HIROH Phone Preview: Europe's $999 Privacy Challenger Arrives March 2026

TL;DR: The HIROH Phone is a $999 de-Googled smartphone shipping March 2026 with dual hardware kill switches (mic/camera and connectivity), MediaTek Dimensity 8300, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage, and /e/OS. Built by Avarana, a Texas company with roots in secure communications, it targets users wanting physical disconnection without sacrificing usability — but the premium price, untested hardware, and the company’s complicated history warrant cautious optimism.

The Privacy Phone Market Just Got Interesting

For years, the privacy phone playbook has been the same: buy a Pixel, flash GrapheneOS, accept you’re on your own (see our GrapheneOS setup guide if you’re doing that path). The Librem 5 promised hardware kill switches but delivered glacial performance. The PinePhone was a tinkerer’s dream. Murena’s Fairphone line offered /e/OS out of the box but with mid-range specs.

Now there’s a new contender. The HIROH Phone — pronounced “hero,” a nod to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics — wants to make privacy mainstream. It pairs flagship-class hardware with physical privacy switches and a de-Googled OS, wrapped in a premium aluminum chassis. And it ships next month.

We’ve been tracking HIROH since its September 2025 announcement. Here’s everything we know — and everything that gives us pause.

What Is HIROH and Who’s Behind It?

HIROH is a brand owned by Avarana Technologies, a company headquartered in Austin, Texas. The HIROH Phone is manufactured in partnership with Murena, the French company behind /e/OS and the de-Googled Fairphone line.

The company is led by Victor Cocchia (CEO) and Alexander Barangan (CTO), both holding patents in mobile security. Cocchia is a military veteran who transitioned into international affairs and previously founded Vysk Communications, a San Antonio startup that built an iPhone case with hardware-level microphone jamming and encrypted calling. Vysk won an IAPP Innovation Award and earned coverage in The Guardian and TechCrunch.

Here’s where it gets complicated. Vysk ran into serious trouble: investor lawsuits, federal tax liens exceeding $1.9 million, a ~$300,000 default judgment, and ultimately lost its patents. That’s a bumpy résumé for a CEO asking consumers to trust him with $999.

Cocchia frames HIROH as the spiritual successor — the same hardware-first philosophy, now built into the phone itself. Whether he’s learned from past mistakes remains to be seen.

The Hardware: Flagship Specs on Paper

Let’s talk about what’s inside. The HIROH Phone packs genuinely competitive specifications:

Component	HIROH Phone
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 8300 (octa-core: 4× Cortex-A715 + 4× Cortex-A510)
GPU	Mali-G615 MC6
RAM	16 GB
Storage	512 GB + microSD up to 2 TB (encrypted)
Display	6.67” AMOLED, 2712×1220, 120Hz, 1200 nits (1800 peak), Gorilla Glass Victus
Rear Cameras	108 MP Samsung main + 13 MP Sony ultra-wide + 2 MP macro
Front Camera	32 MP Sony
Battery	5,000 mAh (user-replaceable), 33W fast charging
Connectivity	5G (dual SIM), Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, USB-C
Extras	Fingerprint sensor, dual hardware kill switches
OS	/e/OS (based on Android 16)

On paper, this is impressive for a privacy phone. The 16GB/512GB configuration is flagship territory. Expandable encrypted microSD storage is a genuine differentiator — unavailable on any Pixel. The user-replaceable battery is another welcome feature.

The Dimensity 8300 is a solid upper-midrange chip — not a true flagship. In benchmarks, it trades blows with Google’s Tensor G4, generally matching or slightly exceeding it in multi-core performance while running more efficiently. Adequate for everyday use, but for $999, you’re not getting the fastest silicon available.

The Kill Switch Advantage (and Its Limitations)

This is HIROH’s headline feature, and it’s genuinely compelling. The phone includes two dedicated hardware switches accessible from the device’s exterior:

Privacy Switch (Mic/Camera): Physically severs the electrical connection to all microphones and cameras. This is a hardware-level disconnect — no software exploit, OS vulnerability, or malicious app can override it. A visible red indicator confirms when the switch is engaged.
Connectivity Switch: Disables GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC simultaneously. This is described as a software-based switch rather than a full hardware cutoff, which is an important distinction.

