Update 1
I see a framerate/refresh rate bug that occasionally locks the framerate at a low value upon unlock. Fixing it requires a lock/unlock cycle.
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Anyone know if this works in Australia ? Our telcos seem to block anyrhing not sold on Australia these days. Not sure how tourists are getting on, data esims I guess.
Anyone know if this works in Australia ?
I don’t. However, I do have a search engine, and I plugged in “fairphone 6 australia”.
https://old.reddit.com/r/fairphone/comments/1lmcz1l/fp6_australia/
You can view the full list of what Fairphone devices are IMEI/TAC blocked on each Australian network at https://isthisphoneblocked.net.au/device-brands/fairphone
The Fairphone 6 (TAC: 35901961) is within the Optus Checker Database (3 June 2025 Dataset) and is (currently) “Device is NOT Blocked”, it just doesn’t have a name.
The Fairphone 6 is also not in Telstra’s TAC Checker database but it’s most likely not blocked (not blacklisted), however it’s likely not officially Whitelisted (“Not Blocked”) either, so it could be blocked at any time if the telco thinks its ‘incompatible’.
Hey guy maybe youre having a bad day or whatever but when you say something like “thats a dumb question easily answerable on google” you invalidate the asker and it’s just… unnecessarily snarky.
If you think a question is poorly considered, you can just ignore it.
Besides which, it’s the internet. We’re all just here passing the time of day, thinking thoughts and asking questions and engaging in supposition.
If no one is allowed to ask anything already answered on reddit, what is even the point of lemmy?
I appreciate all 3 of your comments
- Insightful question I hadn’t considered
- The answer, triggered by “someone is wrong on the internet“, while angry, writes a large reply of a fully detailed explanation with sources to back them up
- The kind person who backs morale for the questioner.
This is internet
Are they finally going to update software like other vendors or do you have to wait for years?
Do you like the default launcher? Is there a way to clean up the screen? From youtube videos, I see that the launcher is similar to iOS where all your apps are laid out. I prefer the minimal approach: a few favorite apps, some widgets and an app draw
Is it pretty “snappy” ? Wondering if there is any lag time or if runs smoothly right away or what settings I got to mess with to minimize responses time.
How do you like it so far?
Any good/bad surprises?
What OS/rom you planning to run or keep it stock?
What were your motivations for getting it?
Snappier than my Pixel 8 Pro.
So far I like it. The screen is great. The speaker is decent. The camera looks to be fairly decent. Not Pixel 8 Pro level at zoom, but otherwise it seems comparable to some of the Pixel a-series cams I’ve seen. The only thing that bugs me so far is the shittier haptic feedback compared to the Pixel. 😄
I am shocked how fast and good the power button fingerprint reader is. Especially coming off of the Pixel’s in-screen reader.
Running stock OS for now.
Among other things, a combination of Fairphone releasing the 6 with improved camera and Google stopping publishing device code with Android 16. The future of third party OSes on the Pixel line is now in limbo. I’m still unsure how well the Fairphone will work on my carrier in Canada since it lacks one of the bands used. Seems okay for now. I’ll need to take it out in the wild and see the impact on signal and battery.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions (:
I am looking at moving to a OS/Rom that is geared towards pricy and thought the pixel was it! Alas, like you stated the pixels future with a custom OS does not seem clear so I was hoping that the fairphone might be it. I definitely have only done surface level research so far ( I’m poor and don’t want to excited yet haha)
What band does it lack? That’s definitely something I would not have thought of till you mentioned battery life. Looks like I got more research to do before I purchase anyways.
Any chance you’ll update this post with a reply on your results for battery life I would be most interested in the effect and if it’s negligible?
My current phone is about 5 or more generations behind. I’m not a photographer or big picture taker so the drawbacks you noticed wouldn’t even be on my radar haha
Appreciate the detail in your response and time again thank you!
It lacks LTE band 13. Reply to some of my comments in a few weeks time and I’ll see the notifucation and update with some real world testing. If money is a problem, don’t spend it on this. Get a second hand Pixel 7/8/9 when yours dies and use that as they can be found relatively cheap. The a-series are even cheaper but you have to watch for battery issues. The Pixel can still be locked down fairly well with the stock OS by disabling various apps and components, and by throwing anything you don’t trust in Private Space.
