In the usual noise around Apple, Samsung and Google in recent months, you would be forgiven to sleep on the importance of Fairphone 6.
The Dutch electronics manufacturer focused on sustainability has made a concerted effort to compensate as a serious smartphone reader in 2025 (“We are not only for the person who wants to buy sustainably – we simply have very good products”, said Fairphone in April), and the fairphone 6 is the first beneficiary of this new focus on quality.
The last combined of the company has a better screen, a faster chipset and a more attractive design than Fairphone 5 last year – and miraculously, it is also much cheaper. It is an improbable combination in the landscape of smartphones today, but the CEO of Fairphone, Raymond Van Eck, is optimistic that the Fairphone 6 is a good faith rival of the best cheap phones available.
“It is important for us to understand the market in which we are,” Van Eck told me at the Exertis Tech conference in London. “We are on a smartphone market, and this means that your product should be a desirable product, offers good value for money and is also delivered with specifications that people expect [at this level]. With the Fairphone 6, we are very well equipped to [meet those expectations]. “”
“A phone is something that you use several times a day, so it’s something on which people do not want to compromise. With longevity and specifications that Fairphone 6 A is a very good phone for a mid -range Android device.”
Fairphone has made a conscious effort to ensure that the Fairphone 6 is also the game. The rounded sides of the Fairphone 4 and Fairphone 5 have been replaced by flat sides at the iPhone 16th and Samsung Galaxy S25, and although the three -objective cameras network is still present, these lenses are now independent of a physical module (a bit like lenses – you guessed it! – The iPhone 16th and Samsung Galaxy S25).
“It’s good to be more attractive for a general public client,” continued Van Eck. “The Fairphone 6 is much more like a phone than any other person would have, but in the end, it always has all the equity you should expect from a fairphone. This is one of the things we have examined: to make the design attractive for people who do not yet know so well with Fairphone […] The story of sustainability then comes after that, to make them feel good in a phone they have already decided to buy. »»
With longevity and Fairphone 6 specifications, it is a very good phone for a mid -range Android device.
Raymond Van Eck, CEO of Fairphone
“It is important to take the next step and be, let’s say, a more mature company – a company with a group of customers who is interested in Fairphone not only because of the things that Fairphone represents, but also because they find cool to have one.”
This passage to develop more “traditional” products may seem alarming for fans fairphone fans, but Van Eck does not see it as a compromise: “The mission has not changed. We are looking for growth, but that does not mean that we throw our values. We are always on a mission to show the electronics industry that you may think of the impact, but also create a viable business from the electronics industry that you may think of the impact, but also create a viable business from the electronics industry that you may think of the impact, but also create a viable business from the [that approach]. “”
The cost of sustainability costs “myth”
It is often assumed that products of sustainable origin must necessarily cost the consumer more, but Van Eck is convinced that a) who does not have to be true at the point of purchase and b) sustainable products are, in the end, cheaper for the consumer anyway.
Fairphone himself was criticized for having too high priceders (Fairphone 5 sold with a Google Pixel 8-Realing £ 649), but, at £ 499 (around $ 680, $ 990 in), the Fairphone 6 is a much cheaper device. Why (and how) van Eck made this decision?
The mission has not changed. We are looking for growth, but that does not mean that we throw our values.
Raymond Van Eck, CEO of Fairphone
“It is important to realize that it is not, in itself, a sustainability premium that people pay,” he explained. “To make a phone more sustainable and make it fully ethical as we do, you talk about several 10s of dollars – between $ 20 and $ 25 per phone. These are economies of scale. You get a different price [from a supplier] If you order, say, 10 times more display than [you previously ordered]. So this helps: get better prices from your suppliers, without compromising the payment of living wages, etc.
“Because you’re right,” said Van Eck. “The perception that fairphone is too high at high prices?” A product is durable and that it comes with a concession on quality. »»
Fairphone 6 is now available in the United Kingdom for £ 499While an open source version (that is to say no Android) is Available in the United States for $ 899 / £ 549. For our complete verdict on the quality of the phone, see our Revision Fairphone 6.
Follow Techradar on Google News And Add us as a favorite source To get our news, criticisms and expert opinions in your flows. Be sure to click on the follow!
And of course, you can also Follow Techradar on Tiktok For news, criticism, unpacking in video form and obtain regular updates to us on Whatsapp Also.
