It don't look like an iPhone, mostly!
Yes, sadly, almost all phone manufacturers are following Apple's design trend of flat edges and flat screens now and I'm finding myself looking out more for those which don't. The Honor 400 Pro, for example (though not the 400), gaming phones and various Motorola models, still with their own design and distinctive look rather than just a copy of what everyone else is doing. Don't get me wrong, it's not just an opportunity to Apple Bash - many of their ideas I think are nifty and worth copying (like Dynamic Island, Liquid Glass, Stacking Widgets) - but some are just not. This is one of them. And now, sure enough, the 6th Gen of the Fairphone is similarly blocky-similar. The 5 retains its own rounded frame (though I will admit that the camera island on the back is very last-gen Apple)!
That's right - it's been stripped out of the 6th Gen unit and cabling content out from the phone is no longer possible. Following the trend, I guess, everyone getting more and more used to being online the whole time with a good connection, conducting connections wirelessly and via the cloud, but just now and again, some of us appreciate a cabled hook-up. Especially those of us with an older NexDock Touch, for example - or for those times when a person does indeed have a crappy connection (or none at all). Or if you need a latency-free experience sending media to another device (though I do admit that the more time goes on, this does get much better, wirelessly, too).
There's a Quick-Replace Battery
Most things you need to do with the 6th Gen phone requires a screwdriver at the very least whereas with the 5, a fingernail will suffice for true hot-swapping for the essentials. The 6 seems to have a greater emphasis on CMF-style modularity rather than hot-swapping internals as they sell their Finger Loop back, Card Holder back and Lanyards - which all feels a bit gimmicky, frankly.
Intermission!
Here's Steve's YouTube Shorts (short'n'sweet when YouTube Shorts were limited to 60-seconds) on the Fairphone 5 from 2024.
I'm using a cable from my Pixel 9, which is on Android 16 QPR2 Beta2, so maybe a bit of a gamble! So far so good - except that Fairphone have supplied the phone in the box with only about 30% charge in it and the cable route insists on the new phone charging the old one! I'm ongoingly foxed by this, so I asked Gemini who tells me that no, it's supposed to work the other way around - the new phone is charged by the old one. Clearly not here! I think it's a complicated issue relating to cables and USB protocols etc. but I've yet to find out an authoritative view. Here, it's a screw-up and takes us back to the days when the first thing you do when taking a phone out the box is charge it up, pacing the floor. And sure enough, the Fairphone has shut down mid-flow! No warning not to do it until the battery is charged enough. D'oh! So perhaps we'll try wireless, then - and not a cable. Or just wait (highly unlikely). Not a good start.
Setting Up 2
I've attached my 100W Charger and it reports that it's charging the phone at 23W instead of the 30W I might have expected from the specs given that the battery is flat - this is where you'd expect the full whack. But, OK. So it now thinks that the setup was complete, which it wasn't. No text messages, no phone call logs and so on. I guess the only way to reboot that (wirelessly or wait for the battery to charge) is to factory reset it and try from the start again. Still, that's OK - I can now complete it manually, which, perhaps I should have done anyway. Oh, hang on, some of the data must have got through as it's now installing 96 apps from the Pixel. I should have started again really, though it does feel a bit like stepping back in time including with 3-button Navigation on by default rather than the near-ubiquitous Gesture option which most phones seem to now start up with. Easily switched, of course.
It arrived with Android 14 onboard, March 2025 Google Security patching and August 2023 Play System update. Android 15 was waiting, now downloaded and installed, along with June 2025 Google Security (see update, below) and January 2025 Play System update. I downloaded another of those awaiting and it's now on the September 2025 Play System update, as we'd expect. And that's now, like most Android phones, up to January 2026.
System 2
In amongst all this I have been reading on the Fairphone forums about fingerprint scanners not working properly (which, apparently, I shouldn't get because mine is a 'later batch') but also Quickstep problems with it crashing for no reason. I did experience some bugs too, one of which was that the operator name was in the status bar top-left, even though the setting was toggled off. I toggled it on and off again and it went away - but maybe an example of what was to come with bugs. Then, an update pops up, claiming to fix the buggy launcher. So I installed it. FP4.TP31.C.0143.20250917. With September 2025 Google Security Patch. As I'd not long set up I decided to do a factory reset to get a clean start after this - especially after the hike from Android 14 to 15 earlier too. So fingers crossed as I now start again!
