What is the Blackphone 2? The Blackphone 2 is the newest version of Silent Circle’s Blackphone that hit the market on 9/28/2015. In other words, it is a phone that is designed with the user’s privacy in mind. The stated goal of Silent Cirlcle is: “To offer privacy in the face of widespread data surveillance and collection. Our network was built from the ground up by our professionals, for professionals, to let users conduct business without fear.”
The phone uses a modified version of the Android operating system, called Silent OS. This is a pretty basic looking phone, but has many of the same features as a normal smartphone. Automatically, it comes pre-loaded with software.
Of course, as the name suggests, it is a black phone. The fashion industry says black goes with everything. However, before you pick this phone as a fashion accessory, know that it has a hefty price tag. This phone is priced at $800 USD. When compared to other top end devices, pricing for this phone may not be as bad as it sounds here, though.
As an example, let’s take a look at a comparison to the Samsung Galaxy series. Some do not realize the reason their phone is so cheap is because of the contract you sign with carriers like Verizon or AT&T. Because the price of the phone is usually rolled in to a contract, many ignore the actual price of the phone. Featurewise, this phone is comparable somewhere between an S5 and S6. Not bad, if you consider this phone was built by people with privacy in mind.
The Silent Circle staff has quite a few impressive credentials, but we won’t mention them here. They certainly have the know how to create a great product. This phone is not perfect, but from a privacy perspective, it is now the most secure smartphone out on the market. Recently, there has been news of the copious amounts of data that is given out by cellphones. If you care about the privacy of your family, it is hard to put a price on that.
Just like with other privacy features, It is likely we will see other companies begin to copy some of these same features. With the focus on security these days, it is hard to imagine we will not see more phone companies moving toward this model. For the moment now, this phone is worth taking a look at.