You most likely have seen someone put tape over their computer’s webcam when not in use as a security measure. Heck, manufacturers have now even begun putting camera shutters on some of their devices such as laptops and smart displays. However, when it comes to smartphones, the best you can do is to manage your permission settings and choose which apps have access to your camera or you can just buy a smartphone without cameras such as the Caviar iPhone 12 Pro Stealth.
This custom iPhone 12 Pro by the Russian company has no rear cameras while the front-camera, save for the infrared camera for Face ID, is disabled. Caviar says that this “Non-cameras iPhone 12 Pro Stealth” is for those who want a higher level of privacy, probably someone who works in a highly-secure place where smartphones with cameras are not allowed.
The iPhone 12 Pro Stealth comes in two variants. There is one which has its rear covered in “hardened titanium with vertical guilloche on durable black laser coating” and there is the gold version which has a PVD gold coating on the hardened titanium. Caviar says that the iPhone 12 Pro Stealth starts at $4990.
While a smartphone with no cameras may be surprising for a lot of people, it turns out that it is not unusual. Apparently, manufacturers used to make non-camera versions of their phones. GSMArena cites the example of the 2015 BlackBerry Classic Non Camera which drops the 2MP front camera and 8MP camera of the regular version. A much older example is the Nokia E51 camera-free which doesn’t have the 2MP rear camera of the standard model.
It is no surprise why smartphones without cameras are not common. It caters to a very small percentage of users and it will be easier for an organization to specifically request phones without cameras from a manufacturer than for a manufacturer to announce a phone without a camera.
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