The fairphone 6+ is now available directly from fairphone in the US: https://us.fairphone.com/
I don’t think I can resist.
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After the first few months of bugs, and the sudden death of my first one, it has been a good experience. Seems like Postmarket OS is gaining FP6 support as well, so even when I change phones, there is always the possibility of turning this old one into a server 
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I like my Fairphone. It genuinely is a nice phone. (I run stock Android)
But, there are two major issues for me:
- the camera app does not record raw (permanently, although you can enable it case by case. But the setting is not sticky if you switch modes). I now use an alternative camera app that mostly works well.
- there is an annoying issue that breaks IPv6 in Wifi on some routers, mine included. Workarounds exist (toggle WiFi often, don’t use WiFi, disable v6 in WiFi, use a VPN), but the fact that this issue has not been fixed in months does give me pause.
Again, I do like my Fairphone a lot. It’s a good phone. But I’m not sure I can really recommend it. At least to non-techies. I’m sure @paperdigits can deal with issues like the above better than I.
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Very tempting. My Pixel 7 has not worked right basically since I bought it. I just need something that does the basics well.
If they only made a reasonably small one…
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Interesting. I have an “old” Samsung Tab S6 which works perfectly fine, but keeps having poor connection when watching youtube. I wonder if it’s due to ipv6 issues.
Darn it, I was not planning to get a new phone for years to come and then this thing comes around 
I mudt resist the phone GAS lol. Anyways, €649 is quite a lot for a phone, so it would have to really fit what I need… How do you like Fairphone compared to other Androids @paperdigits? Also, what color would you get 
I like the green quite a lot, looks like British racing green on my monitor. The white one looks quite nice too, perhaps preferred imo.
We’ve had Pixels for years (4, 5, 6, 6a). They work well. They’re well-built, their apps are well integrated. But they are very google. There is a permanent Google Search Bar on the home screen that you can not disable (unless you use an alternative launcher). There is the Google Camera App that is the default, and can not be changed. It’s a good camera app, but why did they disable the option to change the default? The phone will prompt you to use Gemini and Google Photos at every opportunity.
What broke the phone for us, however, was the repairability story. We were on vacation in Edinburgh, dropped the phone, broke the screen, and no store would repair them. The battery on one phone was defective, and they offered to replace it “for free”, if we dropped off the phone in Nürnberg (1.5h away), waited two weeks, and picked it up again. Thankfully, there was an iFixit repair kit available, which worked well, but required heat-treating the glue seals. Then one phone broke its power button, and I broke the screen during the repair. At that point, no replacement parts were available any longer… long story short, they broke too often, and repairs were often impossible or infeasible. Thus the Fairphone.
In day to day use… Android is Android. The color and material of the backside changes, but these little portable screens are much more alike than they differ. I just hope that the Fairphone will actually last us long enough to warrant the price – at least it I hope it won’t have to be replaced for lack of repairs.
(I notice that my tone is pretty negative on phones in general. Perhaps I just don’t like phones in general, so perhaps take what I say with a grain of salt.)
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I’ve been a Lineage OS users for a long time… back to when it was CyanogenMod, and I like it a lot. I go out of my way to find compatible phones for Lineage, its just works for me.
I mostly agree with @bastibe : android is android (or lineage is lineage for me) and it works the way I’d like it to.
I currently have a Fairphone 4, and I like it a lot. It is slightly thicker than other phones, but I don’t mind that at all. It has a slight bezel at the top and bottom, which I also don’t mind, but some might. The FP 6 looks like it has a slightly smaller bezel, that’s good.
I really like having an SD card. I have all my music on it in FLAC. I like having a changable battery, as I don’t like charging my phone thru the day. I’ve been thru a few batteries and that is great. I really like having the finger print reader on the power button. I don’t actually press the power button on the FP4, just push my finger to it and it unlocks the screen.
I’m a fan, and for what I want (long life, repair-ability) there just isn’t really another choice. I am happy to see it in the US, which previously it was a pain to get one. The FP6+ can get next day delivery from Amazon or direct from FP themselves.