Thanks for all the great info on your post and replies, yeah I’m going to just bite the bullet and do it. Guess it’s time to do real research 🧐
Check what the parts availability is where you are. Some signs point to possible lack of/difficulty obtaining parts in Canada for example.
Should I get one?
If you need a phone and can afford it, so far I think so.
How much is it?
Also how much RAM/Storage did you get?
Or 1016 Canadian dollhairs, delivered.
Do you think three wheeled cars should make a comeback?
I’d go for three wheeled bikes.
Those are called trikes… obviously. How have you not figured that out? Bikes are called what they are because they have two wheels, “Bi” meaning two, same as we humans are bipedal because we walk on two legs. If a person had a third leg they wouldn’t be “bipedal with three legs”, they’d be tripedal.
I seriously don’t understand how anyone older than a literal child fails to understand that.
A bike is an object with two kes. What’s a ke?
It could also be an object with ke bis, which sounds much cooler if you ask me.
a Latinized form of Greek kyklos “circle, wheel”
It’s actually every other ke.
Haha love how angry this made you 😁 You go get 'em tiger 🐯
Is a bin with three wheels instead of two a trin?
That’s his thing. He takes pleasure in being cruel. And because he’s “technically” right, he’ll never own that.
I don’t understand how anyone older than a literal child would talk like you, tbh. And assume so much based on a joke to boot.
Aptera LFG!!!
I cancelled my reservation after the 16th prototype and 3rd fundamental design change.
I forgot about this as soon as it didn’t have a headphone jack.
Deleted by author
I still have my reservation but I’m tempted to switch to Telo
I switched to Slate
I’ve legitimately seen a few (with a single back wheel) here in LA. I wouldn’t take it on a highway, but they seem alright. Like a juiced up golf cart you can drive on the street, or maybe a hobbled dune buggy.
Yes they’re fine in LA street traffic. But probably not great in bad weather either.
Yeah, the ones I saw didn’t have a fully enclosed interior like a normal vehicle. Definitely not what I’d want to be in during a downpour.
Will you marry me?
I’m afraid that ship has sailed a looong time ago for me. 😅
Your good. I just love making hyperbolic responses
Is the software buggy? I did not like the Fairphone 5 mainly because of how buggy the Google Android version was… I had random reboots and freezes, framerate issues, UI elements that glitched or didn’t fit the screen properly. Hope they were able to fix that by now.
I too have the Gen 6, but i choose the e/OS version. Great phone so far.
I have a FP5 with android and haven’t had any major software issue (so far, over the last 1 to 1.5 years). In fact the only issue I noticed was that the 5G implementation was pretty bad at first, using up way to much battery
Well, Pixel 8 is no different to that. The hardware is great, with grapheneos its awesome. But god damn the cellular internet modem is awful. It heats up & drains the battery as well.
Are you gonna play the ‘That’s fair’ game? Meaning the first bad thing to happen to the phone you say that’s fair and leave it where it is forever just to buy a new phone to start over?
Is it able to use satellites for communication?
I don’t think so.
No, that’s why it bought a phone.
What country and service? Did you get e/OS preinstalled?
No questions, but I’m so fucking pissed that Fairphone is on their 6th generation and still doesn’t offer them globally.
I have to replace my wife’s dying phone, and it kills me that I’ll end up buying some garbage, probably from Google, that will end up as garbage in a few years.
Please, bring these to Canada! 😭😭😭
I don’t think they’re handling their current scale well just in Europe, even. VoLTE works on a limited number of carriers even in Europe. e.g. only T-Mobile is recommended by FP in Poland, but it’s just one of the four large telcos. I wouldn’t expand if I was at that point. Plus, they’re busy with making their support less horrible (see post on their forum) for now.
edit: damn fp6 doesn’t support any Polish carrier, a step down from FP5 https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/9779766652689-How-to-set-up-4G-and-Wi-Fi-Calling
That’s disappointing. They’ve been around for over a decade, and still have these “growing pains”?
Even phones from much smaller, more niche companies (i.e Pinephone) have had global availability and work on global bands.
