Fairphone announces the €599 Fairphone 6, with a 6.31" 120Hz LTPO OLED display, a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip, and enhanced modularity with 12 swappable parts
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You can purchase the /e/os version. But it is more expensive
I installed it myself on my FP5 (bought with Android in a shop) using the online installer, which was pretty easy and obviously free of charge.
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Problem is, it is not IP68 rated, which is a dealbreaker for someone with an active lifestyle; especially since I sometimes manage to get water even into my IP68 phones. It would be good if they made a Pro model or just made the regular model more expensive since I will gladly pay for privacy and quality on a device that is on me at all times. For now I will stick to my Pixel 9 Pro.
There are those waterproof bag things. I wouldn't trust the IP rating on a phone.
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wrote last edited by [email protected]
I would not recommend Murena for U.S. customers. I attempted buying a FP4 from them, and they put $6000 in charges to my credit card. Their message-only customer service was terrible and tried to blame me. Had to get my bank involved.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
Fairphone has been a really disappointing experiment in so-called sustainable tech over the years. They keep making new phones instead of continuing to support the old ones, which might be greenwashing. (Whereas if you got a legacy Framework 13, it's still user-repairable and upgradable.) If they wanted to make a non-upgradable device, maybe it would have been wise to make it high-end to futureproof to work until 4G gets phased out. Fairphone still is not making their products available in the U.S., and Murena is a borderline scam company and I am genuinely shocked Fairphone works with them.
And I've heard their logic with the headphone jack, but I do think AUX is the lesser of two evils as removing it will just lead to more e-waste with broken bluetooth headphones that rarely last as long as good wired ones. Fairphone's own bluetooth accessories have gotten negative reviews for their lower build quality, so Fairbuds are likely not the solution to the headphone jack problem.
For the simple fact that non-Europeans can buy them directly off the website, I would sooner recommend feature phones from Sunbeam as it also has user-replaceable batteries and you can send it in for repairs. Or just any phone used.
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I installed it myself on my FP5 (bought with Android in a shop) using the online installer, which was pretty easy and obviously free of charge.
Yea, this is completely okay, but there is a small difference - for stock /e/os ones, the Bootloader is locked. I am not sure about details but this would be a needed security feature for some applications
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650€ is way too expensive for an unknown phone brand with an unknown OS installed on it smh. i'd love to buy one but considering you can get a samsung for less than 500€
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Yeah wow, the problem with the phone that tries to compete with unethical big business is that unethical big entity is cheaper. Who would have thought
Because a weak CPU, weak water resistance, and weak glass don't make for a long-lasting, sustainable phone.
I like the fact that the parts are easy to replace, but the big manufacturers beat them in other aspects of longevity.
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You have headphones on in your car, listening to music, while you're driving? I hope you've checked your local laws because that is illegal in quite a few countries. It's also a very niche example as most people would use the car stereo instead of headphones.
C'mon, this is getting childish. No, I don't have headphones while driving, I have an audio input to the car's stereo.
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how do you charge the phone with a DAC plugged in?
You can get a USB-C splitter adapter.
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650€ is way too expensive for an unknown phone brand with an unknown OS installed on it smh. i'd love to buy one but considering you can get a samsung for less than 500€
What are you talking about this phone is established, this is their 6th one... and the bootloader is unlocked.
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650€ is way too expensive for an unknown phone brand with an unknown OS installed on it smh. i'd love to buy one but considering you can get a samsung for less than 500€
You know the price is naturally higher when materials are ethically sourced, right? That's kinda how it works..
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If we revisit the "loud" vs "statistically significant" paradigm, while it is a shame you will not be able to charge the phone with a dac in without buying a specific cable, how often does the average person do so?
so you need a dongle for the DAC, and an additional dongle for charging that is also, if I recall it correctly, violates the USB-C standard. did I understand it correctly?
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They cooperate with Murena, so /e/OS is officially supported and you can buy new devices with /e/OS installed. I am running /e/OS on my Fairphone 5 and it works great.
They also seem to have given developer devices to the PostmarketOS folks, so that they hit the ground running with a working FP6 port already. I'm not sure exactly what is going on behind the scenes between Fairphone and PostmarketOS here - maybe @[email protected] can fill us in.
Wasn't even aware of Murena, will def have a look, thanks for sharing all that info!
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Wirelessly.
Or you switch to your bluetooth buds during a wired charge.
I'm all for audio jacks, but have been using a phone without one for 4 years now, and there are so many options to not be incovenienced.
