The Swiss minimal cellphone pioneer Punkt is again with one other mannequin, the MC03. The brand new handset continues Punkt’s concentrate on privateness, safety and digital minimalism.
In the event you’ve by no means seen Punkt’s MP01 and MP02, the corporate’s gorgeously minimal dumb cellphone line, they’re one thing to behold. (The MP01 is sort of actually a museum piece, in New York’s Museum of Fashionable Artwork.) In the meantime, this new MC03 is the corporate’s second stab at a extra sensible touchscreen smartphone, following 2023’s MC02. What you lose in bodily magnificence and tactile buttons, you acquire in flexibility.
As earlier than, the smartphone runs the privacy- and security-focused AphyOS, primarily based on the Android Open Supply Challenge (AOSP). The fork on the MC03 seems to borrow a web page from the Gentle Telephone line. Its UI features a Gentle Telephone-adjacent row of textual content for the commonest shortcuts, like mail, contacts and calendar.
Punkt MC03 (Punkt)
The MC03 splits knowledge into two sections. There’s The Vault, a safe enclave for apps Punkt has vetted for privateness and safety. The second, Wild Internet, offers you the liberty to put in any Android app. To guard you whereas utilizing that part, there’s Ledger, which Punkt describes as “strict, seen safeguards that enable simple privateness controls.” Very similar to Android’s Permission Supervisor, Ledger enables you to outline which knowledge, sensors and background sources every app can entry. In change for the tediousness of approving and denying permissions, you get extra gradual management over your knowledge.
All of the apps from one other Swiss firm, Proton, can be found in The Vault. (That features Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, Proton VPN, and Proton Go.) Proton founder and CEO Andy Yen stated he hopes the collaboration can “inject slightly extra alternative into {the marketplace}, giving customers extra methods to take management of their knowledge and regain their privateness.”
Of us shopping for the MC03 aren’t doing so to get cutting-edge {hardware}. The cellphone has an OLED show with a excessive (120Hz) body charge, nice for displaying off that clear, black UI. The MC03 has a detachable 5,200mAh battery and a 64MP digicam. The machine is rated IP68 for water and mud resistance.
Shipments for the Punkt MC03 start this month within the European market. The cellphone prices €699 / CHF699 / £610. As with its earlier fashions, the MC03 requires a subscription. (Punkt frames this as paying to retain your knowledge, moderately than paying along with your knowledge.) One yr of the subscription is included along with your buy. After that, you may should pay €9.99 / CHF9.99 / £8.99 month-to-month. Nevertheless, paying forward for a long-term subscription enables you to save as much as 60 %. You may study extra on the corporate’s web site.
