Fairphone 6 is my second, but definitely not my last Fairphone!
Got mine today and I have to say it’s the biggest pile of steaming dog turd I have ever mistaken for a phone.
My old Samsung S20 was broken beyond economic repair, my wife likes her fp5 so I thought id give it a go.
Nice to see in the six years since my old phone came out it’s possible to move backwards quite easily.
First who designs a handset with a button that sticks proud from the side of the case and therefore catches on everything? Idiotic. Why have I paid for a case to find it doesn’t cover the whole perimeter of the screen? Poor.
Nice to see the screen itself has both a worse resolution and lower pixel count than my old phone.
It also comes with less ram and on paper at least a better processor, except that when trying to play the same games as on the old phone they stutter and chug along. Disappointing.
The FP android UI is frankly awful. Why can’t I have 6*5 icons on the homepage? Why are there no font options, who thought that the black outline function was actually not to outline the lettering but just to put the white text in a black bubble? Why cant i have the app drawer scroll horizontally as opposed to the counterintuitive vertical scrolling which I hate.
How long does this fecking thing take to charge as well? The answer is too long, much slower than a six year old phone with a bigger battery and I don’t buy the bull about not having induction charging being for ethical reasons, it’s just cheaper not to build it into the phone.
I was also overjoyed to find out that the phone isn’t anymore than gently splash proof. I won’t be mounting it to my handlebars incase I get caught in the rain then. Not that I’ll be mounting it to handlebars anytime soon as it’s the only phone in existence that you can’t get a quad lock case for.
The only good thing about the phone is the xd card slot. It really should come with a data cable in the box for moving fies from old phones to new ones, although that will take an eon because it unbelievably has a usb c 2 socket.
If it wasn’t for the fact the old phone is toast and I’m away for a week this would have gone straight back in the box. As it is, I can’t wait until I have some disposable income and can smash this thing into a million pieces.
The biggest irony is that it turns out I could have bought a Samsung A17 with the same performance and a better UI for almost £450 less than I paid for the FP6. Criminal.
It seems that you had the wrong expectations from the beginning. Most of your points mentioned could all have been found in the specifications of the device, such as screen resolution, pixel count, RAM, battery charging time, IP rating and USB data transfer time. Perhaps you should check those before buying a device?
I understand that some users might want different specs, but many everyday users are perfectly fine with what the Fairphone 6 offers. Not everyone is a power user, and the FP6 offers all the features needed from a smartphone while being produced fairly and being repairable.
To be honest, this kind of shows your mentality. If anything, just sell the device to someone who wants to use it.
The “criminal” thing is to compare the FP6 to a Galaxy A17… 
First, these are not comparable regarding ethics and repairability. Second, they are not comparable in terms of performance either. A more honest performance comparison would be the Galaxy A57, which costs about 350 euros, versus 499 euros for the FP6. So the price difference is about 150 euros, or 130 GBP… But then you have to factor out that the A57 only has 6 years of support (vs 8 years, well 7 now, for the FP6). Then you also have to consider the fact that both repairability and ethics is much better on the FP6. Last but not least, despite all the critics against FP6 not including USB 3.2 and wireless charging…well the A57 also sports a USB 2.0 port and no wireless charging in 2026, despite being considered one of the best mid range phone! So clearly Fairphone is not alone in this design choice. So you’re basically paying 150 euros extra for slightly longer software support, better ethics, better repairability, ability to install a custom ROM, relock the bootloader and not being locked in OneUI. There are a few drawbacks for sure but I think it is becoming much more balanced than what you depict in your experience (which of course I do not dismiss). As others have said, much of this could have been avoided by first reading the specs.
EDIT: beside a weak vribration motor and horrible audio recording during videos in loud environments, I am more than happy with my nearly 11 months old FP6 (but I’m running e/OS since day 1 and do not suffer any of the issues your reported with FPOS)
Well, nothing’s perfect in this world, but I’m very pleased with my FF6 which arrived in good shape and is as described in the spec., and does what I wanted it to. And I’m delighted with the ethos behind it.
You can’t really complain if you don’t like something that was obvious from the spec - you bought it!
