my mum bought a fairphone 3 about 5 years ago and is extremely happy with it, so far she’s gone through one usb-c port and one battery. it looks and feels exactly like a normal phone but it pops open with just 4 screws. helping her fix it has taught me that phone manufacturers could make repairable phones easily and they all just choose not to
I used to run a small electronics repair business and you are 1 billion percent correct. Slowly watching things over the years become unrepairable was just such an obvious business decision for profit over customer satisfaction. There is absolutely no reason to make those changes unless you have a profit driven motive. So so so many electronics used to be like the fairphone your mom has. Pop it open, take out what’s broke, replace it with some OEM or 3rd party part you bought for like 2 dollars and you’re all set. It’s so frustrating nowadays with how purposefully difficult manufacturers make any repairability. Can’t even change a damn battery in your phone now! lol
I remember the glory days where my alarm would go off for school and I’d just take the battery out of my phone to get it to shut up
Man I remember when my Mom was actually able to fix a VCR at home with simple tools as well. That VCR lasted as long as sears repaired shops and then they were out of business and the VCR was out for good.
The situation won’t improve until some big company goes full “IBM PC” thing with open AT, ISA, VESA, etc tier standards for phones.
This phone is better just because you can open the case. Spare parts are still provided by a single company. Not a big step ahead.
Better than nothing though…
Better than Nothing though.
Nothing phone has a pretty average repairability score, so I’d assume so.
the wheels of justice turn slowly 🐌
With all respect, I still think an iPhone is a better chance at having spare parts many years ahead. I am confident I can find some spare parts of iPhone 4S. Would that hold for FairPhone or a similar phone? If not, the benefit is an illusion. Unless, I think, you can produce that part yourself.
First party spare parts or third party sketchy spare parts?
Spare part availability comes partly from the popularity of a phone, and iPhones were pretty popular.
Fairphone is just starting to get some steam, so third party spare part may start appearing in the future. same for used parts.Fairphones got a lot better lately. I got both the 4, 5, and now gen 6, and the latest one feels like a good phone, unless the FP4 which is a brick in comparison. Still lacks several Flagship feature (wireless charging, amongs other), but as a mid-range phone it is quite good.
And the repeatability is great. I repaired my FP4 once (usb-c port), and it was easy as heck.
It’s great to hear, thanks for the feedback!
I meant any spare parts, so in your terms they are sketchy spare parts, I guess. Yet, it’s better than nothing though.
My primary concern is the software part though. I have plenty of phones that never broke, but all of them hit the software wall and it was just easier to buy a newer model.
With unofficial parts you can get anything, from very good parts to outright dangerous ones (especially batteries).
The problem with IPhone is their association system (which is illegal in the EU BTW). Understandable with those dangerous part on the market, but far too overcharging. They could just warn you during boot or something like that.
As for the software wall, it is where Fairphones shines. Even when the official support ends, the custom ROMs keeps updating for a while. IPhones are great on that aspect too, Samsungs are OK, but can’t say for other brands.
Honestly, how’s the camera on the 6? I’ve been pixel mostly because I want to take pictures of my son without regretting later.
I’m okay with the camera on the 6, but no it’s not as good as a Pixel, nor does it open and take pictures as quickly.
I’m not that much into photos, so I can’t really judge. In my book, it is OK.
If you want to get good pictures, nothing will ever beat a dedicated camera, even a mid-range one is way better than a smartphone, even an high-end one, due to the size limitations.
That’s not true. You can still get dedicated cameras that are much worse.
Low-range, yes. Mid-range, no. As soon as you get de decent quality camera, given you know how to use it, you’ll always get better result than smartphones.
But an iPhone 4S nowadays is completely unusable, it’s impossibile to run a browser that doesn’t use a ten years old engine. For reference, a galaxy Nexus from the same age could run android 6 (custom ROM, otherwise android 4.3) and can still run most modern apps.
If you can find parts for the iphone 4s it’s because some warehouse is still full of them, not because Apple is still manufacturing them if needed
Yes, I do agree. If only Apple allowed compete and true removal of some apps (not hiding them, but completely removing some system apps), and allowed Safari upgrades, that would be quite decent phone for an average light use. I’d use it, I think.
Also, since we dream here, if the system was open source and drivers too, and all that… theoretically, we could run a slimmed down OS that would allow some apps to run.
My point is, in some sibling comment, that software is more of a problem than hardware. I have a usable (hardware wise) iPhone 4S, but it’s useless software-wise.
Doesn’t matter how many spare parts you can get if the device simply refuses to function after replacing them.