Update - with the latest updates and (yet another) factory reset, it's starting to feel a little less buggy at last. One that remains is the operator name top-left, to the left of the clock. The toggle in Display Settings is off, as above, but it's there. Turn the toggle off/on and it goes away, as I say, but then in a few minutes (presumably when the device and network talk to each other again) back it comes. But it's not a deal-breaker.
Still Buggy
Straight away - for example, long-press the ever-present Google Search Bar at the top of the Home Screen for a 'Preferences' pop-up, tap it, nothing happens except that the pop-up goes away! Add the Google At a Glance widget (not that you can get rid of the ever-present one) and it will only render 5x2 taking up almost half the screen! I've tested this and it will only shrink down if the 'display size' in Settings is mark-2 (of 5) or smaller. Anything bigger and it's back to a 5x2 widget taking up half the screen. Maybe that's less of a bug, more of a design screw-up. The App Grid can't be made any smaller than 5x5, so that's not a workaround either. The default Quickstep Launcher is the supplied one and it feels generally OK now. An alternative would be Nova Prime - except that at time of writing, it seems to be no longer developed, but I prefer Octopi Launcher anyway - so I can live with this. In actual fact, I got fed up with that sooner than I thought and have launched(!) into my alternative launcher already!
Update - one of the updates added the option to remove the Google Search Bar completely from the top of the screen, and that now works. Hurrah!
This time I used my Samsung Galaxy S24+ instead of the Pixel 9 on Beta (as above) so anything carried over from that could be ruled out in terms of clashing functions. Of course, I forgot that this would introduce all the apps that were force-fed on a Samsung phone like LinkedIn, Smart Switch, SmartThings and so on. Oh well - easily uninstalled. So now back the square-one and I'll have another go! No, still buggy and apparently confused by Samsung's data infiltrating the process. Try again!
Third Start!
Maybe we need to go back to basics - don't trust any kind of cable-or-wireless Restore of any description, just set it up from scratch like used to have to 15 years ago! Here we go again, then! Factory reset 3 (or is it 4?!). Aha - and now another update on first boot - VT2E.C.059 fixing something to enable the phone to be updated to Android 15 - even though it's already on Android 15! Google Security has gone back to August 25 and Play System, back to January 25. So, we're all updated again now and actually, the UI feels very smooth. The much-complained about fingerprint scanner seems to work perfectly for me (but, as I say, I might have a 'later batch' phone here) and the general bugginess of Android 15, largely not present. It's fast around the UI and I've now uninstalled Octopi again in order to get the Fairphone UX (at least for now). I think that finally, I've got there and can now expect a better experience going forward.
Dutch Delivery
By the way, the delivery was all-but next-day from Holland. UPS were the courier and from the time of ordering, about 12noon on 1st October, it was in my hands at 11.10am on 3rd with full tracking etc. I was quite impressed with that.
When I first turned it on I was actually quite impressed, expecting it to be dreadful. It's slightly tinny at full volume, but down at 80% it's much better. And then, as always in these situations, we have the Wavelet app. This adds some body, depth - and makes it better (if the user needs to push it to 100% volume). It's not going to top very many phone-speaker lists, but rather it's in the general area of comparisons with devices, maybe, 2-years back. There's much worse out there, however, I assure you, and I do think that we have reached a point now where phone speakers generally are good-enough for 95% of listeners. And of course, with a Fairphone, you can replace it when it wears out! There's no 3.5mm audio-out socket, like the Fairphone 4, but unlike the 3. Bit of a shame, but with Bluetooth being so amazingly good these days (on any device paired with decent ear/headphones), one could shrug. As it seems they did! The soundstage from the speakers is pretty good, too - with clarity of the stereo at over 18" away from the face. Starts to diminish at about 2ft, but good enough for personal viewing/listening, I contend.
