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Turing Robotic Industries Liquid Metal Smartphones Would Complement Your Sneaker Collection

07.31.15 | By
Turing Robotic Industries Liquid Metal Smartphones Would Complement Your Sneaker Collection

It’s safe to say I wasn’t alone as a kid harboring dreams of jetting around my own 61-foot-tall mechanized close combat mobile suit, aka the RX-78-2 Gundam, for those of you who remember the original anime series. We’re inching forward to the dream becoming a reality. Android smartphone maker Turing Robotic Industries has drawn design inspiration from the original 1979 Gundam anime for a new line of security-based phones of extreme durability.


Android Authority got a hands-on demo of both the hardware and preview of the proof-of-concept Android launcher, Turing Æmæth UI.

Rather than a giant robot, what we’ve got is a large screen 5.5″ display Android device with an unusual proprietary alloy blend protecting the exterior called “Liquidmorphium”, alongside Gorilla Glass IV and polycarbonate detailing on the back for triple level physical durability. All three of the prototype designs previewed break the mold of typical smartphone case designs, sporting fashionable color combinations more akin to sneaker colorways and patterns than typical smartphone designs. Ironic, a device meant to be invisible to malicious intent is likely to bring much attention to itself while in hand.

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As its namesake makes clear, the Turning phone’s sturdy industrial design reflects the device’s focus on enhanced security, a smartphone revolving around “decentralized, end-to-end authentication”, allowing users to communicate with one another over an encrypted network without making any personal data accessible to 3rd parties with malicious intent. Additionally a fingerprint sensor on the side phone adds another layer of security. For those spec-curious, it’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor inside, with 3GB of RAM and a choice of 16, 64 and 128GB of internal memory [corrected].

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A preview of the UI an unique Android launcher. Image: Android Authority

The Turing Æmæth software was stressed to be a work-in-progress, and most likely to change when the device is finalized, but there are some interesting skeuomorphic design language experiments revealed further building upon the mech-inspired exterior (while also befalling some of the tropes of Android robotic/metal interfaces).

We’re curious whether the phone’s combination of unique exterior design and software designed to “provide world-class security” will appeal to anyone beyond the white/black hat community…or Gundam fans like myself.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.