(OK, so before the latest update I could glance at the screen and see what the battery life was. Now I need to ferret about for a magnifying glass to read it. Well done that developer! Such is life …)
The last couple of months with the FP6 have me considering giving up after 4 years of Fairphone (FP4 → FP5 → FP6).
I’m willing to sacrifice a lot for repairability and “fair” working conditions, but not basic functionality. A bad camera is fine, as long as it [actually saves the photos you take]( Fairphone 6 Camera Pictures missing ). Fairphone’s recycled-rare-earth-magnet story is cool, but it doesn’t help when [I can’t feel my phone vibrating in my pocket and miss every call]( Ridiculously bad haptics/vibration? ). Vanilla Android with monthly security updates is great, but not when [bugs persist across generations]( FP6 and Wireless Android Auto issues (inc FP5) ), and not when the underlying mid-range chipset lacks the kernel patches and vendor glue that other OEMs ship to paper over Qualcomm’s lower-tier driver bugs.
I admit I’m a heavy user: a lot of apps, a lot of photos and videos. My experience probably isn’t shared by everyone. But for me, Fairphones have become barely usable, and I can’t honestly recommend them to anyone I know.
I’m considering the FP6 and would like to hear from people who have actually used it. How has your experience been so far in terms of performance, reliability, battery life, and overall value? Would you recommend it, or are there any major drawbacks I should be aware of before making a decision?
Hi and welcome.
Moved your post here, you will find comments above. I advice to provide more details what is important for you, else do some reading in the forum. Just remind, its the nature of a forum that those that are unhappy can seem to be the majority, as people normally dont speak up as long as they are happy
I’m happy with the FP6 and I’m not affected by any critical issues, making the FP6 unusable for me.
In January I also switched from FP2 (with Lineage OS) to FP6 (with /e/OS) and I’m also very happy with it 
I’ve had my a few weeks now and I still hate it.
I had a massive rant on a separate thread and the fan boys jumped in as if I had physically attacked their mothers. I could go back to them but who has time for that?
Overall there are too many fundamental design flaws, who in their right mind puts the volume buttons opposite the screen lock button? The protective case is next to useless and very uncomfortable to hold. I still feel it’s under powered for the price and I don’t agree with some of the claims about the ethical nature of the phone. I work in the commodities space and anyone who thinks artisanal gold mining has better welfare standards as opposite to big corporation mining has been mislead. The components in the phone are largely the same as those in a less ethical Samsung or iPhone and all the guff about guaranteed updates for the next eight years etc. are pointless when the phone only has 8gb of memory and the requirements of the apps you will be using in 8 years time will outstrip this.
Honestly I reckon you’d be better of with a fp5.
Its still not understandable for me why you bought the phone in first place, most of the “technical” points you mentioned earlier here in this thread and now where clear from the specs.
Your view on the case is subjective.
Reg.
Please provide a proof for such claims, this
is no proof.
For the time being here the FP impact report.
I had a massive rant on a separate thread and the fan boys jumped in as if I had physically attacked their mothers. I could go back to them but who has time for that?
@Wxq none of the replies you received had anything to do with ‘fan boys’ being offended. You were called out on the fact that you bought a product without informing yourself about its specifications and you blame the phone for it.
The discussion would have benefited from you actually replying in a civil manner to the replies, instead of calling people fanboys and calling out their mothers.
It is fine to be disappointed by the FP6 and it is also fine to be happy with it. That is actually the very topic of this thread: who is happy with the FP6? @Wxq if you’re unhappy with it, just get another phone…but read the specs first 
You are welcome to share your experience but also accept that the FP6 is a good fit for some other persons who do not have the same expectations. I don’t think the FP6 is for everyone. With a fairphone you probably have to accept some drawbacks here and there and cannot expect the same performance per $ compared to big players. Whether that matters to you or not is up to you. From my point of view, I always wanted a phone with long software updates, a replaceable battery (by me) and replaceable USB-C port and less dependance of GAFA. The FP6 with e/OS fits the bill for me. But if you want best performance for your buck, obviously don’t look at Fairphones.