Amid the customary noise around Apple, Samsung, and Google in recent months, you’d be forgiven for sleeping on the significance of the Fairphone 6.
The sustainability-focused Dutch electronics manufacturer has made a concerted effort to rebrand itself as a serious smartphone player in 2025 (“We’re not uniquely for the person that wants to buy sustainably – we simply have really good products,” Fairphone told us in April), and the Fairphone 6 is the first beneficiary of this newfound focus on quality.
The company’s latest handset has a better display, a faster chipset, and a more attractive design than last year’s Fairphone 5 – and miraculously, it’s much cheaper, too. That’s an unlikely combination in today’s smartphone landscape, but Fairphone’s CEO, Raymond van Eck, is bullish that the Fairphone 6 is a bona fide rival to the best cheap phones available.
“It’s important for us to understand the market that we’re in,” van Eck told me at the Exertis tech conference in London. “We’re in a smartphone market, and that means that your product should be a product that’s desirable, offers good value for money, and also comes with specs that people expect [at this level]. With the Fairphone 6, we’re very well equipped to [meet those expectations].”
“A phone is something you use multiple times every day, so it’s something people do not want to compromise on. With the longevity and specs that the Fairphone 6 has, it’s a very good phone for a mid-range Android device.”
Fairphone has made a conscious effort to make the Fairphone 6 look the part, too. The rounded sides of the Fairphone 4 and Fairphone 5 have been replaced with flat sides à la the iPhone 16e and Samsung Galaxy S25, and while the three-lens camera array is still present, these lenses now sit independently of a physical module (not unlike the lenses on – you guessed it! – the iPhone 16e and Samsung Galaxy S25).
“It’s good to be more attractive to a mainstream customer,” van Eck continued. “The Fairphone 6 looks much more like a phone that every other person would have, but in the end, it still has all the fairness you should expect from a Fairphone. That’s one of the things we looked into: making the design attractive for people who are not so familiar with Fairphone yet […] the sustainability story then comes after that, to make them feel good about a phone they’ve already decided to buy.”
With the longevity and specs that the Fairphone 6 has, it’s a very good phone for a mid-range Android device.
Raymond van Eck, Fairphone CEO
“It’s important to take that next step and be, let’s say, a more mature company – one with a customer group that has an interest in Fairphone not only because of the things that Fairphone stands for, but also because they find it cool to have one.”
This shift towards developing more ‘mainstream’ products might sound alarming to die-hard Fairphone fans, but van Eck doesn’t see it as a compromise: “The mission hasn’t changed. We’re looking for growth, but that doesn’t mean we’re discarding our values. We’re still on a mission to show the electronics industry that you can be thinking of impact, but also create a viable business out of [that approach].”
The sustainability cost ‘myth’
It’s often assumed that sustainably sourced products must necessarily cost the consumer more, but van Eck is convinced that a) that doesn’t have to be true at the point of purchase and b) sustainable products are, in the end, cheaper for the consumer anyway.
Fairphone itself has been criticized for pricing its products too high (the Fairphone 5 retailed for a Google Pixel 8-nearing £649), but, at £499 (roughly $680, AU$990), the Fairphone 6 is a markedly cheaper device. Why (and how) did van Eck make that decision?
The mission hasn’t changed. We’re looking for growth, but that doesn’t mean we’re discarding our values.
Raymond van Eck, Fairphone CEO
“It’s important to realize that it’s not, per se, a sustainability premium that people are paying,” he explained. “To make a phone more sustainable, and to make it fully ethical the way we are doing it, you’re talking about several 10s of dollars – between $20 and $25 per phone. It’s all about economies of scale. You get a different price [from a supplier] if you order, let’s say, 10 times more displays than [you previously ordered]. So, that helps: getting better prices from your suppliers, without compromising on paying fair living wages, etc.
“Because you’re right,” van Eck continued. “The perception of Fairphone being too high-priced? That’s something that we needed to take away. I also really want to convey that the total cost of ownership for a consumer is lower if you hold onto a phone longer, and that comes with quality. If the quality of your product is good, then, in the end, everything else – all the features, all the sustainability aspects, etc – will also be accepted. But first, you have to take away this myth that you have to pay more – a lot more – if a product is sustainable, and that it comes with a concession on quality. Neither is needed.”
The Fairphone 6 is now available in the UK for £499, while an open-source (i.e., non-Android) version is available in the US for $899 / £549. For our full verdict on the phone’s quality, check out our Fairphone 6 review.
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axel.metz@futurenet.com (Axel Metz)