The mic/camera hardware kill switch is the real deal. Unlike software toggles that can theoretically be bypassed by a sufficiently sophisticated attacker, a physical circuit break is absolute. If there’s no electrical path to the microphone, there’s no audio to capture. Period. This is the same principle that made the Librem 5’s kill switches appealing — but unlike the Librem 5, the HIROH promises you can still use the rest of your phone normally while the switches are engaged.

The limitations are worth noting, though:

The connectivity switch appears to be software-based, not a true hardware disconnect. HIROH describes it as disabling “GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connections” — but some sources mention it cuts off GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC, while others say it controls 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC. The inconsistency across HIROH’s own materials is a minor red flag. A software switch is essentially a fancy airplane mode — useful, but not the same level of assurance as a hardware kill switch.
The cellular baseband modem remains active even when the connectivity switch is engaged (otherwise you couldn’t make calls). Your carrier can still triangulate your position via cell towers, and the baseband — running closed-source firmware — remains a potential attack surface.
No independent teardown or verification exists. We’re taking HIROH’s word for how the switches work at the circuit level.

Why /e/OS and Not GrapheneOS?

This is the question that keeps coming up in community forums, and it’s a fair one.

/e/OS is a de-Googled fork of Android maintained by the e Foundation (now branded as Murena). It strips out Google services and tracking, replaces them with privacy-friendly alternatives, and provides its own app store alongside the option to install apps from other sources. It’s designed for usability — someone switching from a standard Android phone should feel reasonably at home.

GrapheneOS is widely regarded as the gold standard for mobile security. It runs exclusively on Google Pixel hardware, taking advantage of the Titan M2 security chip, hardware attestation, and verified boot. It offers hardened memory allocation, advanced sandboxing, and the option to run sandboxed Google Play services when needed.

The answer to “why not GrapheneOS?” is straightforward: GrapheneOS only supports Pixel devices. The HIROH Phone uses a MediaTek chipset, making GrapheneOS support technically impossible. GrapheneOS’s security model is deeply integrated with Pixel-specific hardware security features (Titan M2, hardware attestation) that simply don’t exist on the Dimensity 8300 platform.

This is a genuine trade-off. You get hardware kill switches that GrapheneOS can’t offer. But you lose:

Verified boot with hardware attestation — Pixels with GrapheneOS can cryptographically verify that the OS hasn’t been tampered with
Titan M2 security chip — purpose-built for secure key storage and tamper resistance
Hardened memory allocator — GrapheneOS’s custom memory management that makes exploitation significantly harder
Faster security patches — GrapheneOS typically delivers Android security patches within days of Google’s release
Play Integrity API support — GrapheneOS can pass Play Integrity checks; /e/OS generally cannot, which means some banking and corporate apps may refuse to run

The /e/ Foundation’s own documentation is refreshingly honest about this: “If you are looking for an OS with hardened security, use GrapheneOS. If you are searching for an OS that helps you keep your data safe from Google, use /e/OS.”

HIROH has also mentioned that users will have the option to run stock Android 16 instead of /e/OS, which would provide broader app compatibility but obviously defeat much of the privacy purpose.

The Price Problem

Let’s be blunt: $999 is a lot of money for a Dimensity 8300 phone.

For the same price, you can buy a Google Pixel 9 Pro with a Tensor G4 chip, 16GB RAM, 256GB storage, the industry’s best computational photography, 7 years of guaranteed OS and security updates, and hardware security features specifically designed for GrapheneOS (start with our GrapheneOS beginner’s guide if you’re new). Then you can install GrapheneOS for free in about 15 minutes using the web installer.

