The unflappable and suave James Bond is known for impeccable taste in clothes, cars and cocktails.
The Bond brand has been attractive to luxury goods companies including car makers Aston Martin and Jaguar, which produced special editions for the latest film in the franchise, “Spectre.”
Sony even made a Bond Edition smartphone, the Xperia Z5, complete with 007 themed packaging.
Bond has used Sony smartphones in previous films: Bond used a Sony Ericsson in at least three Bond films, including “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace,” according to one James Bond fan site.
This got us thinking: what kind of smartphone should Bond use, not just for style but for security as well?
For the cool factor, he could do worse than an iPhone 6s; or maybe he should have a 18 karat gold-case Apple Watch (starting at $10,000).
As an MI6 agent, however, shouldn’t Bond try to be less conspicuous, and put a premium on security over style?
In that case, an iPhone 6s is again a good choice, but as we’ve learned recently, Apple’s iOS is not bulletproof.
In fact, the exploit brokering firm Zerodium says it paid out $1 million for an iOS 9 zero-day, one that a rival spy could maybe use against Bond to get malware on his device that could track his location or perhaps listen to his calls, read his texts and dig through his files.
Android is definitely vulnerable to this kind of spyware, too.
If Bond had one of Google’s Nexus phones, he’d at least be getting all the latest Android security patches within weeks and not months or years.
Most Android users are at the mercy of device manufacturers and carriers to give them security updates, and one study found that 87% of all Android devices have at least one critical security bug an attacker could exploit.
On the other hand, some of the most secure smartphones (ones that are marketed as such, anyway), are built using custom versions of Android.
The so-called Blackphone uses a “fortified Android operating system,” and proprietary apps “designed to provide you with absolute privacy,” according to manufacturer Silent Circle.
Of course, even the Blackphone isn’t totally immune to security bugs, so maybe Bond should consider the latest BlackBerry, the PRIV, which is also built on Android.
What do you think readers – what kind of smartphone should Bond use? Perhaps he should just go back to basics and get a regular, non-smartphone? Let us know in our poll!
Image of Daniel Craig courtesy of
carrie-nelson / Shutterstock.com.
Sammie
If hes smart, he will stay away from a smart phone.
Pingu
What about Ubuntu phones? Spooks can probably customise them to give required security.
non smartphone
Definitely, back to the non smartphone devices (feature phones) is the right choice. When it comes to security, does not matter how the phone looks like, but what the phone can do. That’s why I’ll pick up at any time a dumb phone that is having the ability to instantly detect the threats instead of using encryption in blind. Like xcell stealth phones does: its better to know when your calls are tapped than using encryption.
Paul Ducklin
Did you vote for the Shoe Phone? I hope so :-)
marcerickson
Bond doesn’t have impeccable taste in cocktails – I suspect Ian Fleming used the device of ‘a martini, shaken, not stirred’ to make his hero memorable.
Any bartender will tell you that shaking a martini (gin OR vodka) dilutes the drink and lessens the flavour of the alcohol. What happens is that the ice cubes bang into each other during shaking and small ice chips ensure, which melt almost instantly because of their small size. Thus the taste of a shaken martini is weaker than a stirred martini.
Paul Ducklin
Forgive my ignorance (I am not a cocktailer), but isn’t Gin Martini a tautology and Vodka Martini an oxymoron?
VogBedrog
That reminds me of a handy outback survival tip: Wherever you travel, take a bottle of gin, a bottle of vermouth, and a jar of olives. If you’re lost in the wilderness, pour three measures of gin and one of vermouth, add three olives – and someone will immediately appear from somewhere to say “That’s not how you make a Martini!”
Karim Garcia
You don’t shake gin… it gets “bruised” if you do. You shake the vodka with ice in a cocktail shaker to flash chill it. If you’ve ever shaken one, you would know what I mean… after about 30 seconds of shaking, the shaker should get too cold to hold on to. Besides, after the vermouth and the olives, who can taste the vodka???
MrGutts
Looked liked Xperia Z5 when he called Moneypenny during the car chase in Spectre. The Z5 is practical because Bond does love going swimming a lot and the Z5 is water proof and it does look good!!
Mahhn
Saw the 2015 model at DefCon. Sweet. I would microwave my iphon6 for one of these.
https://www.pwnieexpress.com/product/pwn-phone2014/
Paul Ducklin
At the price quoted, microwaving your iPhone isn’t going to cover the cost…
Mahhn
not expecting any cost recovery, it would be a celebratory zapping :) It is expensive, but Bond wouldn’t mind.
DoubleO7
While the mobile itself is important, in my opinion it’s also about the apps used. For example, putting FB messenger on a Blackphone or an iPhone 6s doesn’t mean your messages are secure or private. Bond should choose a ‘cool’ mobile and use ‘cool’, but secure, apps … for example, for his ‘team’ he should use SecureHaze … for his personal, RakEM
Trisha
Samsung Note Series (currently Note 7). As it is waterproof (iPhones are not), Bond can have the S-Pen serve as a micro-missle launcher which can be deployed underwater, or perhaps shoot a neuro-toxin dart from the S-Pen silo. The Samsung Note 7 is the most powerful smartphone on earth, bar none.