Turing phone delayed; refunds and upgrades offered to pre-orderers

If you’ve been following the development of Turing Robotic Industries’ “liquid-metal” smartphone, then you’re probably just as eager as we are to find out how these futuristic doodads will actually fair in the wild. Even if you’re not an interested buyer, you’ve got to be at least a little bit curious about how well the Turing Phone will live up to the company’s claim that it’s “unhackable” and nearly unbreakable.

Well, both of us are going to have to wait a little bit longer, because Turing has pushed their smartphone’s release back an ambiguous amount of time. Although they’re pitching it as “a few short weeks longer,” their email to pre-orderers also seems to indicate that the delay might push the release back as far as March 2016.

The security-packed device was slated for shipping on December 18, but Turing is trying to sweeten the deal for those who are choosing to stick around. Pre-orderers who are willing to forgive Turing will get an upgrade in internal storage. If you pre-ordered the 16GB version of the Turing Phone, they’ll upgrade you to the 64GB one. Likewise, if you ordered the 64GB model, you’ll get the 128GB model instead. 128GB choosers will get a special, limited edition 128GB model. If this is the last straw for you and you’re ready to walk, Turing will refund you completely.

Here’s the explanation they sent out in full:

Dear TRI Fans,

The year 2015 is drawing to a close, and the Turing Phone continues to earn worldwide recognition through featured media headlines. We truly appreciate the continued faith you have in TRI and want you to know how important it is for us to put a Turing Phone into your hands. In the last 12 months, we’ve made it from a laboratory experiment to a fully production-ready product that is nothing less than extraordinary and through your support, we did it together.

The Turing Phone isn’t just a hardware device, it’s the perfect blend of both hardware and software. While we have achieved the claims we’ve made earlier this year – from our signature Liquidmorphium frame to the waterproof feature, the last remaining developmental step is our OS and the security platform. Many of you have asked us to support Google Play Store and we listened. We are inching closer to fulfill our promise of delivering a truly secure OS while allowing you the ability to download apps that you’re familiar with and use regularly.

TRI needs more time to make sure when the Turing Phone is delivered it’ll be one of the best mobile devices ever conceived. To accomplish this, we ask for your patience and continuous support. Because we’ll miss the December 18th shipping deadline, we are offering the following options for you to consider:

1.  If you pre-ordered the phone(s), we will upgrade your current order, eg., 16GB phone upgraded to a 64GB, 64GB upgraded to 128GB, 128GB upgraded to the limited edition model.
2.  If you can’t wait a few short weeks longer, you may cancel your pre-ordered Turing Phone (s), and receive an immediate full refund.

Choosing to stay with TRI, we can ensure that it will be worth the wait. You are our most valuable asset and we are committed to bringing you the very best products and services we possibly can. This is our promise to you!

The exact shipping date will be announced later this month. It will be no later than the end of Q1 2016.

Thank you for staying with us all this time and for your understanding.

Sincerely,

SYL Chao

CEO | TRI

Are you one of the 10,000+ Turing fans who made a reservation? How are you taking this setback? Will you be sticking with Turing or going with someone else? Let us know in the comments!

Next: Turing Phone thrown against concrete and dunked in water… survives