Fairphone lands in the US with a repair price list: $89.99 screens, $40 batteries

Fairphone has started selling the Gen 6+ directly in the United States, the first time the Dutch company has put one of its phones on the American market itself rather than through a partner ^[1]. It is on sale unlocked for $649.99 through Fairphone's site and Amazon ^[2], and the part of the launch worth studying is not the phone but the parts catalogue attached to it.

A replacement display is $89.99 ^[3]. A battery is $40 and a USB-C port is $20 ^[4]. A SIM tray is $7.99 ^[3]. Fairphone counts 12 modular elements the owner can swap ^[5], nearly the whole device comes apart with a single Torx T5 screwdriver ^[6], and a screwdriver ships in the box ^[7]. Taken together, a screen, a battery and a charging port cost $149.99, or roughly 23 percent of the purchase price ^[8].

That is the comparison Fairphone is inviting. Apple charges around $329 for an iPhone 17 screen replacement done directly, according to WIRED ^[9], which is about 3.7 times the Fairphone display part ^[10]. iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel ship with a one-year warranty ^[11]; Fairphone offers five years plus software updates through 2033 ^[12], five times the standard coverage ^[13]. Engadget puts the same commitment as at least seven years of updates from a clean install of Android 16 ^[14].

One caveat on the headline repairability figure. The perfect 10 from iFixit was awarded to last year's Fairphone 6, and The Verge notes the 6 Plus is likely to match it because the design is unchanged ^[15]; WIRED describes the series as the only one with a 10/10 ^[16]. The score is inherited, not newly earned.

The pricing history matters too. Fairphones from the 4 onward were sold in the US only through Murena, with its de-Googled software, and last year's Fairphone 6 went for $899 that way ^[17]. At $649.99 the direct version is about $249 cheaper, a 28 percent cut ^[18]. In Europe the phone is 649 euros, a 50 euro increase on last year's model ^[19].

The hardware is a refresh: a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 and 12GB of DDR5 RAM ^[20], with the 6.31-inch OLED, 4,415mAh battery and 256GB of storage plus microSD carried over unchanged ^[21]. The sustainability claims are numbers rather than adjectives: more than 50 percent fair or recycled materials by weight, about 30kg of CO2 per device, and a claim to be the only fully e-waste neutral smartphone on sale in the US ^[22]. Fairphone is a Certified B Corp with a platinum EcoVadis rating ^[23], and says 14 minerals or materials are certified through bodies including the Fair Cobalt Alliance and IRMA ^[24].

The distribution problem is unsolved. Carriers drive as much as 66 percent of US smartphone sales, according to a 2025 IDC report cited by WIRED ^[25]. The Gen 6+ is certified for T-Mobile and AT&T ^[26] but not for Verizon ^[27]. CEO Raymond van Eck says Fairphone is in discussions with major carriers and MVNOs ^[28]. That is the same wall that pushed OnePlus out of North America recently, after HMD Mobile, Sony and LG Mobile ^[29].

Watch three things. Whether any carrier deal actually closes, since without one the $649.99 phone competes against subsidised flagships on shelves it is not on ^[25]. Whether Verizon certification follows ^[27]. And whether the parts stay in stock at these prices for the full five years, which is the only way the arithmetic above holds; van Eck concedes Fairphone is not immune to the global memory crisis and credits supplier relationships for securing components ^[30]. The Fairbuds 2 arrive in Q4 ^[31].