Freedom Phone is a scam? Oh, we didn’t know

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Sarcasm for those who don’t get it. Rule of Thumb: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

Updated 26th July, 2021

The Freedom Phone in all of its glorious, freedom-bred glory. So Patriotic.

So, there’s a new phone circulating online, with the goal of uncensored content, free speech and enhanced privacy (which you shouldn’t put in the same sentence, so that’s a red flag already), called the Freedom Phone. No, it’s not that $4 Indian phone from a few years ago, rather this is a phone created by Erik Finman and not some Indian company.

Freedom Phone homepage

According to its website, the phone is “completely uncensored” that includes too-good-to-be-true features including an “uncensored app store” (whatever that means), and tracking blockers that allows you to basically do anything you want with it. Doing whatever you want with any product is already a red flag that something shady is going on

You can tell that the phone is freedom focused because of the US flag. So American, makes me want to buy a Bald Eagle as a pet too! The website is already shady as the style does remind us of the Escobar website. Yes, that company that “made” the Escobar Fold 2 and Escobar Gold 11 Pro.

The phone was first announced on Erik Finman’s Twitter, about a week ago. Erik Finman is a self-proclaimed “world’s youngest Bitcoin Millionaire”. While yes, you can be rich off cryptocurrency, having this bold claim makes us skeptical about the product he is offering. He also claimed to be successful in life and in Silicon Valley. According to IndiaToday, Erik Finman dropped out of school when he was 15 and started investing in Bitcoin when he purchased 100 BTC (that was before BTC had a humongous value). We only heard the name now and every article that this person refers to normally redirects to the Freedom Phone.

It seems like this phone is more politically connected than anything. Erik claims that the “Big Tech” is filtering out information which you don’t want to see. Sounds like a conspiracy theory, to us, that’s a big claim, thus a red flag. There is also a trailer available on YouTube which tells you everything what the Freedom Phone stands for (or so we know).

The Freedom Phone itself

Okay, we now know that’s a scam, but what are the specs? If you’re a freedom-loving, patriotic, God-loving American who wants free speech and freedom. (Did we say Freedom already?) Who cares about the specs. All you have to know that this comes with a glorious uncensorable app store (which is just Google Play) and FreedomOS, which is just stock Android slightly modified, this includes the use of DuckDuckGo as the default search engine instead of Google. Oh yeah, the phone costs a patriotic price of only $499 (~Php 25.1K). This does not include shipping by the way.

For those who don’t know, DuckDuckGo presents itself as a search engine that doesn’t track its users and does not filter search results, it’s a privacy-centric search engine for those who are worried that their data may be used for nefarious purposes.

Umidigi A9 Pro on Shopee, 6/128 Forest Green

In all seriousness, the phone is just a rebranded Umidigi A9 Pro valued at a ridiculous price. You can get that phone for stupidly less than Php25K. In Shopee, the phone costs Php6890 (~$136) for the 6/128 configuration, which is way way less than what the Freedom Phone is valued at. Also, for a phone that’s intended for free speech, the phone is ironically made in China, just rebranded. The OS, “FreedomOS” is not even original, it’s literally just a reskinned variant of LineageOS, which anyone can get for free.

Since the Freedom Phone website doesn’t bother telling us about the specs. Here are the specs of the Umidigi A9 Pro instead, which should have identical specs as the Freedom Phone.

EDIT: Freedom updated their website to include spec sheet, but it’s still vague. For a more detailed spec sheet, please refer to Umidigi’s website.

“Freedom Phone” specs:

  • 6.1in. HD+ IPS LCD, 19.5:9 screen ratio, 720×1560 resolution
  • 1.8GHz Octa-core chipset (possibly Mediatek Helio P60)
  • 13mp + 2mp + 2mp
  • 8mp selfie camera
  • Li-Po 4150mAh battery
  • NFC
  • 4GB RAM, 64GB Internal Storage, up to 256GB MicroSD
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/bg/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, 4G LTE
  • FreedomOS based on LineageOS and Android 10
  • Dual SIM + Dedicated SD Card Slot (up to 256GB)
  • USB-C, Rear-mounted Fingerprint Sensor

The Freedom Phone website doesn’t tell you anything, it’s so vague and empty. No specs, no storage options. Nothing. (Before this article was updated). The website simply tells you to buy the phone without thinking. This is such an obvious scam that we think no one will fall for, but for extra safety, we decided to make this article. We can’t wait until the website gets shut down after getting too much negative attention from the press, any minute now…

For $500, you can get a brand new iPhone SE, a OnePlus 9 and a Google Pixel 4A. You can also get the Samsung Galaxy A52 4G which offers an even better spec sheet than the Freedom Phone. For starters, it uses a Snapdragon 720G chipset and you also get an AMOLED screen.

It goes without saying DO NOT BUY THE FREEDOM PHONE.

Instead of buying the freedom phone, just listen to this cool orchestra piece instead, which should give you an equal amount of Freedom points, or more.

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