Silent Circle has begun taking preorders for BlackPhone 2, the second generation of the company's security-focused Android smartphone.
The Silent Circle website has been updated to start receiving preorders for the new smartphone, which the company unveiled to the technology press at this year's Mobile World Congress in March.
However, Silent Circle continues to remain mum about how much the device will cost and when exactly it will start shipping out to customers. Instead of taking customers straight to a preorder page, the preorder process actually takes them to a page where they can contact the sales team to place their preorder.
Speculations peg the BlackPhone 2 at more or less the $630 price tag of the original BlackPhone, and Silent Circle itself said that the device will ship out in September.
While most smartphones in niche categories often have less-than-desirable specs, the BlackPhone 2 has been fully upgraded with a premium-looking design and high-end features, although it is nowhere near the top-of-the-line flagships and flagship killers that were recently launched by their makers.
The design features an all-glass body sporting a 5.5-inch display with a Full High-Definition resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Under the hood, the BlackPhone 2 runs an unspecified octa-core 1.7GHz processor, but it is very likely to be a Snapdragon chipset made by Qualcomm, since the original BlackPhone was powered by a quad-core Snapdragon processor. The memory also gets a minor bump from 2GB to 3GB and device storage is now 32GB with support for expansion via microSD.
The rear camera also receives a 5MP boost to 13MP, while the front camera front-facing shooter remains the same at 5MP. At MWC, Silent Circle announced that the smartphone will get a huge 3,600mAh battery, as opposed to the measly 2,000mAh battery on the first BlackPhone.
The BlackPhone 2's central features, however, can only be seen within the workings of Silent OS, which replaces PrivatOS as the smartphone's Android-based operating system.
The main difference between Silent OS and its predecessor is the inclusion of support for Google apps and Android for Work, which were not to be found in PrivatOS. The OS also offers a new feature called Spaces, which allows users to create "virtual phones" and keep the accounts locked away from one another.
As with the original OS, Silent OS will continue to offer Silent Circle's suite of privacy-minded apps, including the company's own secure messaging apps and other third-party apps with the same objective of keeping users' privacy and security in mind.
