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Imagine a smartphone that doesn’t track your every move and collect your data. This is the stadium of the German company a point (pronounced “poonkt,” after the German word for “period”), which has been making privacy-conscious cell phones for years. In a private hotel room during Consumer Electronics Show 2026got hands-on with her next smartphone, the MC03, which keeps data private and extends battery life far beyond what traditional smartphones can do.
Most smartphones use Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android operating systems, and apps on both collect your data. The MC03, which runs on an open source, project-based Android platform called AphyOS, was designed from the ground up using the opposite approach. It packs the company’s alternative suite of communication and productivity apps that don’t have data-collecting or privacy-violating features. If they wish, people can download some traditional Android apps through the Google Play Store, but these apps are protected so they cannot pull data from other apps.
Although Punkt also has a Minimal “dumb” phone. In line with the MPO2, the upcoming MC03 (which has begun delivering units in Europe and will begin shipping to the US in the spring) is a $700 all-in-one smartphone that iterates on its predecessor, the MCO2. It adds some notable hardware upgrades, like switching to a 120Hz OLED display and making the battery easily removable and replaceable (by the user or through Punkt, both of which cost $50), as well as better cameras. Despite the swappable battery, the phone is still IP68 certified to keep out dust and water, with a back cover that I was able to remove and securely put back on during my in-person preview.
The Punkt’s back cover can be easily removed (I used a specialized wedge that looks like a guitar pick), yet the phone retains its IP68 water and dust resistance.
The MC03’s privacy-at-all-costs approach has some big pros and cons, drawn from a lot of the lesser-known ways modern phone software works. For example, Android updates are free to consumers, but phone makers that use the operating system share user data with Google. Since Punkt is a company ideologically opposed to sharing its users’ information, it charges a subscription fee — $12 per month, or $120 for a year — to ensure privacy as well as adding features, secure apps, and AphyOS updates.
“When you take the MC03 out of the box, it’s completely disconnected from Google. So nothing on this device is trying to share any data with Google,” said Yanabe Sinod, global head of sales and marketing at Punkt. “We don’t collect data and sell it to anyone, so we have to pay for (the development) one way or another.”
For the average person, a monthly software subscription is a surprising and expensive expense on top of the $700 base price of the MC03. Some people may literally not value their privacy at $12 a month. Those who buy the phone but don’t pay a subscription will still be able to get important security updates but will lack some functionality, such as camera features or the ability to download apps.
But those who think it’s a good cost will reap the other benefits of a phone that doesn’t leak data. One of those benefits? Punkt says the device will last up to six days without charging.
The cost of replacing the MC03’s battery is $50, and owners can do it themselves.
How the MC03 can get about a week of battery life
Smartphones these days have many apps running in the background – some of which predatoryly sneak into other apps to steal data, and others of which simply fetch information from their services on a regular cadence. Sending and retrieving these data packets drains battery life. While some of this can be mitigated through app settings or the phone’s typical operating system, there is a level of data exchange to and from the phone that occurs anyway.
The MC03 puts more control of data flow in your hands. By default, it keeps applications isolated from the Internet. Without bringing up all that background data, Punkt says its phone lasts days longer than any other smartphone.
“The battery capacity is actually unbelievable. You actually get four, five, or even up to six days of battery life because the whole operating system is so light, and we didn’t have to put in a 10 times larger battery,” Synod said.
To prove this point, Synod said that the MC03 unit I have in my hands is the same unit that the Punkt team has been showing off since Sunday. “I met him on Wednesday afternoon and the phone was 57% low on charge – without recharging,” Synod added.
Many phones these days will determine which apps consume the most battery life. The MC03 has the same advantage, placing it within a “carbon ledger” framework to draw a more direct causal relationship between the apps people use and the amount of energy needed to run them.
The Vault, shown here, is a selection of apps vetted by Punkt that won’t leak user data.
Much of the MC03’s battery saving is due to its privacy settings, which are very limited compared to typical Android phones. For fine-grained data control, the MC03’s AphyOS system divides its applications into two groups. The first, housed in what the company calls Vault, is a mix of Punkt versions of popular apps — like Calendar, Contacts, and Email that can serve as replacements for Google’s suite — and apps from privacy-conscious companies like Proton. Punkt stresses that nothing in the Vault shares user data, and the company plans to continue adding more for subscribers.
“Any app that comes into the store – app, email, VPN, calendar – we know where the data goes, and it goes to a secure service in Switzerland where they have strict sovereign privacy rules,” said Vico Minotti, chief product officer at Punkt. “No data collection is leaked to any other obscure servers around the world.”
The second group is for people who must have popular Android apps available through the Google Play Store. They can be downloaded and used at the phone owner’s risk, although Punkt says they will all be sandboxed so they can’t talk to each other (or steal data from them).
But the MC03 also includes a way to mitigate some data leaks in the form of a security tweak that can be tweaked manually in each application’s settings. In 1, the app works mostly as it would on any regular phone with processes running in the background. But at five o’clock, it shuts down, isolated from the internet and phone sensors, and doesn’t share any data. Level 5 is the default level, and if you dial it back manually, the app will reset to 5 after three days.
Preventing apps from using data is just one way the MC03’s battery lasts longer than other phones. The operating system also contributes. In a test run on two identical MC03 models with Punkt’s AphyOS installed on one and Android on the other, the team left both phones alone for 24 hours — Miniutti says the device running Punkt remained at 100%, while the one with Google’s OS dropped to 92%.
Apps on the MC03 have privacy and power usage settings for users to toggle between data security and extending battery life.
How far does Punkt go in terms of privacy?
It’s safe to say that most phone owners don’t think much about privacy. Even though the App Store and Google Play Store list the extensive permissions that apps require, they are still downloaded en masse. The lengths the MC03 goes to prevent user data from escaping the phone are extreme in comparison.
However, Punkt goes further for its ideals, such as in auditing applications. It takes the team about 20 days to discuss and evaluate an application for its Vault to ensure data protection – the MC03 launches with support for the Proton software suite, which also keeps user data on secure servers in Switzerland. The phone will launch with 20 trusted Vault apps, with others added on a monthly basis, Synod said. Punkt hopes to reach around 100 by the end of the year, but the list will always be curated by the Punkt team.
Punkt’s focus extends to the provenance of its mobile devices as well. They were made in Germany at a factory belonging to Gigaset, a respected company that produced landlines that were once used across Europe, and now makes smartphones. By partnering with the phone maker, Punkt gets access to Gigaset’s supply chain, which Miniutti says should insulate it from other issues that might It caused phone prices to rise This year, like Lack of RAM.
The focus on privacy is aligned with a commitment to reparability, in line with European legal requirements. For example, Punkt will provide spare parts for the MC03 aircraft for seven years, in accordance with EU law. Miniutti said they will fix under-warranty breakdowns for free, though they will also sell things like screen replacement kits and batteries through their online store if people want to fix the issues themselves.
Such a commitment to privacy makes things more difficult for Punkt in some ways. EU law requires newly built smartphones to have certain features, such as SOS satellite communication in emergency situations, so Punkt had to create that.
While the MC03 is the company’s next flagship, they have others in the pipeline. Sometime next year, they plan to unveil a product called the MC01 — a device that looks like the old BlackBerry phones with a physical keyboard, a 4:3 display above it and key specs. Of course, as a Punkt phone, it will have something no other device has: a serious commitment to keeping your data with you.