5 minBusiness
Fairphone 6+ Brings Repairable Smartphone Design to the U.S. Market
The Netherlands-based Fairphone has launched its first U.S.-available model, the $650 Fairphone 6+, a smartphone designed for user repair with a single screwdriver and ethically sourced materials.
The Netherlands-based company Fairphone has brought its repairable smartphone design to the United States for the first time with the $650 Fairphone 6+, a device that ships with a screwdriver and allows users to replace a dozen components themselves. The phone, which has been sold in Europe for more than a decade, represents a direct challenge to the sealed, glued-together construction that dominates the consumer electronics industry.
Fairphone designed the device from scratch to be simple to repair. A user can unscrew the case and replace the screen, USB-C port, camera modules, and other parts without special electronics knowledge. During a week of testing, all replaceable parts were disassembled in about 20 minutes using only the included screwdriver. Chandler Hatton, Fairphone's chief technology officer, said the company wanted to change how people think about the products they own. «It's something that's so different from our contemporary relationship with consumer electronics,» she said. «This all stems from this idea of being able to open a device and, for example, download the source code.»
The repairability extends to the cost of parts. A replacement Fairphone screen costs around $90, compared with as much as $379 for an iPhone screen. A new Fairphone battery costs about $40, versus up to $129 for an iPhone battery. The company offers a two-year warranty on the phone, with an option to extend coverage for three additional years. The battery carries a two-year warranty plus 14 months of extended coverage.
Making the phone so repairable required rethinking standard manufacturing practices. «We're asking our suppliers as well as our own engineers to do something that's quite different,» Hatton said. «We're like, 'Okay, take a step back from how you've been doing this for other brands, and think about how you design it from the ground up to make it accessible to someone that doesn't have any special tools.'» Components are grouped together so the parts most likely to need replacement are easiest to remove. The design also makes the phone easier to recycle at the end of its life.
The approach involves some trade-offs. Manufacturers typically glue phones together to make them as thin as possible and more waterproof, but gluing prevents disassembly for repair. The Fairphone is slightly thick, though it felt comfortable in hand during testing. It is not designed to go underwater but is safe to use in rain, which covers most everyday needs.
Some of the company's most significant work is hidden in its supply chain. Fairphone has spent years determining how to source materials like cobalt, a mineral whose supply chain is notorious for human rights abuses including child labor. Rather than avoiding certain mines, the company works closely with communities in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo to improve working conditions. «We're really trying to lean into the hard problems, and then have conversations with the whole value chain, particularly the people that are working in a specific area,» Hatton said.
More than half of the materials in the phone are recycled or fairly sourced, including recycled aluminum, copper, steel, tin, indium, nickel, plastics, and rare earths. Fairphone is going further than other companies that are also increasing their use of responsibly sourced materials, and it aims to lead the industry toward broader adoption of such practices.
The phone comes in a color the company calls cobalt, a deep saturated blue that resembles traditional cobalt paint. The other options, black and forest green, look more conventional. Hatton said the company is not necessarily trying to spark conversations about cobalt mining, but the color is a subtle nod to its supply chain work. For many Fairphone customers, the commitment to ethical manufacturing is the biggest selling point. Some European buyers are also drawn to the company's Dutch origins at a time when American brands are increasingly unpopular globally.
Still, the phone must compete on performance for all but the most dedicated fans. The Fairphone 6+ is a good but not perfect product, and repairability alone may not persuade every smartphone owner to switch. The device represents a test of whether American consumers will embrace a phone built to be opened, fixed, and kept for years rather than replaced.
