminder to not faucet on Instagram.

Apps within the listing nonetheless open into their full variations, however they’re the one 5 that will likely be obtainable to you in Moments mode.

The Fairphone 6’s {hardware} feels fashionable although the chunky plastic construct and screen bezels remind you this isn’t a phone constructed to really feel as premium as the most recent iPhone. The payoff is a system that is far much less disposable and more repairable than any fashionable Apple product.

Thanks to detachable screws (you’ll need to at the very least add a screwdriver for £8.66 to your online buy, some repairs require different instruments) you’ll be able to take off the back panel of the phone and entry many of the elements to exchange them. Fairphone shares every part on its web site for sale from the battery to every particular person digicam module, USB-C port, loudspeaker and plenty of more. If one thing breaks, the thought is to repair the phone moderately than throw it away or stash it in a drawer.

Fairphone costs £78.27 for a user-replaceable show for the Fairphone 6. Apple costs £289 so that you can ship your iPhone 16 off for a new screen for those who don’t pay for AppleCare+. Apple will charge you a similar £289 for the show so that you can restore it your self by way of a service the company seems to offer as a tickbox train to appease regulators and to push clients in the direction of not doing it themselves.

Samsung additionally costs north of £200 for self-repair screen kits for a lot of of its telephones. Fairphone’s elements are far cheaper and the phone is really person repairable. What you lose in premium construct you gain in sustainability.

As properly as modifications on the inside, the Fairphone 6 additionally affords non-compulsory equipment that connect to the skin. Removing the back plate allows you to screw on a card holder or finger loop, plus there’s a lanyard that attaches if you wish to sling the phone throughout you want a bag.

One factor you’ll be able to’t change or improve is the chipset, which is a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 from Qualcomm. It is decidedly mid-range in 2025, and after a few efficiency hiccups in my testing I’m a little involved about how it’ll maintain up over the following eight years. After a software program replace, I finished seeing the difficulty that brought about the phone to crawl to a halt, and as soon as even freeze utterly. That’s a little regarding, nevertheless it has at the very least been fixed.

Paired with 8GB RAM, this isn’t a phone to buy to play high-end cellular video games on nevertheless it’ll be more than tremendous for many apps for many people. Fairphone offering 256GB storage on this £499 phone additionally places Apple and Google to disgrace, each solely offering 128GB on the £799 iPhone 16 and £799 Pixel 10.

The phone ships with Android 15, and due to the promise of eight years of software program help you’ll nonetheless get security updates till 2033. Judging by previous Fairphone fashions’ updates, I wouldn’t depend on that which means you’ll get eight new Android variations to Android 23, however security patches ought to keep you protected from digital gremlins.

The most disappointing side of the Fairphone 6 is the cameras, however you may anticipate this for the price and the opposite issues the firm is centered on. Only the principle 50MP digicam produced first rate pictures, and even then I needed to wrestle with the main target and brightness when capturing to make sure high quality.

A 13MP ultrawide is merely tremendous, however with no telephoto lens, zooming is a massive no, with high quality deteriorating as quickly as you punch in. If you care deeply about cameras, this isn’t the phone to get.

But if you need a phone that you might be assured you’ll be able to restore long into the longer term with a 5 yr guarantee that doesn’t compromise on performance, the Fairphone 6 ticks each box. All telephones might be this simply repairable, however a future the place the main smartphone makers embrace it looks as if a pipe dream.

In a world the place we often don’t assume twice earlier than shopping for a disposable product, it’s reassuring to see a company so dedicated to producing an ethically minded model of our most personal piece of technology.

The Fairphone 6 prices from £499 from Fairphone’s web site