If you’re familiar with the security-conscious Blackphone, then it may interest you to know that its successor, the Blackphone 2 is up for pre-order and is slated for release this September 2015.
When it was released last year, Silent Circle’s Blackphone was aimed at safeguarding user privacy, and offering more security-based features. Its Android-based PrivatOS ensured that your phone calls and texts were secure and encrypted. It also prevented users from accessing Google apps for obvious security reasons but it did come with its own suite of apps. So, what’s special about the Blackphone 2? When the Blackphone 2 was announced at the Mobile World Congress 2015 a few months ago, it boasted a much better spec sheet. [table id=33 /] The software got some enhancements too. Renamed to Silent OS, one of its interesting features is called SPACES which basically lets you have several virtual environments in your phone; this helps you separate your work data from your personal data and you can customize them as you like and also keep them safe and secure from each other using different logins simultaneously. Even more impressive is its Security Center – you can now install apps from the Google PlayStore, manage which apps live in which spaces and also customize individual app permissions that are granted by default which is not something you can do on your current Android device, at least not until Android Marshmallow arrives.
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While the Blackphone 2 has some impressive hardware and software offerings, this is likely to appeal more to the Private or Business sector which could see benefits in the various offerings. An average consumer may get deterred by the expected $630 price tag or by the fact that all the security services would incur a monthly fee after the first 2 years free subscription. Or maybe it would be a small price to pay for our privacy. What do you think?!