I want GrapheneOS more than repairability, personally. I hope the Fairphone + GrapheneOS combination is possible some day…
The Graphene devs explicitly only support Pixels. Sticking with Graphene means continuing to give Google the profits from your hardware.
/e/OS is not bad as an alternative. The system wide ad and tracker blocking is nice.
This is a big issue that the fairphone doesn’t have its dtb open yet. It’s not easy to build ROM for it. Despite their core claim of sustainability, without addressing the blobs, it remains just a tad more convenient for green minded people. We need a full Fairphone.
That’s fair and all, and I see your point. A 100% “fair” phone is the end-goal.
Butin the battle against corporate douche-baggery, if we keep making perfect the enemy of good, we’ll never get anywhere.
And besides that, fairphone is just greenwashing when it comes to repairability, good luck finding parts for previous generations.
That demonstrably false by just going to the store…
I don’t know why people keep saying that.
I think it is because 90% of company sustainability is simply greenwashing.
Fairphone also had the whole “fairbuds” thing where they released tws earbuds (and then removed the headphone jack) and supported them for under 2 years before throwing them away and they are completely non-repairable, then acted like they didn’t exist.
The new fairbuds are 10x better though, but I have heard the sound on both of their headphones is mediocre at best.
You can still get cameras and screens for the Fairphone 2 from Fairphone. No they’re not making more, but they also have never said “unlimited support forever”.
That the process doesn’t require prying apart glue alone makes it significantly more repairable than any other mainstream phone.
/e/OS is not bad as an alternative. The system wide ad and tracker blocking is nice.
I switched to e/os on a couple of motorolas that supported it and it’s great so far.
The comparisons to GrapheneOS are fair to some degree, but also not. Graphene is meant to be privacy and security hardened, whereas e/OS, while it is more secure than regular android, is more concerned with privacy hardening. The biggest misconception people have seems to be thinking that privacy and security are the same thing; and while that is true on the surface level, security (a la GrapheneOS) goes much deeper.
So while my phone may not be as “hack resistant” as a GrapheneOS, it’s degoogled and very protective of tracking, which is what I’m primarily concerned with. So I’m happy.
I just wish I could afford a fairphone in Canada.
FYI, I think your third mention of Graphene was meant to be /e/OS.
Whoops. Thanks for the catch.
I just bought a refurbished (as new) Pixel 9 to use Grapheneos.
Saved ~50% and didn’t pay Google.
Genius! That is exactly how I buy my slaves
I’m sorry, your what??? 😳
Agree, buying a used pixel made by slave labor wage is still morally grey. And buying them used increases their market value, therefore people can find buying a new pixel easier as they can sell it for more later.
That wasn’t as funny as you thought it would be.
What the fuck dude
Phrasing?
Sticking with Graphene means continuing to give Google the profits from your hardware
GrapheneOS only supports Google Pixel because they are the most secure Android phones, with open-source images and 5+ years of security updates.
You don’t have to give money to Google. I got my Pixel 4a and my mother’s 6a from second-hand sellers.Sure, but then you are also not funding Google’s competition in order to help improve choice.
Buying second hand might make you feel better because you didn’t directly fund Google, but you’re still helping them maintain their position.
«Funding competition» means giving money to Chinese State companies, for most consumers.
Most of the american companies are using Chinese manufacturing for much of the devices. Fairphone is European, but same manufacturing sources.
In 2026, as a Canadian… Choosing between a country that is adopting nazi practices and threatening us with annexation, and one who has a questionable history but is overall doing more for climate change and global stability right now than the other… The choice is easy. Anything but american.
No, it’s choosing between giving money to a company or to no one at all, in the case of a 2nd hand.
They said “possible someday”, not “possible currently”.
Google makes way more on services so I don’t think they are making that much off the phones.
What maskes you want Graphene over e/OS? I’m not so familiar with how they feel.
Graphene modifies AOSP for much more security.
E.g.
- you can disable USB data at a hardware level
- Receives Kernel updates even faster than Google’s phones
- uses a different memory allocator, hardened_malloc
- changes the way zygote launches apps, so ASLR actually works
- doesn’t allow apps to ptrace themselves
- disables JIT per-app
- disable network access per-app
I dont think e/OS is as security oriented, more privacy oriented
Thanks for sharing. For someone who is not so well versed in these technicalities, what does that mean for the user? That you’re more susceptible to fraud and hacking and malware?
From a user’s perspective, when you install an app, you can:
- Determine if that app is allowed to access the internet.
