Tag: smartphone

In an era where smartphones are designed to harvest your data and hijack your dopamine, we decided to build something different. We didn’t start from scratch; we started with the best hardware available and stripped away everything that didn’t serve you.

The Φ Phi Daisy 2 has arrived. It is a premium device built for those who want the power of modern technology without the constant surveillance.

Hardware You Trust. Software You Control.

We took the Google Pixel 8—a masterpiece of engineering—and performed a total digital reset. We erased the factory settings and replaced the standard operating system with GrapheneOS, the gold standard in mobile privacy and security.

The result? A phone that feels like an iPhone 15 in your hand, but behaves like a private vault in your pocket.

Privacy is the Default, Not an Option

Most phones come “pre-cluttered.” The Daisy 2 comes clean.

• The Essentials Only: Out of the box, you get the tools you actually need: Phone, Messages, Camera, and Gallery.
• No Cloud by Default: Your photos, texts, and locations stay on the device. They aren’t sent to “someone else’s computer” in the cloud.
• Google-Free Experience: We’ve removed Google Play services. If you need specific apps, you can add them back on your own terms, isolated by GrapheneOS’s hardened security layers.
• Zero-AI Zone: We’ve disabled AI features by default, giving you a break from the “predictive” world and letting you focus on the present.

A “Living Product” for an Exclusive 40

The Phi Daisy 2 is not a mass-market commodity; it is a community project. We are releasing a limited first batch of just 40 units, sold one person at a time.

When you join this first cohort, you aren’t just a customer—you’re a pioneer.

• Phi Lifetime Support (PLS): Our first 40 owners receive lifetime support. Your questions will directly influence our future documentation and how the Daisy evolves.
• The Clear Case Project: Every phone ships with a clear case. We want you to modify it, decorate it, and show us how the Daisy 2 fits into your physical world.

The “Specs” (Without the Hype)

You don’t need a degree in engineering to know a good phone. If you are familiar with the iPhone 15, you already know the performance of the Daisy 2.

• Speed: A high-end “brain” (processor) that handles everything instantly.
• Battery: Exceptional life, boosted by the removal of background “bloatware” that usually drains your power.
• Display: A stunning high-quality screen featuring a hidden under-display fingerprint sensor.
• Connectivity: Modern 5G and Wi-Fi, with the ability to toggle 5G off to prioritize battery life.

Reclaim Your Attention

The Φ Phi Daisy 2 is more than a phone—it’s an invitation to change your relationship with technology. We are learning alongside you about how these devices affect our health, and we’re excited to make recommendations as we grow together.

Are you ready to own a phone that works for you, and only you?

Today, Phi introduces The Φ Phi Daisy to assist you in focusing your attention on what matters to you most. We have been using The Φ Phi Daisy for a couple of months in order to take back control of our own lives first in order to lead our family and friends to do the same.

Like you, we were tired of constant notifications, private photos being uploaded to who-knows-where, installing yet-another-app, and doom scrolling social media for the next dopamine hit. Worse, kids copied our behavior. Then, we read more news about BigTech treating us as “The Product” and coming AI automation being added to a phone we already had in our home, and that was too much.

In the end, we went back to a piece of paper to get things done. After much success the “old school way”, we realized the issue. The problem is that the modern Smartphone is run by companies whose goal is to consume your life. And, the competition between those companies divides you up, destroys your attention, reduces your focus and fragments your life. You lose control.

How to Get Your Focus Back: What’s the Solution?

There are three possible choices for the phone-focus-fragmentation-problem: (1) No-Phone (2) Dumbphone (3) Controlled Smartphone. While the No-Phone option is fine for some, it breaks down when you are already connected to so many other friends, family and co-workers who are connected all the time. And, this constant connection is the social norm now for some interactions require some applications and a connection.

The dumbphone is also not workable because many people only use data-services now for making calls to other countries or sending photos to their family. The dumbphone breaks down when you rely upon a banking or messaging app that will not run on older tech. In the end, the dumphone is discarded because it was left in the past and the social protocols have moved to the current platforms.

And finally, there is the controlled smartphone like the Φ Phi Daisy. A controlled smartphone is where all third-party services are disabled by default . There is every attempt to keep you in control of your ability to make calls, use data services, or use apps if you want them, in a secure and private way. And, if you want to dive deeper into making your controlled smartphone more private or secure, you may do so with a deeper level of verification or customization.

Technology is Part of Nature

You do not have to upgrade your phone in order to “keep up”. Rather, you should get the benefit of the last 20 years of hyper-focus by the technology industry on making mobile devices smaller. The cost of computing power is going down increasingly from these innovations. There has never been a less expensive computing option in the palm of your hand as with the Android ecosystem due to the massive competition between hardware manufacturers.

No, you do not need the pro model or ++, 99% of the performance and battery life of the newer phones comes down to the innovation at the heart of the smartphone, “the chip” or microprocessor. So if you truly want to keep up, then pick the best Android device with the most competitive non-Pro chip. That’s the most bang for your buck.

Remember, a chip is made from quartz crystals. It is remixed sand. It is part of nature. It is not a monolith that appeared out of thin air as a slab of magic, complete with theme music. The smartphone is as much a part of nature as humans are part of nature. Nature is free. You should not have to pay a big fraction of your paycheck for natural computing power.

For the Φ Phi Daisy, we selected the Google Pixel 6 because contains a high-performance modern chip, modern features you depend upon in current smartphones, it is incredibly well documented, and easily modifiable so you may take control of the hardware.

Objects Change Over Time

Weather effects the smartphone. And, when you use it, you both effect each other. Often, we only take note of our beloved smartphone upon first sight of a pristine magic slab. And we lose control when we drop or leave our beloved object somewhere by accident. There is one constant in life: impermanence. Our objects, including our smartphone, change over time. It is beautiful.

The Φ Phi Daisy is a piece of Renewed technology. We sourced the best smartphone, the Google Pixel 6, that could run the most secure privacy-supporting operating system, GrapheneOS, and paired both together with our Phi Lifetime Support for your Φ Phi Daisy to grow and change with you over time.       

Be Part of the Change

We are hopeful that you want to be part of the change. We are making available 40 Φ Phi Daisy and hope you will plant one in your life. Further, we hope you will modify your Φ Phi Daisy and share feedback about your process.

We are limiting purchases to one device per person and are hopeful to work directly with the initial 40 Φ Phi Daisy customers. If you are in Hong Kong or Saint Louis, our homebases, we are eager to meet with you and get you set up.