This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of utilise.

Privacy has always been a concern for most smartphone owners, so taking a cue from that, the French phone manufacturer Archos has collaborated with a lesser-known Brazilian IT security company Sikur to come upwards with the security-centric GranitePhone. The unlocked phone can be purchased on its standalone website for the whopping sum of $850.

Here'due south what y'all get for that cash: The GranitePhone features a 5-inch 1080p display and is powered past a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC coupled with 2GB of RAM. It has 16GB of internal storage and a 2,700mAh bombardment. The phone has a 16MP rear camera and an 8MP forepart-facing camera.

Not impressed? Sure, these are mostly mundane features that can exist found on many midrange smartphones, but the GranitePhone's main selling point is its highly secure Android-based Granite OS. Every bit touted past Archos and Sikur, the GranitePhone's Granite OS is pretty much like regular Android, simply it'due south fully encrypted, has no dorsum doors according to the company, and doesn't compromise on user privacy in whatever way. It has non been revealed nevertheless on what version of Android the Granite OS is based.

The Granite OS doesn't store whatsoever information on the device. Instead, it provides multi-layer security and stores all of the usual data (calls, messages, and much more) in the cloud, which tin only be accessed via Sikur's app. Although the device has taken a lot of inspiration from Android, it lacks admission to Google's Play Shop, meaning that you lot'll really demand to intendance about security to want this thing.

Other than its hello-fi security features, the GranitePhone doesn't offer much for its hefty price tag. Other midrange smartphones like the Moto 1000 too come with like hardware specs, but at a much lower price tag. GranitePhone is not the first device that comes with security-centric features, either; the BlackPhone and the Turing Phone accept been in the market for quite a while.

The main contest would come from the newer Turing phone, which has higher-cease specs and costs $649. The makers of GranitePhone are of a view that users would appreciate security more than features, and then many of them would rather become for a highly secured GranitePhone than any other feature-loaded smartphone. Does that draw you? What exercise you lot remember well-nigh this new phone? Would you lot be absurd with spending $850 for a security-centric smartphone?