Fairphone 6 gets a 10/10 on repairability

The new Fairphone 6 is smaller and more modular than older models in the series, but it’s just as repairable. The phone picked up a perfect score in iFixit’s teardown test, despite no longer offering tool-free battery replacements.

It helps that the only tool you do need — throughout the phone — is a T5 Torx screwdriver, and only seven screws sit between you and a battery swap. Fairphone itself has shown you can get from shutdown to reboot with a new cell in just two minutes, so it’s still a simple swap. The company says that the screws are required for the slimmer soft-pouch battery.

The only glue throughout is found on the phone’s mainboard, which is just about the only repair Fairphone doesn’t recommend you make yourself: almost everything else, from the USB-C port to the individual camera sensors, can be replaced with minimal effort. Replacement parts will be available from Fairphone and iFixit, and the phone’s replaceable backplate also enables a line of swappable accessories similar to those found on the CMF Phone Pro 2.

iFixit also rated the phone highly for its IP55 rating — not the best around, but impressive for a phone sealed with screws rather than glue — and for the company’s longterm support. Fairphone is guaranteeing seven years of Android OS updates and eight years of security patches, with a five-year warranty and a loyalty program that rewards you for hanging onto your phone and repairing it.

Despite the high score, iFixit acknowledges that you do compromise on specs by opting for the Fairphone 6. Its dual rear camera is fairly basic, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7S Gen 3 chipset is no powerhouse. Even the USB port is limited to sluggish USB 2.0, though the 6.3-inch 10-120Hz LTPO OLED display is more impressive.

This isn’t the first Fairphone to fare so well. Every model since the Fairphone 2 has received a 10/10 in iFixit’s teardown tests, a score that no other phone has ever managed. The Fairphone 6 is available now in Europe for €599 (around $705), from Fairphone and other retailers. It costs considerably more in the US, at $899, where it’s only available from Murena and ships running /e/OS, Murena’s privacy-focused and de-Googled take on Android. It’s available to preorder now, and ships in August.