If you haven’t yet sent your device back you might try out this:
I assume you’re an appropriate person to check if respectively how much using the “unprocessed” channel improves it.
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I think Fairphone has to do some proper tuning again. With the FP4 and FP5 there were a bunch of apps that had poor microphone quality. Duolingo doesn’t work at all for me. But when I switch to my FP5 my linguistic skills are suddenly back…
Best is to contactsupport to report every issue, the sooner they fix it.
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you’re using a smartphone mic to record live music ? 
He didn’t say he was expecting studio quality. I expect a modern phone to produce a tolerable account.
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Just my two cents: audio quality on the FF6 recordings are really, truly bad.
Just used the phone this weekend to record clips of a kids camp - and sadly some clips of singing and other activities are completely unusable because the audio didn’t capture the scene as it should and much much worse than the FF4 which was absolutely fine…
Very faint audio that only captured what was very close as if only the near range mic for taking calls was used. Other clips were fine, not very good but decent.
I don’t expect Hifi studio quality but I expect a usable recording of unrepeatable memories.
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I contacted support in November 2024 when I first encountered the microphone issue on my FP5. They replied saying:
“It won’t be possible for us to address this issue via a software update at this point in time. We definitely appreciate the feedback, and rest assured, we’re always looking for ways to improve our products, so it’s not off the cards for the future.”
At the time they also advised me to check this thread for a solution, mainly the OpenCamera workaround by selecting the unprocessed audio source. I’ve been testing it for a while, and while it does perform slightly better, the audio quality in loud environments is still erratic and highly dependent on the noise level.
Now, six months later—and with the launch of the FP6—the same issue is still present. What’s even more frustrating is that this microphone problem has been reported by users since 2019, starting with the release of the FP3.
It’s disappointing to see that, despite being aware of the issue since the FP3, Fairphone has yet to resolve this huge flaw now carried over into the FP6.
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This is 100% a software issue.
I investigated a bit more and found a lead. The ones with the stock camera software are okay. Worse than the FF4 but usable for social media.
The ones that didn’t work were taken with gcam, open camera and blackmagic cam as I was testing alternative camera apps. It seems to me like the API for third party apps only exposed a near-range mic designed for phone calls. Only sound that’s very very close gets recorded. To say it differently: you can’t hear 20 kids singing around a fire 3 meters away but you can hear my cough holding the phone… It’s THAT bad!
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Something to be mindful of as well, people usually use their little finger to support their phone. When doing this with your right hand, you likely block the bottom mic. So, if that’s used for something (good to verify) then make sure you don’t block it.
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Another FP6 built-in microphone clip can be heard in this video (min 12:51) in a quiet environment.
Hello! I’m a musician and have been using the FFP3+ for two years, and switched to the FFP6 a month ago. In both cases, the audio is heavily processed: compression, noise gate, very high gain… which makes the audio very easily distorted.
Today I recorded myself playing acoustic guitar and singing in my garden (i.e. not a loud concert!) and the audio still came out saturated and compressed, leaving it unusable. And the Open Camera setting “unprocessed audio” is nice to have, but then the level is very low, which requires editing in 3rd party software to post the video on social media.
This is quite cumbersome and not a practical solution, especially for quick videos like Instagram stories. I wish there was an input gain feature that could be activated, at least!
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all of the above! 
totally agree, the microphone od the Fairphone 6. Gen. is unusable right now
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UPDATE - The recent update (FP6.QREL.15.122.0) considerably improved the quality of the audio recordings. I took several videos at live concerts, with drums, guitars and (moderately) loud amps, and it now works very well. It sounds like there is no more autogain or agressive noise gate being applied, and this makes the fairphone usable to record videos at concerts or rehearsals.
Thanks to the fairphone team for solving this audio issue!
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I updatet my FP 6 to 1.1.3 ota.
Which setting for the audio source do you use? I testes a bit but don’t know which to use best. Most sound overdriven.
Do you have e/OS installed?
Yes i have e/os/ .
I use the standard camera app
I guess this refers to the FP OS not e/OS
Depending on what caused the issue it might be implemented later in e/OS automatically or murena would have to fix this…
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Sorry for not being more specific, this is the FP6.QREL.15.122.0 update
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I just updated my FP 6 to e/OS/3.1.4-a15 and before and after that i have the reported problems with microphone quality. Videos are not usable.
I use this app called ‘Easy Voice Recorder’ to record voice messages and other things. It’s a lot better but probably still not as good as my old Samsung A52S phone mic. For me, the fair and sustainable nature of the phone and company outweigh my need for things like microphone useage, especially as everything else works so well - but I’m sure I’m a small anomaly. I was quite surprised at the improvement of the microphone when using this app and wonder if anyone else uses this to record stuff?
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Yeess… like live parts of a concert ? Ocean wave sounds ? None of this is possible.