The Fairphone 6 is just about ready for launch, and a new leak is giving us plenty of insight into what to expect from the company’s next repairable smartphone.
The folks at WinFuture (via GSMArena) got their hands on renders and a near-complete list of specs for the Fairphone 6, and nearly two years after the arrival of the Fairphone 5, this year’s release is looking like a pretty excellent upgrade.
Fairphone has opted to drop the curved back panel for something a bit more modern, looking right in line with designs from, well, pretty much every other Android OEM these days. What’s different, of course, are the two visible screws on the back panel itself, which — as you’d expect from Fairphone — allows for easy access to all sorts of user-replaceable components. The new design also allows for mixing and matching between all three back plates, making for a more customizable, two-tone look.
While the black and white colorways are pretty standard, Fairphone’s “Forest Green” shade looks particularly great. It’s somewhat reminiscent of something like Google’s Pixel 5, though unsurprisingly with a larger 6.31-inch 120Hz display. As usual for the brand, the Fairphone 6 isn’t quite the Android powerhouse some might want it to be, but with a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, 256GB of expandable storage, and 8GB of RAM powering the entire experience, it’s tough to call it disappointing, especially when you remember how much of this phone is repairable or replaceable.
That back panel hides a removable 4,415mAh battery capable of charging at 33W. It’s not quite hot-swappable, since you’ll need to unscrew the cell itself alongside the phone’s back, but it’s also not glued down. WinFuture says other components — including the 50MP main and 13MP ultra-wide sensors, the front-facing 32MP camera, the speaker, and the USB-C port, are also all replaceable with the right tools and know-how. Thankfully, Fairphone is typically excellent about uploading easy-to-follow user guides in both written and video format, and I can’t see why this new phone would be any exception.
Unfortunately, all of that repairability does come at the cost of water and dust resistance, as the Fairphone 6 is reportedly just IP55-certified. That matches its predecessor and should protect against dusty or rainy situations, but surviving full immersion is, unfortunately, not so likely. Eagle-eyed viewers might also notice a mysterious slider switch, though it’s unclear exactly what its purpose is at the moment. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out — WinFuture expects the Fairphone 6 to launch on June 25th for €549 (~$630).
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