Fairphone reaches the US market with the spec-bumped, still-repairable Gen 6+

Fairphone, the Dutch maker known for repairable and ethically sourced smartphones, is selling directly in the United States for the first time. American buyers can now order an unlocked Fairphone (Gen 6+) along with the company’s Fairbuds and Fairbuds XL earbuds through a dedicated US web shop, ending a long-standing gap that had kept the brand largely confined to Europe.

The Gen 6+ is an incremental refresh of last year’s Gen 6 rather than a redesign. It swaps in a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chip and doubles RAM to 12GB of DDR5 (up from 8GB), which the company claims yields roughly 24% faster app loading and smoother multitasking. It ships with Android 16 and a promise of six OS upgrades and software support through 2033. Crucially, the upgrades don’t touch Fairphone’s core pitch: a modular design with 12 user-replaceable parts, a warranty of up to five years, and construction from 51% fair and recycled materials. A new Cobalt Blue finish is a deliberate reference to the company’s roots as a conflict-mineral awareness campaign.

The more interesting angle for privacy-minded users is on the software side. A new local Gallery app lets owners store photos and videos on the device without leaning on third-party or paid cloud services, and the company’s digital-minimalism Fairphone Moments mode gains more customization. Both updates are also being pushed to existing Gen 6 owners rather than reserved for the new hardware — a stance consistent with Fairphone’s longevity messaging, though the Gen 6+ remains a modest, mid-range device competing on ethics and repairability rather than raw performance.