So, at last, back where I should have been starting all this! The box is, of course, made from all recyclable materials. Removing the colourful outside sleeve, which reminds us that it's made plastic-free and that they are not providing a cable because they reckon buyers will already have one and it saves the planet. The same principle is true for not including a charger. Inside the cardboard-looking inner box we get all sorts of reminders about Fairphones goals, long software support, extended warranty, how easy it is to repair, that they use fair and recycled materials, look after workers and are climate-conscious. There's no SIM Tool of course because the back comes off and no need! There's a Getting Started leaflet and encouragement to use the box to "send us your own phone" which they then dispose of responsibly/recycle and which goes towards upholding their goals about reducing electronic waste. All very laudable - but the phone has to be fit for purpose and keep up with what we've become used to, in 2025, our pocket computers do. So we shall see.
Physical
As I was indicating earlier, the chunkily 9.6mm fat shape of the surrounding aluminium frame is very nicely rounded and in my case, black. It's 212g so feels like it has some heft compared with others. On the left we have a microphone and antenna cut-outs, on the left, separate firm and solidly-performing volume up and down buttons above a power button/capacitive fingerprint scanner button, slightly recessed. At the top is a microphone and the bottom, another cut-out for signal, a USB-C port and bottom-firing speaker. I chose the transparent back, which is nice, but the green one was second choice. I actually like the speckled green one of the Fairphone 4 most of all, but not available for the 5. The back is plastic and can be torn off via the fingernail cutout on the bottom-left of it. There's a camera island looking suspiciously Apple-like, as I said earlier but taking the back off is where the fun begins! Fairphone have certified the device as IP5/5 and MIL-STD-810H and say that it has been drop tested to ICE 60058-2-31.
So yes, the back 'peels' off and inside the user is faced with mainly the battery, also clear access to the other components many of which can be removed, repaired, replaced with a simple cross-head screwdriver (which they'll sell you for £4.50 if you don't have one small enough). A new display (which we'll come to) for £90, battery £36, Top unit £36, main camera £62, wide-angle camera £40, Selfie camera £31, a back cover (green, black, white, grey, transparent) £22, USB-C port £18, loudspeaker £22 and an earpiece for £18. That looks like the available list at time of writing. They claim that they will continue to stock these parts for the duration of the software support, which I'll come to, but at least 2031. Check out Steve's videos linked above (and others on YouTube) to see how easy that is - and it is - no engineering or Physics degree needed! The battery has to be removed to get to the microSD Card and nanoSIM Card slots which sit under the top lip of where it sits. So yes, armed with a tiny screwdriver you can expect to be able to repair the phone for a long time to come. Kudos.
OLED Panel
The one you can replace if you break it, though it is protected by the standards of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and has an Oleophobic coating. It's also got a screen protector out of the factory fitted and so well-fitting it is that I didn't notice it for ages! I started to question it when I did suspect that some screen-swipes were not registering as well as I thought they could, had a closer look and sure enough, there it was. I don't like these things, so I removed it. I'd personally rather run the risk of having to cough £90 somewhere down the line for a new one if it gets scratched up. Previous users of Fairphones had complained about the use of LCD panels, so I'm pleased to see that they did, from the FP4 onwards, make use of an OLED. It's a very nice screen, 1224 x 2700 pixels, 459ppi, 20:9 ratio, bright at 880nits peak and colourful too. The refresh rate can be set to 90 (everyone else) or 60Hz (me) and it's a really nice size at 6.46". It feels a bit bigger than that however, as there are substantial bezels around all four edges. I'm OK with this though if it means less accidental touches, but yes, the 161.6mm x 75.8mm frame, I guess, could have been smaller. I wonder if there's any chance that a newly developed screen might take the bezels away, for those who don't like them. Some hope! The second of the pair of stereo speakers is at the top of the screen, doubling up for call audio.
Fairphone offer a 5-year warranty for purchasers of the phone and as they are still selling them new, that, for me, goes to October 2030. So that, already, is something special. They are also offering long support windows for software. The phone arrived on release with Android 13 and they promise that it will get 5 Android OS updates, so to Android 18, and security patching until 2031 but have a goal of trying to stretch that to 10 years instead of 8 - so to 2033 if that happens. Part of the reason that they are confident going forward is the choice of chipset in the mix - and an odd one it is too.
