Gadgetory

if you want to stand out in the crowded smartphone space your best bet is to build a device for a niche market and given the world's increasing concerns about personal privacy it's about time someone built a modern smartphone focused entirely on security this is that smartphone I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our video review of the blackphone bp1 folks our review device comes to us from gsm nation a global smartphone retailer that's offering blackphone for sale right now if you want one of your own do what we did visit gsm nation calm at the link in the description below and tell them PocketNow sent you the first thing you'll notice about the black phone is that well there's not much to notice about the black phone from a fit and finish standpoint it's about as forgettable as they come with average dimensions a light and insubstantial feel in the hand and only the barest of branding on the matte finish casing which of course comes in black and black alone the IPS display doesn't have the highest resolution or the best viewing angles but it's not horrible and the Tegra 4i processor while a surprise is by no means underpowered the single gig of ram supporting it certainly is a disappointment though is something we'll touch on in the performance section in a minute of course you don't buy a black phone for the hardware you buy it for it's secure software which comes in three levels the first layer is the operating system which looks a lot like the Android KitKat build it's based on but this is no Google phone despite the interface being a very familiar one there are no Google services built into this special platform called the private OS you've got to download and install your own application marketplace if you want one we recommend the Amazon App Store and the private OS makes its presence known with the very first title you try to install you get to individually select which parts of your device that app is allowed to access this isn't the first time we've seen this but it is a natural fit for a privacy centric device and we wish it was standard on all smartphones the OS also forces you to enable or strongly and repeatedly recommends that you enable certain security features that other smartphones leave optional like a pin unlock code and total device encryption that's all in the first level the second level is the embedded security suite from silent circle which also comes with the membership package necessary to power it silent phone sets up a secure sip connection over a VoIP link to provide private voice connections silent text lets you communicate via instant messages that can self-destruct and which can't be screenshotted both apps give you tools for manual authentication so you can be sure you're actually talking to your intended target and each one draws from a central protected list of silent contacts that can be locked anytime it's all entrenched behind a series of pass phrases and pin codes handled by a key manager that silent circle also provides finally the third layer of security comes from third-party apps that fill in most of the remaining gaps there's the ability to remote wipe and force closed particular apps from afar there's secure cloud storage from SpiderOak and a duo of apps from disconnect the one provides a secure VPN connection so you can feel safer connecting to open Wi-Fi hotspots among other things and the other allows you to use your search engine of choice without giving the search provider or ISP any personal information if that sounds like a pretty extensive list of security features it is and that's black phones biggest privacy advantage over every other device it just throws a huge number of resources at the user effectively carpet-bombing the security question into submission but not into oblivion like any communications device black phone is not entirely secure and its implementation in many corners leaves room for improvement for one thing silent phone requires a very good internet connection to function properly and even with full LTE signal on t-mobile here in the States it didn't function very well at all regular voice calls fared far better but sound was thin and tinny through both earpiece and speakerphone silent text also has an issue with embedding photos which doesn't always work well and the setup process for everything from elaborate third party security apps to pedestrian functions like email and calendar syncing is much more complex than you'll find on a regular smartphone the phone stumbles and the fundamentals to its small amount of RAM causes it to hang and stutter at points and we've had to completely reboot the phone to save it from itself more than once the lag and stutter is especially bad within its camera viewfinder the last place you want software troubles and the photos produced our marginal ones with overexposure problems sharpening halos and a generally unremarkable quality from both the eight megapixel back module and the five megapixel front one despite its smallish powerpack battery life is acceptable in that you can definitely get a day out of it with moderate use but leaving it in standby mode off the charger overnight we've sometimes seen the device randomly power off or hang and require a restart so well this is not a road warriors phone by any means obviously a big take away from this review is that to put it crudely first gen phones gonna be first gen phones given its complexity and its finicky nature this is by no means a smart phone for beginners which makes it tough to recommend to the target audience at least a portion of which is regular consumers with a higher than normal concern for privacy but black phone has accomplished something significant here it's packed more privacy options into one device than has ever been done before and it's thrown in a lot of value with all the free security memberships some of which are truly excellent so while black phone has a long way to go to reach the perfect combination of privacy and usability that'll make this attractive to the average consumer it's also the first company in this portion of the space at least to take a meaningful step in that direction and based on what we've seen from the way the company engages with the community about security issues the people behind black phones seemed genuinely interested in fostering a dialogue and quickly honing their product based on it as a result while we can only recommend the blackphone bp1 to very concerned people with very good internet connections we are also very much looking forward to the BP - if you think we missed a few things you're right head on over to pocket now full written review of the blackphone linked in the description below for more detail and visit gsm nation at the other link next to the like button if you want a black phone of your own until next time this has been michael fisher with pocket now captain to phones on twitter thanks for watching subscribe if you like this review and stay secure out there we'll see you next time