Buddy, I’m in Torontario guy. Bought from Clove UK for 1016 Canadian peso final-final, after DHL blood sacrifice.
I bought my FairPhone from Clove too. It was easy and the phone works great here.
I don’t want to import, I want to purchase from an authorized local dealer with warranty and parts available in Canada.
Even clove says that you’ll need to send the phone back to the UK, at your expense, for any warranty related work. That’s not only incredibly time consuming and costly, but it would negate any environmental benefit of owning the phone!
I can’t imagine how expensive and delayed parts would be, again, missing the point of having a repairable phone.
The demand for at least North American consumers is there. I wish Fairphone would just do it already.
Got it. Yeah it makes sense for the warranty. I assumed I could get parts in Canada though. I might have jumped the gun on this one. I thought iFixit sells them and they do but I can see their site says “Not sold in Canads” for a few parts I checked just now. Hmm.
E: It seems that Clove also sells parts. I see some FP4 and 5 parts. No FP6 parts yet.
Murena is an official authorized seller of Fairphones, but they come with e/os (you can reinstall the original if you have a computer)
Edit: Damn its available for the US but not Canada.
I know Fairphone would probably be quite expensive even for the price it offers if it ever came to my country, but for the update cycle they offer and repairable build (looks at my broken screen of old Nokia), it actually makes sense. I don’t particularly need the highest end specs, I just need a mid ranger phone that’s sufficiently fluid and Fairphone fits the bill.
In fact, I was more intrigued by their earbuds. IIRC, they are the only one with a replaceable battery. For a set of wireless ones, that is a huge step. I don’t think their sound profile was/is as good as Sony’s or Sennheiser’s but the simple fact that they don’t have to end up as e waste makes them way more value for money in the long run.
I know Fairphone would probably be quite expensive even for the price it offers if it ever came to my country, but for the update cycle they offer and repairable build (looks at my broken screen of old Nokia), it actually makes sense.
This is why I got a Framework laptop, and why I wouldn’t mind getting a Fairphone. I’m tired of planned obsolescence, and the e-waste it needlessly creates.
It is insanely expensive to get network certification and pay for band licenses, and then build an antenna array that can cover it all well. Myriad of frequencies outside of dealing with mafioso policies.
Cell phones need to be the new landline. Just works. But that takes regulation and design patterns.
Opening up their market to another 400 million to multiple billion people would make those expenses worth while, though.
We need ethical, environmentally conscious, future proof options for smartphones in the Americas. 😫
And towers. You live where I live, very low population density and thick forest make cell phones iffy at best. Many places I go have absolutely no cell service and probably never will. I will be dead before we get access to 5G here.
I will be dead before we get access to 5G here.
I have the opposite problem! 5G is being forced on us here (Ontario, Canada), and my mobile provider just closed of their 3g network, and are making 4g more expensive. I don’t need 5g. I don’t even need 4g, and to have to pay for it just sucks.
The US closed out 3G a few years ago. So 4G/LTE is the default now. When we had 3G, the reception was even worse. And 5G is supposed to be the thing. But even in the nearest big town, (Pop. 15,000), the 5G reception is very spotty. But at least my bill hasn’t gone up.
In any case, even my new Pixel 9a only shows one bar where I live. But at least I can send a text reliably now.
Does it have a physical AI button or just voice commands?
I think holding the power button brought up something from Google before I disabled the Google app. That should work the same as any other Android device.
How’s the camera. Compared to say samsung or iphone if you had any of those before.
Pretty decent actually. I’ll be doing more comparisons in the days and weeks to come, but for now it’s not a huge downgrade from my Pixel 8 Pro. So far some photos have come out better and some worse. There’s no comparison to the optical zoom the Pixel can do of course.
Hows the new minimal UI?
Meh. Just a limited launcher. I remapped the button to the flashlight.
Can you map it to anything you want? Like, say, make the button turn on constant phone vibration. Asking for a friend.
Sadly no:
If you don’t care about Do Not Disturb, you could probably jank more functionality by making a different function trigger whenever DND comes on with Automate or Tasker…
Oh that’s sadly really limited. I would probably also set it to flashlight.
Fair enough. I wondered if it would cause a difference in how people use the phone.