Chipset
The chipset that Fairphone have chosen to use is an 'industrial grade' one, Qualcomm QCM6490, which has been developed by the firm for longer-term use than other phones. It's primarily designed to be used in tech devices other than phones, like industrial tablets and handhelds, cameras, medical and smart devices that typically commerce and industry expect to go on for longer and not have to replace hardware. Apparently it's based on the same 6nm architecture as the SnapDragon 778G+ (same as, for example, the first Nothing Phone) and are good at sipping power but performing more than adequately for conservatively employed other hardware and software demands. Especially not AI, which this phone has none of, at least built-in! The phone, like a rugged device, is designed as more of a workhorse rather than high-end performer expected by some gaming enthusiasts, for example. It's a bold choice and will be interesting to how the special arrangement between Fairphone and Qualcomm holds up over time - and whether Fairphone can stick to their promises. I have a Fairphone 3+ here (released in 2000 - though the 3 was 2019) and it is, in my view, now unusable with Android on it. So slow in everything it does - so much so that I wiped it and now it's used with Ubuntu Touch OS. The 3+ chipset was a SnapDragon 632. So hopefully this shift will make the Fairphone 5 last longer. In addition to all this, apparently the Fairphone 5's screen can benefit from a dedicated visual co-processor, Pixelworks, taking some of the work away from the main chip and producing better colour and tone based on ambient lighting. This can work in video playback particularly and 'upmapping' standard visuals to HDR. Not really sure if that's special - or every phone has it! Not my area, but thought I'd mention it!
One of the ways in which the phone doesn't get bogged-down like some others (especially using this challenging chipset) is that the software experience is clean and clear. There was no bloatware installed and yes, it's fairly bare-boned like AOSP or the AndroidOne programme. As we know, Google have raced on from these 'standards' in order to embrace and supply lots of smart/AI stuff on lots of Android phones - their own Pixel devices now looking unrecognisable from what they, and Nexus, used to be when, for example, the Nokia XR20 (still going strong here!) were released, 4 years back. But this 'clean' look/feel is now refreshing, arguably. Nothing much getting in the way of the core experience and making it easier and quicker, in theory, for the Fairphone staff to work to keep the device up to date and usable for a long time.
User Interface
As I was saying earlier, the Quickstep Launcher, since the software updates came along, is more than usable for anyone not wanting to try a 3rd party option. The Google Discover Feed is off to the left for those who want it and the drop-down Notification Shade is clean Android 15. Swipe down from anywhere for that, swipe up from anywhere for the App Drawer. Long-press for Widget assignment, various Home Pages settings (very basic) and the Wallpaper and Style options (which was so troublesome - see above!) with Themed Icons option, Grid change and so on. Very clean. Very baseline Android. Nothing complicated! And a lot of that is the advantage here. While other OEMs go headlong into all sorts of AI functions, overlays, apps - or making their UI look like an Apple one - Fairphone here are keeping it simple and easy. Kudos again - though I wonder what might have to shift when Android 16 arrives as Google have made significant core UI changes. Having said that, I note that Motorola have largely ignored them! We'll leave that stress for another day!
The 4,200mAh removable Li-ion battery performs well enough, I suppose, for most. The standby time with screen off is very good - into multiple days. With my average use, it gets me to bedtime no problem with about 30% left, but I wouldn't like to start Day 2 without it topped up. But never fear as you can buy another! I did and so have two at the ready. It's a bit of a shame that there's no way of charging the batteries except inside the phone as that would be very handy. 30W charging by cable is supported and I have been getting a full charge from flat in well under 90 minutes, so not blazingly fast - but it's that last bit that takes the time as I can get more than half of it charged in a half hour. As for my 10% Reading Test, it's not great - just about 2 hours, which these days is well behind the leading pack. As for the screen, above, me musing again, maybe there's a way that a replacement battery could be developed as a Silicon-Carbon unit. A perfect opportunity to simply add it to their Spare Parts shop list. But I'm guessing that will be against the company's sustainability ethos.
