Punkt is a Swiss company that makes products featuring minimalist design and features, including an alarm clock, USB charger, and a simple line of cellphones including the Punkt MP01 and MP02.
But earlier this year we learned the company was working on its first smartphone with a touchscreen display, and possibly a BlackBerry clone with a physical keyboard. Now the first of those devices is up for pre-order. The Punkt MC02 is a smartphone with a stripped down, privacy-focused version of Android called Apostrophy OS, and it’s available for pre-order for $749.
For that price you get a smartphone with specs, that honestly feel a bit mid-range. But the phone comes with a 2-year warranty, a 1-year subscription to Apostrophy Services (including secure email, calendar, contact management, and storage), and a de-Googled version of Android 13 that’s based on grapheneOS.
That said, you could probably find a phone with similar specs for half the price, so the main reason to invest is probably because you like the look or ethos of the phone and/or want to support Punkt’s business model of focusing on minimalist devices.
So what kind of mid-range specs are we talking about?
- Display: 6.67 inches, 2400 x 1080 pixels, 60 Hz, 400 nits
- Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 900
- RAM: 6GB LPDDR5
- Storage: 128GB UFS 2.2 + microSD cards up to 2TB
- Cameras:
- Front: 24MP
- Rear: 64MP primary, 8MP wide-angle, 2MP macro
- Battery: 5,500 mAh
- Charging: 18W wired + 18W wireless
- Ports: USB 2.0 Type-C, 3.5mm headphone
- Wireless: WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, GPS, 5G, 4G LTE
- Audio: Stereo speakers, dual microphones
- Security: Fingerprint sensor (side mounted)
The phone measures 166 x 78 x 11mm and weighs 236 grams.
via CrackBerry
The first smartphone that “puts you in control” of your own data also requires a subscription fee. Just digest that for a moment.
It’s not exactly a first when it comes to privacy by default, since there have been custom ROMs and linux phones. And it doesn’t require the subscription to work, you could always self host nextcloud or just not use services on someone else’s computer.
What it’s claiming to be a first at is tracking energy usage in a way that in my opinion is really not worth stressing yourself out over considering how little energy a phone generally uses compared to household appliances and how most of it is just the cellular modem being on.
I know it’s not the first. And that’s exactly what I’m getting at. They are selling a product to people who aren’t going to host their own, even though that’s the future. They should be providing docker images (Ugh) of their services.
The energy tracking bit is rather ridiculous. Even in this energy conscious age, we are using more than ever. I agree that a cellular modem uses very little.
$200 annualy to subscribe to Apostrophy services is an obscene ask.
Any information or suggestions brought forward via Crackberry is a further issue since Crackberry Kevin has previously bragged that he has invested in Punkt and Apostrophy (put his money where his mouth is).
For him to ask others to participate in this pre-sale by getting your credit card out as he has is pure deception especially moreso if you purchase using the link on Crackberry he earns a commission!!
Sorry Kevin, better stick to your Bitcoin and NFT silliness.
For years I’ve been wanting someone to offer an alternative to Google’s ecosystem, but with a top-notch privacy policy with complete assurance of privacy, and comparable services, and I’d gladly pay a fee for it.
The idea of services like this being offered by companies that don’t have a price tag, but rather choose to make money by selling your information (or opening up the platform to 3rd parties to build services that collect your private info), is something I don’t like using. It’s not an intuitive way for me to know how to protect my personal info.
I would gladly pay what that service costs, rather than becoming the product myself.
Having said this, Apostrophy is not a viable solution. They’re only offering extremely basic services like email, address book, contacts. They’re offering 5gb of storage for $17/mo. That’s insane. Icloud+ gives you 2TB for $9.99/mo.
For someone to be a viable competitor, they’d need to offer services like Maps, video conference software, etc. They’d need to be a real competitor to Google’s services.
Making a niche device is always tricky, but one thing that doesn’t make much sense to do is give people a phone that physically isn’t much different from anything else. Not that it’s easy to do anything besides take some off the shelf Chinese ODM product and build a ROM around whatever blobs they give you.
However, at this point, doing RCS without google’s proprietary API on an AOSP ROM would be special enough. Not that they could have anticipated Apple giving in to the Digital Markets Act by making RCS something you can’t not have.
Absolutely agree.