Minimal phone pioneer Punkt is back with a new privacy-focused model at CES

The Swiss minimal phone pioneer Punkt is back with another model, the MC03. The new handset continues Punkt's focus on privacy, security and digital minimalism.If you've never seen Punkt's MP01 and MP02, the company's gorgeously minimal dumb phone line, they're something to behold. (The MP01 is quite literally a museum piece, in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.) Meanwhile, this new MC03 is the company's second stab at a more practical touchscreen smartphone, following 2023’s MC02. What you lose in physical beauty and tactile buttons, you gain in flexibility.As before, the smartphone runs the privacy- and security-focused AphyOS, based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The fork on the MC03 appears to borrow a page from the Light Phone line. Its UI includes a Light Phone-adjacent row of text for the most common shortcuts, like mail, contacts and calendar.Punkt MC03PunktThe MC03 splits data into two sections. There's The Vault, a secure enclave for app