RAM and Storage
The unit that I bought has 256GB of internal storage and 8GB RAM. You can get a 128GB/6GB version too for a bit less money. Both of them, though, have that microSD Card slot with support up to 2TB. I have a 1TB card in mine and it's playing very nicely with read/write times and zero judder on, for example, video playback even on quite large sample files. I'm not convinced that personally I need anything more than 256GB storage on my phone these days with connectivity, cloud storage and services so solid/cheap, but you never know. And if we're into a belt'n'braces situation here of ensuring that you can keep going if the balloon goes up(!) then of course, this is a vital addition. Pocket computers, otherwise known as phones, will certainly be more flexible with more physical options if indeed the shit does hit the fan! In the meantime, yes, a bonus. As for RAM, any devices with more than 8GB (or even 6 really) are really gearing up for AI stuff and OTT use which 95% of people will never need/do. We still have baseline Android phones running happily with 4GB. So, for this phone, no fear!
There's none! Part of the very purpose here is to get away from built-in AI and reliance on services developed for so-called smart, but intrusive systems for most Fairphone buyers, I'd argue. But fear not, if not - as you can just install what you like as an app. Good example is Gemini, available in the Play Store and works perfectly well. I think that Google's own services are generally optimised well enough to run on even the most meagre of hardware in the Android world. If you start dipping into image/video processing/developing AI services then I guess your mileage may vary. For me, the Gemini queries and conversations I conduct work as perfectly and quickly on this phone as any other. But that's about my limit, personally. There's much talk currently about the AI-bubble bursting any minute and suddenly, perhaps, these OEMs that have invested heavily in their own systems might just come a cropper! Especially going forward, for their new hardware, if they can't get hold of enough RAM - as I write, there is news flying around about a world shortage - so next year's phones might be very different!
Security and Connectivity
The phone's capacitive, side-mounted fingerprint scanner is, as you might expect, perfect in operation - first time, every time. It's quick to register and ably supported by a well-performing face-unlock too. This is also reliable and quick to register in my testing here. In fact, by the time you get your finger on the scanner, the Selfie camera has done the job most of the time in decent-enough light. WiFi (6e) I have tested with 3 networks and it finds/locks well and cellular for voice and data has been tested here on EE's 4G and 5G service and again, no complaints. There's a physical nanoSIM slot as I said earlier and capacity for an eSIM connection too, both 5G. The GPS has been tested with various apps and services including Mapping and appears to work well, finding/holding on, the range of Bluetooth (5.2 LE) seems good in my tests, holding on and transmitting, and NFC seems good in terms of hooking up to other gear and paying at Tesco!
As I mentioned at the outset, this is one of the clear advantages over the newer Fairphone 6, which has had the OTG, DisplayPort, cabled connectivity option removed and returned to a 2.0 version. Perhaps Fairphone concluded that not many people, unlike me, were using or valuing it. Again, one could argue that with wireless connectivity options being so good these days, who needs it. And maybe they are right. But there will no doubt be one situation lurking where it's needed. Network down, no way to connect to a service to stream, mouse and keyboard not playing ball and so on. In which case it could be important and desirable to just cable-up and roll it. We'll also be able to play with Google's evolving Desktop Mode while Fairphone 6 users look on, drooling! Now having said all that, there has been an issue with the Fairphone 5, much reported in their forums and experienced here - where, when plugging a cable into the USB-C port flags up not connectivity but a warning saying that there is a blockage/moisture in the port and it can't connect - try later. Now to be fair, I've not seen it pop up since the last round of updates itemised above, so hopefully that has been fixed. But yes - options are always welcome (as would have been the 3.5mm audio socket).
Off-Grid
You can choose to have the phone supplied with /e/OS by Murena (for a 'de-Googled' experience) rather than Android (or put it on yourself later if you fancy the challenge) if top priority is privacy over convenience. I haven't done this nor particularly looked into it, but as the bootloader is unlocked on the phone, the world is your oyster! This is a whole different world and for those interested, they can read all about it at their website.
