The Fairphone 6 Plus is a minor {hardware} refresh, however a significant launch for the corporate: It’s the primary telephone that Fairphone is promoting immediately within the US. It’s on sale now for $649.99, out there by means of Fairphone’s web site and Amazon, and is bought unlocked with assist for each T-Cell and AT&T. In Europe, it prices €649, a €50 improve on final yr’s telephone.
Fairphones from the 4 onwards have been in the stores within the US, however by no means from Fairphone itself. They had been completely bought by means of a partnership with Murena, the developer of /e/OS, a “de-Googled” version of Android. That meant patrons had been pressured to make use of Murena’s software program — which is succesful, however actually an acquired style — and paid a major premium for the telephone. Final yr’s Fairphone 6 bought for $899.
The 6 Plus is in the end a really related machine to the Fairphone 6, which isn’t any dangerous factor — I appreciated the 6 quite a bit, giving it 7/10 in my review last year, and would have scored it larger had been it not for the unfriendly US price ticket. The 6 Plus builds on it with a quicker chipset — Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, which is firmly midrange however a stable performer — and an industry-bucking bounce as much as 12GB of RAM.
Different specs are similar. You get the identical 6.31-inch OLED show (the “Plus” within the title doesn’t point out any precise improve in dimension), primary double rear digital camera, and 4,415mAh battery. Storage stays at 256GB, with a microSD card slot for growth by one other 2TB. It launches operating Android 16, and can obtain software program assist till 2033.
The design is similar too, which means this telephone is prone to match the 10/10 repairability score that iFixit gave to the 6. Substitute elements shall be bought within the US, starting from $7.99 for a SIM tray to $89.99 for a brand new show, and nearly your complete telephone will be disassembled with a single Torx T5 screwdriver, one thing I put to the check with final yr’s Fairphone 6.
There’s additionally a variety of modular equipment, together with a card holder and lanyard, which screw onto the telephone’s rear. These are additionally similar to final yr’s Fairphone 6 vary, other than a brand new blue coloration, additionally out there for the telephone itself. It’s named Cobalt Blue, in a nod to the corporate’s ongoing efforts to assist extra moral cobalt mining.
Fairphone has been constructing as much as the US launch of the 6 Plus, bringing audio merchandise to Amazon US beginning with the Fairbuds XL over-ear headphones last November. Alongside the announcement of the 6 Plus, the corporate has confirmed {that a} new pair of earbuds, the Fairbuds 2, will launch in This autumn this yr, and “will set a brand new bar for repairability and efficiency.” The corporate says it is going to reveal extra in October.