- If it needs access to your contacts, you can share which of your contacts, it can see (or none at all)
- If it needs access to your files, you can determine which files/photos/music it sees (or none at all, but the application still believes it has access to everything)
There are a bunch of other, security features it provides, but from a “normal user” experience, the ability to take control of your data is probably one of the most impactful.
It is possible to do similar things with other CFW, but AFAIK, graphene is the only one to cleanly integrate it as a polished feature of the ROM.
edit: fix formatting
I see, and it can’t be installed on Fairphone?
No, the Graphene developers insist on hardware functionality that is not present on the Fairphone.
No, currently only on Pixels. Plans to support another future platform exist.
Hmm, in mean time I prefer buying Fairphone over supporting Google.
If I’ve got my story straight. (and if not, someone here will surely correct me)
For Graphene to deliver the advanced security provided by their OS, they need features found on newer processors and want more timely firmware updates. Google currently delivers on both needs.
FP is behind on hardware, prob cost cutting to make modular costs more affordable.
Basically GrapheneOS is for people worried about law enforcement or some state actors trying to access their phone using some commercial tools or 0 day exploits. It’s useful for journalist, lawyers, activists and so on.
Average users don’t really have to worry about those things. It’s unlikely that someone will try to hack you using such tools, you most probably don’t have any data wort protecting and it’s quicker and easier for you to just unlock your phone than to spend days/weeks/months in jail trying to protect your data.
What average user should care about is removing Google from their phones and blocking trackers. Other ROMs like iode also come without Google and have better tools than GrapheneOS for blocking trackers. They are as secure as any other Android phone.
Average users don’t really have to worry about those things.
That’s true, until it isn’t. What’s legal and moral now can change in a flash. Having a phone that’s resistant to software infiltration isn’t a bad thing.
A big thing is gOS not using JIT compiling. So, app updates are pretty slow but this kills a lot of malware exploits.
So if I were to choose graphene over eOS it would mainly be to be more protected from malware?
That and privacy, you also have a lot of control over what each app can do with gOS’s permissions settings vs standard ROM and most of that is enabled by default. Can break some apps, especially banking related. I have 122 installed, of that three gave me a little bit of trouble where I had to disable some protections to get them functional. DeGoogled by default, I use microG for some limited Play services to get stuff like Youtube Revanced working.
Has anyone tried loading KDE Plasma Mobile onto one of these?
The Fairphone team has tried to help with mainline Linux support: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_(Gen._6)_(fairphone-fp6)
Is plasma mobile any good?
I haven’t had a chance to try it, myself, but the developments on their site looks promising. I’ve heard it’s pretty functional, but it’s lacking in battery optimization, and compatible devices.
Wow. Two FP posts in a night. Paste of my comment.
Faiphone is being frog marched out of Australia. Each telco is shutting it down and blocking IMEIs. Sucks for the people that imported them.
Cant even use it as data only. So unless you use it as puerly on WiFi it’s going to landfill. 😔.
I have a fairphone 6 in Australia with no issues.
Can you elaborate?
Thread goes back to the Telstra cutoff. Optus to do the same soon. Looks like TPG might be the last stand.
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/3g-network-closure-australia/109696/160
I’ll be interested to know what happens with FP6. Of your notbwoth TPG or a reseller of there’s you should have got a message by now.
I can only assume that message is because the FP 5 is not compatible with VoIP (not strictly related to the 3G cutoff). If so, that means it is actually unable to call emergency services, and is therefore unable to be used safely in Australia.
The emergency services in Australia have recently switched to VoIP only, and want to eliminate the risk of someone using a non VoIP capable phone as their only phone. This appears to be a general safety issue, not specifically targeted at Fairphone.
The FP 6 does support VoIP, so it should have no issues.
FP5 does support VoIP and VoLTE. It can call 000.
Any links to this story please? Couldn’t find any
Search Telstra 3G shutdown. They were the first to block all in 2024 (and can confirm still blocked) Optus is now blocking on the 10th March. There’s one telco left in AU. Everyone else sells one of these three.
Much discussion in this FP5 thread. https://forum.fairphone.com/t/3g-network-closure-australia
Despite what people say the phone works and has all requirements for the network, VoLTE calling and emergency calling. The telcos tho don’t want to take a risk with “unknown” modems. So they disable network.
Looks like FP3 is lacking and Telstra are just assholes about FP5
Basically. But Optus is joining the party too.
Canadian telcos did this 15 years ago, but I haven’t heard of behaviour like this in a long time. You need to write a complaint to your government.
People have. Some samsungs were blocked in the first perge. There was minimal outcry. The normies just got new phones.
