The modular Fairphone 6 could be a game changer for upgradability and repairability — and it needs to come to the US

Tom's Guide

4 days ago

I've happily used an iPhone for the past six years, but the thing I hate about it the most is that you can't repair anything yourself. If your screen cracks, camera lens breaks or the charging port gets damaged, then off you must trot to Apple for a pricey repair job.
I'm not just taking jabs at Apple though, this is broadly true of all the best phones. If something breaks, the manufacturers have made it difficult, if not impossible (physically or economically), for you to fix it.
The Fairphone series is different. It has a modular design with easily switchable components, a long warranty, and extended parts availability, so you should be able to keep your phone in working order for five years or more.
We're just a day away from the launch of the Fairphone 6 (to be announced on June 25), which sounds like it'll be the most repairable version of the phone yet. But I'm still praying that it'll actually come to the U.S. this time.
I'm old enough to remember when you could grab a Nokia phone, slide the external case off, and change the battery. This is the phone I grew up with, one where you're not locked out but invited in to change components.
And can you imagine how much easier it'd be if you could carry a small battery to switch in when you're running out of power instead of a large power bank?
That's one of the most immediately notable things about the Fairphone, especially the Fairphone 6. According to WinFuture, the latest iteration of the repairable phone will have a two-part rear cover; one for the camera and another to expose the battery.
Although it looks like it'll be technically possible to remove the case, it does appear to be held on with a few small screws, so hot swaps on the go probably won't be practical. But one of the first things to go bad on any phone is the battery. So being able to change the battery will extend the life of your phone, which is one of Fairphone's aims.
In fairness, a lot of the big brands have got better at this, offering longer update support to keep devices in play for longer. But my partner's iPhone 13 Pro battery dropped below 60% capacity recently on a phone just a few years old, and we got it replaced at the Apple Store. That cost almost $100, while Fairphone sells replacement batteries for just under $50.
Five years ago, I tested the Fairphone 3 for MakeUseOf. I loved the ethics of the company (they aim to have traceability on all components and ensure fair labor practices) and the approach of the phone, but the trade-off with less remarkable performance.
But the situation has dramatically improved now, based on what we've heard of the Fairphone 6 from WinFuture. It'll have a 6.31-inch 120Hz OLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage (expandable up to 2TB) and a fingerprint reader hidden in the power button.
Those are far from flagship specs, but are similar to the internals of the Google Pixel 9a, one of our favorite cheap phones. And even though the Pixel 9a is just a fraction below $500 and the Fairphone 6 is rumored to launch at €550 ($640), the modular design of the Fairphone means you could keep the phone running for a lot longer with performance updates, even considering Google's promised seven years of software up
Earlier in the year, I reported on the fallout from the Trump tariffs imposed with little warning on all goods imported to the U.S. These affected pretty much every product across every industry, but one of the most notable (for me) was Framework.
Within not much time at all, the company worked it out enough to still bring its repairable laptops to the U.S. And this is incredibly good news; these tariffs, whether at the baseline 10% or something higher, are going to make things more expensive.
There have been price rises almost across the board on laptops, headphones, smartwatches and phones launching in the U.S. Some brands have been upfront about why, others less so, but either way, it's going to hurt your wallet.
So it's going to make upgrading to a new $1,000 iPhone every couple of years a lot less appealing. The Fairphone 6 could be the solution, but only if the company brings it to the U.S.
Fairphone is a European company, and generally doesn't sell direct in the U.S. That's why, although I loved them, I couldn't recommend the brand's repairable Fairbuds earbuds as some of the best workout headphones.
However, in the past, it partnered with Murena, developer of the de-Googled Android edition known as e/OS. Through Murena, you could buy a Google-free version of the Fairphone 4, though not the Fairphone 5.
But given that iFixit rated the Fairphone 5 a perfect 10/10 for repairability, let's hope that tomorrow we find that the latest model will land on American shores at some point this year, for the planet and for your wallet.