Also I don't use my audiophile headphones with the phone at all - DAC on it just isn't good enough to get most out of then, prefer to use them with my desktop PC amp only.
good luck charging my phone wirelessly! wireless charging is also very wasteful, and it does not support idle charging (powering the phone without wearing the battery), even if the phone otherwise does. doesn't it also take up a significant amount of that precious space inside the phone?
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Honestly, this might be the first fairphone which I would classify as good enough for daily use.
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C'mon, this is getting childish. No, I don't have headphones while driving, I have an audio input to the car's stereo.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Then maybe don't make examples of something I never talked about? I think I've been very clear that I'm talking about replacing 3.5mm headphones with a USB-C headphones. I wasn't talking about replacing a 3.5mm in/out cable with some kind of a USB-C in, 3.5mm out cable. Such a cable would have to contain a DAC and if it's going to contain a DAC you might as well buy a USB hub with a 3.5mm out port so you can continue using your 3.5mm in/out cable while you also charge your phone. See how that's a completely different scenario with a completely different solution?
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You can get a USB-C splitter adapter.
isn't that against the USB-C standard?
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You can get good Bluetooth earbuds for under $50 and a USB-C to AUX dongle for under $15.
The average person is fine with Bluetooth earbuds or an adapter, and audiophiles would not find the inbuilt DAC/amp on a phone to be adequate.
Maybe I chose the wrong $10 adapter but I notice a big drop in sound quality using that vs Bluetooth, to the point that it's not worth using unless there isn't another option. I'm not really an audiophile, though I can notice the general quality of sound.
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Fairphone has been a really disappointing experiment in so-called sustainable tech over the years. They keep making new phones instead of continuing to support the old ones, which might be greenwashing. (Whereas if you got a legacy Framework 13, it's still user-repairable and upgradable.) If they wanted to make a non-upgradable device, maybe it would have been wise to make it high-end to futureproof to work until 4G gets phased out. Fairphone still is not making their products available in the U.S., and Murena is a borderline scam company and I am genuinely shocked Fairphone works with them.
And I've heard their logic with the headphone jack, but I do think AUX is the lesser of two evils as removing it will just lead to more e-waste with broken bluetooth headphones that rarely last as long as good wired ones. Fairphone's own bluetooth accessories have gotten negative reviews for their lower build quality, so Fairbuds are likely not the solution to the headphone jack problem.
For the simple fact that non-Europeans can buy them directly off the website, I would sooner recommend feature phones from Sunbeam as it also has user-replaceable batteries and you can send it in for repairs. Or just any phone used.
I've had to swap a lot more cabled headphones out due to cable damage than bluetooth headphones, but i also only use overear headphones, which have enough battery storage for days. Also, there are also overear headsets that are dual-useable with headphone jack or bluetooth (no noise cancelling with jack tho). Also, the issue with the replacement of headphones lies with the producers of headphones w/o changeable power source, not with the phone.
And regarding availability in the US: i have the suspicion that the average european will be much more inclined to pay the 2-300$ upmark in price just for greener tech than the average american. i'm sure that they would love to sell more phones, but it's not ecological or economical to ship them onto a continent where 80-90% of people would either compare specs only and cannot afford to go for a more sustainable phone or - a predominantly USA thing - who revel in the fact that their choice is not ecological.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
Compared to the Fairphone 5 it has some improvements but also a few downsides:
Pro:
- It's a bit smaller (~4mm) and lighter (~20g)
- Slightly better camera (future tests will tell how much better)
- 120 Hz display
- More RAM and storage (although I feel that the previous 6GB/128GB option was also sufficient for most users)
- WiFi 6E Tri-Band (however you will likely never need this speed)
- Bluetooth 5.4
- Slightly larger battery
Con:
- Backpanel now requires a screwdriver
- Display has less resolution/PPI
- Performance of processor will likely be nearly identical to predecessor (however it's more efficient and modern)
- Downgrade to USB 2
- 600€
My conclusion:
Overall the improvements are ok, however just releasing the Fairphone 5 with a newer SoC might have been the better/more cost effective choice.
Sacrificing display resolution for 120 Hz feels also quite wrong.
600€ is very pricy for a phone like this. Cutting some premium features away like the 120 Hz display or a bit of RAM and storage (that you can extend anyway with an SD card) might have saved enough to get the launch price down to somewhere near 500€ which would make it accessible for a wider audience.