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My only experience with such fingerprint sensor has so far not been great. I’ve used it a bit in a budget Motorola phone for work and I feel like I need to press it with my nail to lock the phone (I forgot if the phone was unlocking back right away or the display just stayed on). I like the screen-type reader, the one in my Mi 9T is decently reliable.
My listening habits and sources don’t really for that (cost effectiveness, availability,…), but it would be cool to have my music offline…
Ooooh, that’s an interesting photo app, seems a bit better than the default Samsung one. Doesn’t really help that I barely shoot with my phone anymore, but still, for those rare cases when I do…
Argh I avoid Amazon if I can but this is tempting. And I have rewards points to lower the cost…
Yes me too 
and more points after I pay earthquake and home owner’s insurance this month
I would also be fairly negative on phones in general. While they are in many ways a modern marvel of technology, they also present their fair share of headaches, and especially when you feel enslaved by the tech company making them.
I choose my phone primarily on getting the best camera possible for my budget. Even though I don’t like taking pictures with my phone, it is with me almost all of the time, so I might as well have the best camera I can afford on it. And even though my phone pics rarely compare to my proper camera pics, there have been some I’m proud of. So getting a decent camera with RAW support is essential with my phone.
The best camera for my budget is currently the Pixel series here in Canada, and I’m currently using a Pixel 10. I upgraded last year from my Pixel 6 when I found out they had added a telephoto lens into the standard non-Pro model. That was essentially the only reason I upgraded. And to be honest, I regret it slightly because I paid about CAD$800 for a mediocre telephoto lens. Nothing else is any better than my Pixel 6, especially because I don’t use any of the AI features.
Here in Canada, you have very little choice in phones unless you import. So official carrier support is limited outside Google, Apple and Samsung. Otherwise I would like to try the cameras on the Chinese phones. Or a Sony Xperia if I could get hold of one.
I would certainly consider something like a Fairphone if it’s camera was as good or better than my Pixel 10, but I doubt it is at present. Maybe I’ll try it for my next phone, especially as I want to be more ethical and stop supporting the companies I’ve grown to despise.
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To be honest, I see no significant difference between the Pixel 6a’s camera, and the Fairphone 6’s (apart from their JPEG rendering style). Their raw files are very similar.
Actually, that’s not quite true, the Pixel sometimes does something terribly wonky to its raw file metadata that can be a bit painful to correct for in darktable. The white balance and wide angle distortion are occasionally weirdly troublesome. The Fairphone is a bit better behaved in that respect. But that’s really a fairly minor detail.
But perhaps I’m not the best judge of these things, non-pixel-peeper that I am.
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Fairphone was always on my watchlist. If only thay made something of a reasonable size, i.e. max. 5" screen…
That’s putting it mildly. I basically have no lens correction for my Pixel phone in Darktable, so it’s a struggle to remove stretching in the wide angle shots.
I haven’t really faced many white balance problems, but the Pixel DNGs are not great to work with. Still, I always prefer my DNG edits to the JPEG spat out by the Pixel.
Good to hear that the Fairphone is competitive with the Pixel 6. I do like to have the telephoto lens on the Pixel though. Also, looks like there is no Canadian site for Fairphone and my carrier doesn’t list it as supported 
This has been my habit too. But as time goes on, I realize that I despise using the phone’s camera more and more. So, unless I have a massive brain fart, I won’t be considering that again. If the phone’s camera is good enough to take photos of serial numbers on things, it’ll do.
I will be checking that out. My carrier allows BYO phone, so if they disallow Fairphone it’s only a matter of being a-holes.
@paperdigits Was installing LineageOS on your Fairphone 4 straightforward?
Anyone have any experience with /e/OS, which is an option on Fairphone?
The “hard” part about android installation is getting the bootloader unlocked. A lot of manufacturers lock it and it won’t unlock it without a key, if they allow unlocking at all. I don’t buy phones who’s bootloaders don’t unlock easily.
For the Fairphone, its locked, but requires no key. With the android tools installed, you do fastboot oem unlock and the Fairphone bootloader unlocks.
Then you just push the lineage OS zip file to the phone, and it installs it.
It is a bit of command line, but that doesn’t bother me. The process is detailed on the Lineage OS wiki page for each device, and for every device I’ve ever owned, the install instructions have been accurate.
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