Meet the ESP32-Powered Phone You Can Actually Trust
Fed up with spyware? A hardware hacker just built an open source, ESP32-powered DIY phone to crush walled gardens and reclaim privacy.
Black boxes and walled gardens are enough to make a techie shudder with frustration. You will find no shortage of either on the phone that you carry around with you every day. But surely it’s fine. I mean, why even think about the fact that you have an internet-connected microphone and camera with you at all times? That’s totally safe and nothing could possibly ever go wrong.
Yeah, I don’t buy that either. Neither does a hardware hacker who goes by the handle LuckyBor. Fortunately for us, rather than whine about it, LuckyBor decided to make a DIY phone that has an open design and no walled gardens. It may be quite basic compared to commercial offerings, but at least you know it's not spying on you.
The phone is built around an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, so it is infinitely customizable. This is paired with a Simcom A7682E cellular modem so that the device can make 4G phone calls. A large display, 2MP camera, and a 3,000mAh battery round out the hardware. Just pop in a SIM card and you’re good to go.
The firmware for the phone was developed in the Arduino IDE, and LuckyBor plans to add support for sending and receiving SMS messages in the near future. After development moves beyond the prototype stage, LuckyBor plans to release all of the work under an open source license. Stay tuned to Hackster News for the latest updates on the project!