Fairphone Gen. 6+ becomes the company's first handset officially sold in the US

Fairphone has built a reputation over more than a decade for phones designed to be repairable and made with sustainability in mind. Until now, however, anyone in the United States who wanted to buy one had to go through third-party retailers and work out carrier compatibility without official support. That changes with the Fairphone Gen. 6+, the company's first handset to be officially sold in the US.

As the follow-up to last year's Fairphone 6, the new model includes several notable upgrades. It runs on a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chip and is the first Fairphone to offer 12GB of DDR5 RAM. The front is dominated by a 6.3-inch OLED display with a variable 120Hz refresh rate. There is 256GB of onboard storage, plus a microSD card slot for additional space. On the back, the main camera uses a 50-megapixel Sony Lytia 700C sensor. Fairphone also built a new Gallery app for photos, addressing a request that had come up repeatedly among earlier customers. Engadget notes that these features form a very solid package for a mid-range phone priced at $650 in the US or £569 in the UK.

Sustainability and repairability remain central to the Gen. 6+. Fairphone says the device is made from more than 50 percent fair or recycled materials by weight. The company also reports that this model has the smallest carbon dioxide footprint of any Fairphone handset so far, around 30 kilograms per device, and claims the Gen. 6+ is the only fully e-waste neutral smartphone on sale in the US. Since the previous Fairphone model received a perfect 10 for repairability from iFixit, owners should find it easy to service and maintain the new phone after purchase.

The new cobalt blue color option is meant to reflect the company's commitment to fairer mining practices. Fairphone states that 14 different minerals or materials in the device have been certified as responsibly sourced by groups including the Fair Cobalt Alliance and the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance.

Software support is also a highlight. The Gen. 6+ ships with a clean installation of Android 16 and at least seven years of software updates. It will be available directly from Fairphone and on Amazon.com. The phone is fully unlocked and supports T-Mobile and AT&T, although it has not been certified to work on Verizon.

In addition to the phone, Fairphone is planning to release an updated version of its repairable wireless earbuds, the Fairbuds 2, later this year in Q4. Concrete details are still scarce, but Engadget expects a significant redesign that includes longer battery life, improved audio, and more. The Fairphone Gen. 6+ is on sale now.