The main camera in that Apple-like triangle is a 26mm (ffe) f1.88, 50MP with OIS, the wide-angle one is 13mm (ffe) f2.2, 50MP with AF and 2.5cm Super Macro and the Selfie is 22mm (ffe) f2.45, 50MP. All three cameras bin to 12.5MP by default. The third circle on the camera island is a 3D ToF unit for depth. You can force 'full pixel' on the main camera to shoot at 50MP, with the resulting bigger file sizes, but not the others. The 'super macro' via the wide-angle lens is decent-enough, but others, using the wide option with AF do a better/closer job. You can do just as well really, for casual shooting, using the main lens and zooming in a bit. There's no optical zoom here. The supplied camera app/software is pretty basic with the stuff you'd expect - Photo, Video, Portrait, Pro, Panorama - in a sideways text-scroll. Then there's Stop Motion, Super Night (creating virtual daylight from almost pitch darkness at the expense of sharpening etc.) and Slo-Mo. Video tops out at 4K@30fps or 1080@60. I'm sure that there are much, much better cameras-in-phones out there (and worse) but as this really isn't my area I'm going to hand you our friends at GSMArena for their deeper dive which starts here. They generally think that in some ways the photography from the phone is surprisingly good with nice results, but in others, could be better. Please do support them in whatever way you can as they do provide a great service and reference point.
Colours and Availability
You can buy the Fairphone 5 in Matte Black, Sky Blue, Transparent or Green. However, the 'transparent' one looks very much like a 'matt black' one to me (with the transparent back on it)! The sky blue and green actually do give you that colour on the a aluminium surround. Or at least, they would. I just went to the Fairphone website and it seems that they are now only offering the Fairphone 5 as a 'refurbished' option, not new, pushing everyone towards the 6th gen unit for new. I guess that's good for the planet. But I'm glad I got in in time to get a new one! The refurbished ones are similarly given a 5-year warranty and the same software support window as the new ones (from first release-date of course, so the later you buy one, the less of a support window you get). At time of writing, a refurbished unit with 256GB/8GB is being offered for £379 (under the £465 I paid in October for my new one).
So what do you get by 'upgrading' to the latest Fairphone unit then? There must be some lure! Well, there's a different chipset which apparently improves performance and efficiency - the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (4nm) over this experimental idea of the QCM6490 (6nm) - but they still seem to say that the support window is as long. So presumably another special deal done with Qualcomm. You get an LTPO display, which means the return of the AoD and variable refresh rate, up to 120Hz, which is good for battery too, yes. The screen is slightly smaller and has a higher 'nits' rating (1,400) for brightness, particularly outside in the sun. The GG7i affords, technically, more durable glass protection, but neither seem to great to me, especially for micro-scratching. The base storage is more at 256GB across all units, so the 128GB/6GB version is gone - and all the FP6 units have 8GB RAM - and the storage is UFS 3.1 instead of 2.2, so there's that for faster read/writes. But there's no microSD Card support! With the main camera the FP6 uses a newer, slightly larger sensor with a slightly wider aperture, generally meaning better low-light performance, though in real-world use I'd question the difference. The wide-angle camera has actually dropped from the FP5's 50MP to a 13MP unit but the Selfie adds AF, even if dropped from 50MP to 32. So there's that, too. In terms of repairability though and hot-swapping, the main thing here is that even to change the battery (which is slightly larger), or even to get the back off, you need a screwdriver, unlike the real hot-swap of the FP5. There's the addition of that quick-function side switch, leading to the Fairphone Moments thing, for what it is worth! From what I've seen in reviews, it's not really! Still, at least you can assign it to something else and more useful. Then there's all that modular stuff I highlighted, above, CMF-style. Oh, and did I mention no DisplayPort support with USB-C 2.0?!
So that's about it really - more of a voyage of discovery perhaps than review or comparison, but hopefully some will appreciate the path and log of findings, fighting with the process to get the device up and running. Which it is now, to be fair - very nicely. And at the end of all that - yes, I still say that I made the right choice and am much happier with the 5 than I would be with the Gen. 6. Happy 2026 to you all!
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