Turing Phone: Stronger Than Steel

<div>While it looks like it's been plucked right out of a science fiction movie, the Turing Phone is actually very much here and now. Developed by San Francisco-based Turing Robotics Industries and in one fell swoop, it addresses many of the cribs users have about Android phones today and shows how desperately the smartphone needs to be reimagined.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Here we are, handling no end of plastic on our devices, feeling delighted at the little bit of metal we get, and generally feeling that most phones look identical to each other. One look at the Turing Phone and you'd be taken aback at the difference. First, it's not made of the usual old mix of things but of liquid metal or liquid morphium which is real tough stuff, droppable and unbreakable. The use of this material that extensively in a phone is a world first. Some people are calling it the Terminator of phones, others the Superman of phones but for sure it's been built to be stronger than steel and titanium.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Design-wise too, the Turing phone looks refreshingly different, with interesting colour combinations and arrangements on it which make you wonder why no one else has experimented with the way phones look, beyond a point. Probably the cost of making them.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>The phone is also waterproof. It can be dropped in water and has a coating on the inside to protect components. Apparently, one would just need to wipe the phone and get on with it.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>The Turing Phone is a 5.5 inch device, runs on a 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 3GB of RAM to play with, and comes in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB variants. It's on Android 5.0 Lollipop and has a 3,000mAh battery. The cameras are 13MP and 8MP. &nbsp;That's a decent set of specs.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>There's a fingerprint sensor on this phone, but it's intriguingly placed on the side of the device. And that's not the only standard thing that's different about it. There's no micro-USB port for charging. It has a special magnetic charger. It also doesn't have a jack for headphones because you're supposed to use Bluetooth to connect.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>The software on the inside is also as radical as the design on the outside. The basics are Android, but there's a lot of customisation over that, all with the aim of making the device super secure. There's strong encryption used to keep all the data safe so that you don't have to keep worrying about what your apps are trying to get at. They claim it is unhackable - along with being unbreakable physically and waterproof, three key features that are distinctive apart from the snazzy space-age designs.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>The Turing Phone isn't just a lab project but ready to pre-order from the 31st of July and rumoured to be headed to India in September. It'll cost $610 for 16GB, $740 for 64GB and $870 for 128GB. How many of these phones the company will be able to release into the market and how many consumers, whose curiosity is certainly piqued, will want them, we'll have to see. Also how will the rest of the industry react to this unusual device will be interesting but even if it helps spur a little bit of creativity in the ocean of black rectangles flooding the world today, it'll be welcome.</div>