Fairphone, the Dutch company that has spent over a decade trying to prove that consumer electronics can be produced responsibly, is preparing to launch its sixth-generation smartphone later this year — and this time, it appears to be making its most aggressive push yet toward mainstream relevance. The device, internally referred to as the Fairphone 6, is expected to ship with Android 16 out of the box and feature meaningful hardware upgrades that could narrow the gap between ethical manufacturing and competitive performance.
According to reporting by Android Authority, evidence of the upcoming Fairphone 6 has surfaced in Android Open Source Project (AOSP) commits, revealing that the company is already working on bringing Android 16 support to its next device. The AOSP references point to a device codenamed with indicators consistent with Fairphone’s naming conventions, and the commits suggest active development work that aligns with a second-half 2025 launch window.
A Track Record of Incremental Progress and Persistent Shortcomings
Fairphone has always occupied an unusual position in the smartphone market. Founded in 2013 by Bas van Abel, the Amsterdam-based company set out to create phones using conflict-free minerals, fair labor practices, and modular designs that allow users to repair and upgrade their own devices. The company’s phones have earned praise from sustainability advocates and right-to-repair campaigners, but they have consistently struggled to match the performance, camera quality, and polish of devices from Samsung, Google, or Apple at similar or lower price points.
The Fairphone 5, released in late 2023, represented a notable step forward. It featured a Qualcomm QCM6490 processor, a 90Hz OLED display, and a dual-camera system — specifications that, while not flagship-tier, were respectable for a mid-range device. Fairphone also committed to providing software updates through 2031, an industry-leading promise that outpaced even Google’s seven-year commitment for its Pixel devices. Yet reviews were mixed. Critics acknowledged the improved hardware but noted that the camera processing remained behind competitors and that the phone’s overall user experience still felt a generation behind similarly priced alternatives.
Android 16 From Day One: A Signal of Ambition
The decision to launch the Fairphone 6 with Android 16 is significant for several reasons. Google’s next major Android release is expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2025, with a broader rollout through the fall. By shipping with Android 16 pre-installed, Fairphone would be among the first non-Google manufacturers to offer the latest version of the operating system at launch — a feat that even major OEMs like Samsung and OnePlus often fail to achieve, typically launching new hardware on the previous year’s Android version before rolling out updates months later.
This matters for Fairphone’s credibility. One of the persistent criticisms of the brand has been that its software experience lags behind the hardware timeline. The Fairphone 4, for instance, launched with Android 11 at a time when Android 12 was already available. Shipping with the current OS version signals that Fairphone is investing more heavily in its software pipeline and its relationship with Google’s development process. The AOSP commits uncovered by Android Authority suggest that Fairphone engineers are actively contributing to the Android codebase for their hardware platform, which typically indicates a closer collaboration with Google than the company has maintained in previous product cycles.
What We Know — and Don’t Know — About the Hardware
Details about the Fairphone 6’s specifications remain scarce. The AOSP references do not reveal processor choices, display specifications, or camera configurations. However, industry observers expect Fairphone to move to a more capable Qualcomm chipset, potentially one from the Snapdragon 6-series or 7-series, which would provide a meaningful performance uplift over the QCM6490 used in the Fairphone 5. The QCM6490, while adequate, was originally designed for IoT and embedded applications before being adapted for smartphone use, which contributed to some of the performance limitations noted in reviews of the previous model.
Fairphone’s modular design philosophy is expected to continue with the sixth generation. The company’s phones are designed so that users can replace components like the battery, screen, camera module, and speaker using a standard Phillips screwdriver. This approach has earned the company perfect 10/10 repairability scores from iFixit, the repair advocacy organization, and has positioned Fairphone as a poster child for the European Union’s growing right-to-repair regulatory framework. The EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, which is being phased in over the coming years, includes provisions for smartphone repairability and battery replaceability — areas where Fairphone has been ahead of regulatory requirements for years.
The European Regulatory Tailwind
Fairphone’s business model, once considered quixotic by industry analysts, is increasingly aligned with the direction of European technology regulation. The EU has mandated USB-C charging across devices, is pushing for longer software support periods, and is developing requirements around device durability and repairability. France has already implemented a repairability index that scores consumer electronics on how easy they are to fix, and similar schemes are under consideration across the bloc.
These regulatory shifts could prove to be Fairphone’s most important competitive advantage. As larger manufacturers are forced to adapt their designs to meet new European standards, the compliance costs and engineering constraints may narrow the gap between Fairphone’s products and those of its larger rivals. Samsung, for example, has begun offering self-repair programs and has extended its software update commitments, but these moves have been reactive rather than foundational to the company’s product philosophy. Fairphone, by contrast, has built its entire brand around the principles that regulators are now codifying into law.
Scale Remains the Central Challenge
For all its principled positioning, Fairphone’s fundamental challenge remains scale. The company has sold roughly 500,000 phones since its founding — a figure that Samsung moves in a matter of days. Low volume means higher per-unit costs, limited bargaining power with component suppliers, and a smaller engineering team to optimize software and camera processing. It also means that Fairphone’s phones are primarily available in Europe, with no official presence in the United States or most Asian markets.
The company has taken steps to address this. In 2024, Fairphone expanded its retail partnerships and began selling through more carrier channels in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The company has also explored enterprise sales, pitching its long software support and modular repair capabilities to businesses looking to reduce their electronic waste footprint. Corporate sustainability mandates, particularly in Europe, have created a new buyer segment that values repairability and ethical sourcing alongside traditional performance metrics.
The Software Update Promise as a Differentiator
Fairphone’s commitment to extended software support deserves particular attention in the context of the Fairphone 6 launch. If the company maintains or extends the eight-year update promise it made with the Fairphone 5, a device launching in late 2025 with Android 16 could theoretically receive updates through 2033. This would place Fairphone alongside Apple and Google in the small group of manufacturers offering genuinely long-term software support — a factor that increasingly influences purchasing decisions among environmentally conscious consumers and IT procurement departments alike.
The challenge, as always, is execution. Long update commitments are only meaningful if the updates arrive in a timely fashion and include security patches as well as major OS upgrades. Fairphone’s track record here has been uneven. The Fairphone 3, launched in 2019, did receive Android 13 — an impressive four major OS upgrades — but the updates often arrived months after their initial release by Google. If the Fairphone 6’s closer integration with the AOSP development process translates into faster update delivery, it would address one of the most legitimate criticisms of the brand.
A Market That May Finally Be Ready
The smartphone industry in 2025 is markedly different from the one Fairphone entered in 2013. Consumer awareness of electronic waste, supply chain ethics, and planned obsolescence has grown substantially. The global smartphone market has matured, with replacement cycles lengthening and consumers increasingly questioning whether annual upgrades are necessary. In this environment, a phone designed to last five to eight years, with user-replaceable parts and a transparent supply chain, carries a resonance it might not have had a decade ago.
Whether the Fairphone 6 can translate that resonance into meaningful sales growth remains to be seen. The company does not need to outsell Samsung or Apple to succeed — it needs to prove that a sustainable business model can exist in consumer electronics at a scale large enough to influence the broader industry. Each generation of Fairphone has moved closer to that goal. With Android 16 support, expected hardware improvements, and a regulatory environment increasingly sympathetic to its core values, the sixth generation may represent the company’s best opportunity yet to make that case convincingly.