On june 30th SGP started shipping the Blackphone to its customers. Due to some appointments out of the office i had to wait till monday 7-7-2014 before i could unpack the Blackphone.
Now after 1 day working with the phone i can give some more information about it.
The Hardware
When i first unpacked the telephone and did hold it in my hands i thought hmm it feels very light! I was changing from the iPhone 5 to the Blackphone. After inserting the battery and simcard it gain some weight but still it is pretty light weight compared to my iPhone. It is just a bit larger then the iPhone (4.7″ screen), but it will still fit in my pocket.
Turning on the phone
After adding the battery and SIM card you first have to charge the phone what takes some time. When powering it on, you first get the Setup wizard that will guide you through the setup process.
As i couldnt wait and my battery wasnt charged for at least 80%, i couldnt encrypt my device. After waiting a few hours the phone was fully encrypted. This results that if you reboot your device you first have to enter your Decryption password and wait a few seconds till the device is decrypted and ready for use.
This is step 1 for Securing the phone!
Now it is time to start working with the phone. As this is the 2nd day i’m using it i’m not able to give some more information.
Pro’s
- Fully Encrypted phone
- 4.7″ screen
- Some great security tools to prevent apps from getting access to private data or accessing / sending text messages
- Wifi gets turned off to save battery in unknown locations (based on Cell Towers)
- VPN application with 1gb traffic a month, encrypt all your internet traffic for secure browsing based on your location (United States / Europe)
Con’s
- First impression when opening the back cover was, “Hope i didn’t break it!!”
- Booting with Encryption takes some extra time
- No AppStore, so no other application by default
Having questions about the Blackphone? Feel free to e-mail me @ email@bram.co.nl