… Also someone did die coz they went able to call emergency services. Something to do with the phone not updated and had not been blocked properly (otherwise they would have known they couldn’t call emergency). So it seems that’s kicked off a new wave of checks.
That’s what sparked it here too, a 911 issue with early android phones. They were going to ban several models outright since they couldn’t confirm you did the update if you BYOD or were on custom roms, but eventually settled on a waiver that you could sign absolving them of any liability if you kept your phone.
I can see the perspective of the telcos but outright bans is just not the answer, especially since they make money from the sale of new phones. It re-enforces their monopoly and keeps everyone reliant on them for phones (which they love). The only way to fix this is through the government.
cam them, and ask them to add the imei to allow list ?
International sale might work
Any chance the Aus govt might step in?
You mean an international sim? I don’t think so. The FP website tells users to check the phone is supported in the clintry they travel to.
And no. Aus gov did nothing BEOFRE this happend. We FP5 users found somewhere that supported us and hit it out. But seems were found.
TBH wifi only is what I’d like to have. I just want a device I can hold in my pocket without worrying about cell service, but still call a rideshare because I don’t drive and those stupid services don’t do a request-by-phone. I’d ditch it entirely if I could.
I recently moved from an iPhone 11 Pro to a Fairphone (Fairphone Gen 6), and it’s been a genuinely great change.
It’s made me realise how little I actually use most of the features you end up paying extra for in flagship phones. Because of that, I’m really looking forward to keeping this device for five years or more.
The only thing I occasionally miss is camera quality especially at concerts or when travelling but it’s a small trade-off rather than a deal-breaker. I’d love to see future Fairphone models improve on this.
Hopefully, Fairphone helps set a trend as more people start looking for products that are ethically sourced, repairable and built to last.
Ya I just want to browse , bank, text and msg and call.
Still running a FP4, only replaced the battery and the charging port. No further issues, works like a charm.
Love that, can’t wait to rock the FP6 for as long as possible!
I asked someone else, but I hope you don’t mind me asking you as well… With the FP6, 5g works as well? Any issues with MMS or RCS messages? Visual voicemail works fine?
I am trying to find a new phone, and while there are a few different companies making repairable phones, (Fair phone, HMD, shift) most of them are aimed at EU markets, so I want to make sure that a majority of the features also work in the US. My goal it’s to find something that will work for me, my wife and my in laws that won’t be a hassle. (Because, I do the tech support for all of them, and ideally I’d love to support just 1 device)
Ask away, I have no issue with anything you mentioned inside The Netherlands so I assume the majority of the features would work in the US as well. As they promise a good working phone in the regions they sell. (To keep in mind i do run android not e/os/!)
Do they work on US networks?
Yup! I daily drive a Fairphone 6 with Mint Mobile in the US.
Awesome! And just to clarify, 5g works as well? Any issues with MMS or RCS messages? Visual voicemail works?
I ask because I am actively looking for a replacement for my 4a, it really is at its end of life at this point.
I was also considering some Nokia/HMD phones,as they made good scores on the ifixit repairability scale. Apparently HMD (who actually make Nokia phones) has a whole line of phones where their goal was modularity/repairability. It’s just been unclear which of these phones actually work on US networks.
There’s also shift phones out of Germany, but same deal, will they work on US networks?
I’m guessing the EU has some incentive programs to help these phones exist, but as a result, they’re mostly aimed at EU markets and networks.
Yeah, 5G works (I’m on it at the moment!). No issues with MMS, but I haven’t tested RCS since I’m on /e/OS (which doesn’t support RCS as far as I’m aware - I just use SMS/MMS and Matrix). The visual voicemail functionality in the stock /e/OS Phone app doesn’t work with Mint Mobile, but the T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app does work.
Not compatible with Verizon
Welp, that sucks. I’m not switching to T-Mobile. I’ve seen their infrastructure up close and personal after working on mixed carrier cell towers for years and that shit is absolutely third world by comparison.
It all boils down to drivers, if those are not open source (and they usually are not), then phone upgradability depends on them
Yes and no, Fairphone has actually managed to reverse engineer some of the drivers for its old phones to provide android upgrades years after the component manufacturers have dropped support. The Fairphone 2, for instance, received a little over 7 years of support and 4 major version upgrades, skipping one on the way. For the Fairphone 5, they’ve promised 10 years of software support, and judging by their track record, I believe them. They also open source as much as they can and even give instructions on how to build the OS yourself.
Of course, open source drivers would be better, but that doesn’t exist at the moment, unfortunately. At this point, Fairphone is one of the companies that comes closest (with Shiftphone being a close rival).
