No, a Turing phone doesn’t subtly test your reactions to see if you are an android…but the name isn’t exactly an accident, because you’ll have a hard time believing this phone runs on anything like Android. It also looks a lot like it’s from the future.
The goal of the Turing phone is to be an isolated silo for all your phone data, a sci-fi bunker for securing data, software, and calls. Sure there are a charge port and a camera, but that’s it: No headphone jack or USB port for this phone, just a “liquidmorphium” case with an extra-shiny, extra-protective surface. It’s waterproof, too.
Technically, the name Turing refers to the Turing Imitation key, which is a unique, decentralized encryption method that can function online or offline. It uses a specific key assigned only to your phone, and is supposed to offer security above and beyond anything currently on the market. Turing Robotics doesn’t like to throw around words like “uncrackable” but that’s definitely what the phone is aiming for.
Okay, let’s visit some specs. The phone has a 5.5-inch, 1080p display, a 12-megapixael camera, an NFC chip, and runs a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 chip (Android 5.1 is the default OS). Oddly, the phone also has something called Turing Coin, which seems to be a largely untested digital currency that may or may not pan out.
Another thing that has trouble panning out: The price. You can get one of these crypto-phones for anywhere between $610 to $870 depending on hard drive size, but at those prices other more mainstream alternatives are also available, with better screens and more useful hardware.
So the Turing phone feels pulled in a couple strange directions, none of which seem particularly appealing to the common consumer (unless Turing Coin rapidly becomes popular a la Bitcoin). But that’s not the point of this phone: It’s a hipster phone, a survival phone, something you can show off at parties and use to hide from the government. It’s a statement phone, and that’s kind of cool.
The post Turing Phone: This Crypto-Phone Gets Weird – On Purpose appeared first on Gadget Review.
More gadget review in www.38today.com.