Finally, we’re going to unbox the Brax 3. So, this is the package that you would receive. I didn’t get any extra accessories with my particular shipment, but if you do, then it would be separate from this box, I would imagine. I know many of you have been waiting for a long time to receive the Brax 3, and truly it’s been a complicated process to have a community project involving so many parties, and then designing a brand new phone. One of the early delays was to ensure that the OS, which is EODA OS, is completely ported to this model.

We did have a beta test group, and they already got advanced copies of Brax 3. This group identified the bugs, and then that had to be solved by EODA, and then new updates had to be made, so that took a little extra time than expected. You see, the difficulty here is that EODA is a different company, but that got resolved, and everything is great. We are also working with UB ports, which makes Ubuntu Touch, and that is a completely different group, and also a volunteer-based organization. So, you can’t really push anyone. It all depends on how much time a volunteer wants to spend on a new project.

But very soon, Brax 3 will support that OS as well. Lots of headwinds here. Plus, with the high demand for this, we have actually experienced new complications that we’ve never known about before, like import requirements and taxes in the EU, or the new tariffs in the US, or taxes in Canada. The paperwork process is horrendous. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve handled shipping of Brax 2 before, and it was in smaller chunks, but shipping this many phones is a new experience for sure. But we have survived that, and as this video is released, I imagine that the phones are also being shipped now from multiple places.

I’m making sure that I don’t release this video until the phones arrive at the warehouses. Anyway, let’s see what we got here. It’s a very simple box with a Brax label on top. Now, let’s start by peeling the plastic and opening it. Okay, so let’s lift that up, and here it is, the Brax 3 phone right on top. It’s wrapped in this soft plastic, so let’s slide it out of that. Okay, there we have it. Then you can see here that there’s this plastic protector on the screen, and this is not a permanent protector, by the way.

We’ll talk about screen protectors later. I bought a standard one for a 6.57 screen on Amazon for this. Your order may include a screen protector, but I’ll talk about what happens if it’s not included. Now, the back here is this unique design, which has the exposed innards, which is really, really cool. It makes the phone stand out. This design concept is transparency, so even the inner parts of the phone are visible. The design language is to show that nothing is hidden. Nice idea, right? The back of the phone is a transparent hard plastic of some sort, maybe polycarbonate.

It looks like glass, but I know it’s not, and the phone is light. The style of the phone is very, very modern, and this metal banding all around here makes it look like an iPhone. It’s actually very stiff and really looks strong. The older Brax 2 is made up of a one-piece plastic back, and frankly, it was not as stiff, so you could always bend the electronics inside. I think this design solved these problems. As you can see, it’s pretty stiff. Now, looking inside the box, there’s another smaller box inside, so let’s take that out. And inside, a few more things in here.

I see a cable, a charge cable, a sim pin. So there’s a sim pin, some paperwork in there, and there’s the transparent case, so that’s what comes included with it. In real use, I would say you need a screen protector so you don’t scratch the screen. So if your order doesn’t include one, then I really recommend that you get it. I bought the screen protector from Amazon, and as long as you buy it for a 6.57-inch size screen, it will fit. It was pretty simple to install. Let me shift to the Brax 3 that I already had from before.

This one already has a screen protector installed, so you can see it there. The only change I did to mine was to have the option of wireless charging. So I got this wireless charging adapter, which you can plug into your USB-C port. Let me show you how I plug it in, and then I’ll put it back in the case. So there it is, and I just plug that in, and then that just goes to the back, and then you can take your case. And it’s pretty seamless. You actually don’t even notice it. Now mine here is already set up, and I have a lot of apps already on it.

I mentioned in a similar video that I even managed to install some Google apps on here, which is incredible. I couldn’t do that before. On mine, I installed YouTube, Google app, which is search and voice search, Google Maps, and Google Translate, and I also have voice here. On my older D-Google phones, I couldn’t run these apps. None of these apps are logged in, so without logging in, they’re not dangerous. As far as the feel of the phone, it is definitely lighter than a new iPhone. In real life, the feel of the phone is very modern, very clean lines.

The screen is bright, the swipes are very responsive, and no issues with performance. My particular carrier on this one here is T-Mobile, though I have also used my AT&T SIM card, and both work fine. As we announce, the only specific carrier we do not support is Verizon, and currently I’m not aware of any international carrier that it doesn’t support, including in Australia. I had the opportunity to even use this in Catalina Island, which is a more remote island, and I’ve typically had problems connecting there in the past. This one connects fine as long as I use 5G.

I think LTE service there is bad. Anyway, I just want to remind you why we use phones like this. This is an open source phone. It uses EODOS. In this case, and because of this, we are assured that to Google, this phone is invisible. They don’t really know what this phone is. There is no Google login, so you never identify yourself to them. This one is the standard Google Play spoofer called MicroG, and you install apps using Aurora Store and F-Droid. Most apps will run if they don’t require payments. This app doesn’t allow the 24-7 location tracking that occurs on normal production phones, and it doesn’t allow the usual Google telemetry of every app you use.

So this is about as private as can be. Frankly, seeing that I have so many common apps installed on here, I personally don’t feel like there’s any significant limitations to using this kind of phone. The interface is a standard Android, and nothing really feels too different other than the fact that you don’t get your apps from Google Play. Instead, you get it from Aurora Store, which is already pre-installed. If Aurora Store doesn’t work, which frankly happens often, my backup is to use apkpure.com. It’s spammy, but at least I can get all the apps I need when Aurora Store is down.

If you want to get fancy and use even more private apps, I would go use F-Droid Store, which is also pre-installed. I’m really impressed with this phone, and frankly, after using it for a while, I prefer to the pixels I used to use, and it is way better than the Bracks 2. There you have it, guys. A privacy phone, but with very few sacrifices to modern technology. This phone is sold on BracksTech.net, and I believe we’re a bit low on stock, so hopefully we’ll have a new batch available soon so we don’t run out.

If you have a pre-order and you don’t have the phone yet, it should get there in a few days, and there is a support team on support at BracksTech.net to help you with your order if you have issues. Enjoy the phone, and we expect that Bracks Technologies will have other products. I’m thinking of Linux tablets, data SIM cards, maybe even a flip phone. Thank you for supporting the project on Indiegogo. It’s been an awesome show of support, and this will enable us to continue with more products from here on. Bye-bye. [tr:trw].

See more of Rob Braxman Tech on their Public Channel and the MPN Rob Braxman Tech channel.