Brax Technologies, the company behind the BraX3 smartphone and the open_slate tablet, opened pre-orders for the Wink last week with plans to ship it in two batches next year.
Rob Braxman, a co-founder of the company and known on the web as The Internet Privacy Guy, had presented the Wink at a roadmap event last month.
The Wink runs BraxOS, an Android-based operating system that does not include Google services, and the device comes with a physical switch located on top that can be configured to shut off the camera, microphones, location, sensors, or mobile network.
During setup, you can pick between Omni, a full Android experience, and Zero, a stripped-down mode limited to encrypted messaging, calls, messages, and optional navigation.
BraxOS does not support Google account sign-ins or Google Play Services, but Brax says most Android apps still run without issues. The exceptions are apps that check for Google’s integrity services before starting, which includes a few banking apps.
The Wink can also wipe itself on triggers you set in advance, namely every restart, a long stretch powered off state, repeated failed unlock attempts, and a duress password.
Brax promises updates until 2032 and says anyone can build BraxOS from source, with files available in its BraX3 repositories.
Key specifications
Coming back to the hardware that powers all that, we have:
SoC: MediaTek MT8875 with an octa-core CPU (4x Arm C1-Pro and 4x Arm C1-Nano cores, 4 nm) and an Arm Mali-G625 MC2 GPU.
RAM & Storage: 8 GB, alongside 128 GB of built-in storage.
Display: 4-inch OLED touchscreen
Camera: 50 MP rear camera, sensor not disclosed.
Keyboard: Physical QWERTY keys that are touch-sensitive and support swipe scrolling.
Networking: Global LTE and 5G bands, plus physical SIM and eSIM support.
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4.
Ports: USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a microSD slot for cards up to 1 TB.
Getting the device
Pre-orders come in two batches, each capped at the number of units being built:
Batch 1 is for buyers who pay in full at $449, a price Brax guarantees, and those units go out first in July 2027.
Batch 2 starts with a $30 deposit toward a $550 total. The remaining $520 would be charged around July 2027, with these units shipping in September 2027.
The deposit amount is refundable until the balance is paid, and orders can be changed or cancelled while they are still reservations. Shipping dates can also change, and reservation holders will be emailed about any change before the remaining amount is due.
Each unit is set to ship with the keyboard, a USB-C cable, and a translucent case.
If such phones interest you, you can also explore the MAKERphone 2.0.
Unfortunately if the reporter is Daniel Micay, you’re going to have to take all the claims with a grain of salt, specifically when you get to “supporting harassment content and fabricated stories about us”, which is an accusation he’s basically leveled at everybody from Privacy Guides to Calyx to F-Droid to people who have tweeted rudely at him.
I don’t disbelieve the vast majority of this, but it needs a second source.
(Disclaimer: I’ve also come to the conclusion Rob Braxman is a technologically incompetent fearmongering grifter, and you should absolutely put that $450 or whatever towards a decent Pixel phone with GrapheneOS.)
Good point
But weird to start the argument with the fact that Brax criticizes Signal. Signal is not about privacy, it’s secure. But it stores metadata about messages (from whom to whom and when) and share that to US agencies under the Patriot Act
See https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/main/why_not_signal.md for a bit more info
This guy again… Whenever his name appears, you can bet it’ll be a scam or something shady and financially not very good… This guy is probably even less legitimate than a Nigerian Prince offering free money.
Not to mention the specs…
What’s the history?
The top comment is literally what you asked for…
A $449 or $550 phone with a 4 inch screen whose “key specficiations” don’t include the size and weight, meh. Still looking towards LineageOS on my Moto G. It’s supported now but I have cold feet about the reinstall til I can get a backup phone just in case.
The installation isn’t that difficult, although the instructions do need to be read carefully. You can stuff it up without killing your phone.
My motorola g84 is running it, as ismy sony xperia xz2
Probably worth watching some installation videos first.
Yeah figure I’d rather have a spare phone on hand as I sort of want one anyway. I don’t have any google play store apps as it is now, so I’m sort of partway there.
Swapping google apps over to fdroid etc apps before changing os is definitely the right way to go.
I reinstalled lineage recently via https://lineage.microg.org/ but have yet to use anything not on fdroid so far. I had to drop my banking apps, and a couple of webmail default apps… not the end of the world. Time will tell if it will remain feasible to keep it that way, future interactions with the government, or businesses might make it annoying (mainly due to ID cr*p), but so far it hasn’t been a problem.
I originally installed lineage via https://wiki.lineageos.org/ then added GApps at the last step, but the google sh*t still being on my phone was not what I wanted.
Isn’t this guy known for just basically rebadging China phones and not providing much support after the fact? And do they even support having a locked bootloader?
Pales in comparison to graphene
Braxman is apparently considered sus but I’m interested in this if only for the keyboard.
That said this landing page could be better.
“claude make a webpage about our degoogled android operating system that has no google and runs apps without google. make sure to mention that our degoogled os doesn’t have google. make no mistakes.”
Not paying that for any phone