Fairphone has actually managed to reverse engineer some of the drivers
Isn’t that illegal?
I tried to find the article on it, but it was a while ago that I read, so I honestly don’t know 100%…
But I doubt it would be illegal, as a company they’re not small enough to fly under the radar and not big enough to flagrantly break laws and get away with it. Two possibilities that come to mind (and both may be true:
-
they did it via black box reverse engineering. That has less issues legally, since you’re not trying to decompile someone else’s code, but looking what that code does and trying to recreate it
-
the Linux Kernel’s GPL gives them certain rights in that area
-
Fingers crossed
That said, I like FP very much, but it’ll eventually hit the software block.
That’s exactly the issue, and the bigger one. Theoretically, Google Pixel 1 could be upgraded software-wise with the newest Android, while the hardware can work longer. So, I’m not really interested in repairability (except the battery replacement, obviously) as much as in software longevity.
My iPhone 4s is still going strong, even despite numerous falls. The software though, it made it useless. I use one as a digital voice recorder sometimes, but that’s the only idea I had. It can shoot nice pictures too (in a bright daylight), and be a nice smartphone for a kid. (Because it’s very limited, and also small, and also cheap.) But the software made it useless.
Indeed, this is really infuriating. They are forcing use to throw away perfectly working hardware in name of profits.
I like the look of these but I would much rather to not use Android again. It appears that they’re trying to port Ubuntu Touch over and the Postmarket wiki shows some functionality is not all there. Interesting to see this coming along though.
I am leaning toward Fairphone to replace my Apple.
I replaced the power button and battery on my android phone. Managed to fix it by watching YouTube tutorials.
I really value the camera on my phone, since it is essentially my main camera and I enjoy taking pictures. I might rather lean into graphene-ing this pixel than a fair phone, unfortunately. But probably not purchase a future pixel, since they abandoned the physical SIM slot
My 9 has one. (Canada)
Same, my 9 (us) does too. But I heard going forward they want to be eSIM only
*in the US
I’m interested in this brand and their Gen 6. I kind of wish I was in the market for a phone. Unfortunately I bought a used Pixel 6 three years ago and everything is just fine with it 😄
My 5yo Pixel 6 inflated just last Friday. I panic-ordered a Pixel 9a, but since Google didn’t fulfill my supplier’s shipment, I cancelled and switched to a Fairphone today. It’ll arrive tomorrow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You can change the battery of Pixel 6, it’s not insanely hard.
It’s popped open and deformed.
I will have to consider Fairphone when I am looking for my next phone. Looking at their site, my only hesitation is about water resistance. I understand that repairability comes at the cost of making everything glued and sealed shut, but I drop my phone in water once every couple of years. If that risks killing it, it is not going to be a phone that will last long in my hands.
Have you considered not dropping your phone in water?
I have, but decided against it. I am clumsy and my hands are big enough to barely use my phone one handed (but not hold it securely when I do).
Hard to avoid when you have a toddler and dog bowls around…
Is it?
I feel like people have had toddlers and dog bowls for a long time, and that people in the past have been ableto keep certain things away from water successfully. Perhaps if you have increased opportunities to get the phone wet, you should take extra precautions.
With an IP55 rating, I would assume it can resist a drop in water. As long as you don’t stare at it for multiple minutes and do get it out asap.
I would hope, but I would want to check reviews to be sure.
I assume they just haven’tspent the money for higher IPS ratings?
I’ve been running a Fairphone 6 for about 6 months now and it’s by far the buggiest phone I’ve ever used. I’d love to keep using it until the security updates stop but it’s already such a miserable experience already I can’t imagine how bad it’ll be in a few years time.
Can you elaborate on how it has been buggy? What kind of issues have you come across?
The most annoying bug for me currently is the camera will sometimes just not save photos. It’ll appear as though it has worked and then later when I go to look at the photo there’s just no sign of me ever taking anything.
The second biggest annoyance would be the touchscreen simply not working sometimes until I lock and unlock the device again.
Finally we have the seemingly random lack of charging where I’ll wake up some mornings to find it hasn’t been charging at all despite being plugged in all night.
It’s been fine for me
I bought a Fairphone 5 when they were somewhat new and immediately flashed an alternative ROM onto it (CalyxOS at the time, though now it’s iodeOS as Calyx appears to have gone on hiatus).
Nothing terrible bug-wise, but I have already had to return the phone to be repaired for a fault I couldn’t repair by swapping parts out myself… Which considering it’s apparently got a number of years ahead of it before it officially gets dropped is a bit worrying.
