Fairphone’s replacement screen costs $90. <\/p>\n
That’s a difference of about $239 for one basic fix. <\/p>\n
For a consumer who holds on to a phone for several years, those economics can mount up. <\/p>\n
Battery replacement is $40. The USB-C port costs $20. Device owners can replace the failed part themselves instead of paying for a full-service repair or replacing the entire device. <\/p>\n
More Tech: <\/p>\n
That is the human appeal. A broken charging port no longer has to mean a major bill. A tired battery does not have to push someone toward a new $1,000 phone. <\/p>\n
Story continues <\/p>\n The problem is that the U.S. smartphone market is tremendously consolidated. <\/p>\n Fairphone CEO Raymond van Eck told WIRED that<\/a> American consumers have very little real choice, describing the market as heavily dominated by Apple and Samsung. <\/p>\n That’s not just a matter of brand loyalty. <\/p>\n It’s also about how it’s distributed. <\/p>\n U.S. carriers account for as much as<\/a> 66% of smartphone sales, according to a 2025 IDC report. <\/p>\n That’s a huge barrier for any phone maker without carrier store placement. <\/p>\n Fairphone is originally offering the Gen 6+ on Fairphone.com and Amazon. The gadget is certified for use on T-Mobile and AT&T networks. <\/p>\n The startup is also talking to big carriers and mobile virtual network operators about retail distribution, van Eck tells WIRED<\/a>. <\/p>\n That might be the difference between Fairphone remaining a niche sustainable brand or becoming something more mainstream. <\/p>\n The U.S. market has already pushed out other brands of phones. <\/p>\n According to WIRED<\/a>, OnePlus recently indicated it would depart North America, following the retreat of names such as Sony, HMD Global, and LG Mobile. <\/p>\n Essentially, Fairphone is going into a market that even much larger corporations have struggled to penetrate. <\/p>\n The $650 price is part of the argument <\/p>\n At $650, the Fairphone Gen 6+ is priced lower than many of Apple’s and Samsung’s flagship phones but higher than the cheapest<\/a> Android devices. <\/p>\n It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor and 12GB of RAM. <\/p>\n The phone is also more than 50% built of fair-trade<\/a> or recycled materials. Fairphone claims their devices are assembled using renewable energy and are 100% e-waste neutral. <\/p>\n The sustainability pitch still matters to the company. <\/p>\n But Fairphone appears to be increasingly aware that ethics isn’t necessarily the first thing consumers buy. <\/p>\n Van Eck said that the company’s recent growth has come partly from marketing the quality of the product rather than leading with its environmental mission. <\/p>\n That method seems to be working. <\/p>\n Phone shipments jumped 74% in the first half<\/a> of 2026 compared with the year-ago period. <\/p>\n He also said 80% of Fairphone Gen 6 purchasers were new to the brand. <\/p>\n The results imply the corporation is expanding beyond its typical sustainability-minded customer base. <\/p>\n Repairability could become a bigger consumer issue <\/p>\n Fairphone’s launch in the U.S. comes as the right to repair is becoming more essential to consumers and authorities. <\/p>\n Nathan Proctor, who leads the U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s Right to Repair campaign, said that Fairphone’s design<\/a> demonstrates that modular, easily repairable smartphones are technically possible. <\/p>\n That may be the case as the price of phones continues to increase. <\/p>\n For many families, purchasing a smartphone is not a casual buy anymore. <\/p>\n For some consumers, the cost of a smartphone is as high as that of a laptop or a month’s groceries. <\/p>\n Repairability is increasingly valuable the longer a device stays usable. <\/p>\n Fairphone numbers consumers should know <\/p>\n $650: Starting price of the Fairphone Gen 6+. <\/p>\n $90: Replacement display. <\/p>\n $40: Replacement battery. <\/p>\n $20: Replacement USB-C port. <\/p>\n 12: User-replaceable modular components. <\/p>\n 5 years: Warranty. <\/p>\n 2033: Promised software-support window. <\/p>\n 10\/10: iFixit repairability score. <\/p>\n 74%: First-half 2026 shipment growth. <\/p>\n 80%: Share of Gen 6 buyers who were new to Fairphone. <\/p>\n 66%: Estimated share of U.S. smartphone sales driven through carriers. <\/p>\n Fairphone is still minuscule compared to Apple and Samsung. <\/p>\n That makes it unlikely to change the U.S. market overnight. <\/p>\n But it’s a question the firm is asking and one that the bigger phone makers may need to address at some point. <\/p>\n Why are pricey repairs and sealed hardware the norm when a consumer can buy a $650 phone, get a broken screen repaired for $90, change the battery themselves, and still get years of software updates? <\/p>\n Fairphone might not dominate the smartphone market. <\/p>\n But it might help the market hold on to a business model people have been buying into for years. <\/p>\n Related: Samsung’s $2,100 phone tests how much consumers will pay to fold<\/a> <\/p>\n This story was originally published by TheStreet<\/a> on Aug 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail<\/a> section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American smartphone shoppers know the tiresome routine. A damaged screen might cost hundreds of dollars to repair. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[66219,66220,127,223,1138],"class_list":["post-129805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-samsung","tag-fairphone","tag-replacement-screen","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-group","tag-smartphone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> Fairphone’s $650 U.S. launch puts pressure on the sealed-phone modelKevin Dietsch \/ Getty Images Fairphone is entering one of the hardest phone markets in the world <\/p>\n