Last year saw the announcement of various devices from startup companies and while some weren’t well received, others saw significant interest from the public. One such device was the Turing phone from Turing Robotic Industries and was heavily reported on due to its security innovations. The device is built of liquidmorphium, a “liquid metal” alloy tougher than either titanium or steel and comes with an “unhackable” level of security. While the company behind the Turing Phone had promised that the device would be shipping no later than Q1 of 2016, it was not to be and it was delayed instead. However, after many months of delay, the Turing Phone is finally being shipped out to backers.
The Turing Phone will be shipped in batches and the first batch was sent out to customers on July 12. The units which were dispatched in the first batch are only evaluation units running on an Alpha release of the Sailfish 2.0 operating system. The operating system will be updated in early August and other features will be unlocked once updated. The second and third batches of phones will be shipped out on July 22 and July 29 respectively. As late as it is, the device is now lacking the waterproof feature as Turing couldn’t carry out the water-repellent nano coating process. If the firm were to do so, the device would have been delayed even longer. Waterproofing can be expected on Turing’s successor which is expected to be equipped with a Snapdragon 820 system-on-chip. In the packaging of the Turing phone, backers can expect to find 2.5D Glass Protector, two Wallaby port cables, and a charger but no Bluetooth headset. Turing excluded the Bluetooth headset in the packaging as it is busy customizing its “sound design” and it will be ready by August.
To award its early backers for putting their trust in them, Turing will be enrolling them in the TRI Elite Club. Through this program, all those who pre-ordered the device will be able to get the latest updates and free trials on all future products. Turing is even going to the extent of upgrading early backers to the Snapdragon 820 version of the Turing phone once it is released. Turing faced many obstacles while developing the Turing phone and even went to the extent of switching the operating system to Sailfish OS from Android, as Android presented too many security risks for the strong and secure phone.