Here’s what your $999 buys in each scenario:

	HIROH Phone ($999)	Pixel 9 Pro + GrapheneOS ($999 + free)
Hardware Kill Switches	✅ Yes (mic/cam + connectivity)	❌ No
Expandable Storage	✅ Up to 2TB microSD	❌ No
Replaceable Battery	✅ Yes	❌ No
OS Security Hardening	⚠️ Basic (/e/OS)	✅ Extensive (GrapheneOS)
Hardware Attestation	❌ No	✅ Yes (Titan M2)
Camera Quality	⚠️ Unknown (108MP sensor ≠ great photos)	✅ Excellent (proven)
Update Guarantee	⚠️ 2-year warranty (unclear OS update policy)	✅ 7 years from Google + GrapheneOS
Repair Ecosystem	❌ Unknown	✅ iFixit partnership, widely available parts
Track Record	❌ First product, unproven	✅ Established hardware, proven OS

The HIROH’s advantages are real — hardware kill switches, expandable storage, and a replaceable battery are features you genuinely cannot get on a Pixel. But the Pixel + GrapheneOS combination offers superior software security, a proven camera system, a mature repair ecosystem, and long-term update commitments.

The retail price is even steeper: €1,199 / $1,199 once the preorder discount expires. At that point, you’re paying a $200 premium over the Pixel 9 Pro for a less proven device.

Who Is This Phone Actually For?

The HIROH Phone makes the most sense for a specific type of user:

Journalists, activists, and at-risk individuals who need the physical assurance of hardware kill switches — the ability to walk into a meeting and know, with certainty, that the microphone cannot be listening
Government and enterprise users who need verifiable physical privacy controls for compliance or operational security
Privacy-conscious users who aren’t technical enough (or don’t want) to flash a custom ROM on a Pixel
People who specifically value /e/OS and want the most powerful hardware available for it
Users who need expandable storage and a replaceable battery alongside privacy

If you’re technically inclined and comfortable installing GrapheneOS on a Pixel, the HIROH’s value proposition is harder to justify — unless hardware kill switches are non-negotiable for your threat model.

Red Flags and Things to Watch

We’d be doing our readers a disservice if we didn’t flag concerns:

The CEO’s track record with Vysk. Investor lawsuits, tax liens, patent loss, and a default judgment. Cocchia frames Vysk as a success that ran out of runway; the court records tell a more complicated story. This doesn’t mean HIROH will follow the same path, but it warrants caution.
No independent reviews exist. As of this writing — weeks before the shipping date — not a single journalist or reviewer has published hands-on impressions. No teardowns, no camera samples, no battery life tests. We’re evaluating spec sheets and press releases, not a real product.
Shipping timeline has already slipped. The original estimate was January/February 2026. The Murena store still says “February 2026.” But HIROH’s own January 2026 press release pushed shipping to March 2026. Community members on the /e/OS forum are noting the silence: “Still Delivery in February 2026 but no more informations for people who pre-order it.”
Inconsistent specifications across sources. Different official materials cite Bluetooth 5.2 vs 5.3, and the connectivity switch descriptions vary. Minor inconsistencies, but they suggest the spec sheet may still be in flux.
Long-term software support is unclear. HIROH offers a 2-year warranty, but there’s no public commitment to a specific number of years of OS or security updates. For a $999 device, this is a significant omission.
The community is skeptical. The GrapheneOS forum’s reception was blunt: “Just another Murena partner that is well known for its blatant scams.” Even in /e/OS’s own community, users have noted that HIROH’s marketing “reads as unsubstantiated.” Reddit threads oscillate between genuine interest and concerns about the price-to-value ratio.
No mention of open hardware schematics. For a phone selling itself on hardware trust, there’s no indication that HIROH plans to publish hardware schematics or allow independent security audits of the kill switch implementation.

Our Verdict: Worth the Preorder?

Not yet.

The HIROH Phone is the most ambitious privacy phone we’ve seen in years. The combination of genuine hardware kill switches, flagship-class specs, expandable encrypted storage, a replaceable battery, and a pre-installed de-Googled OS is genuinely unique. No other device on the market checks all those boxes simultaneously.

But ambition isn’t execution. As of mid-February 2026, HIROH remains a product that exists primarily as a website and a preorder page. The shipping date has slipped once. The company carries baggage. No reviewer has touched the hardware. And /e/OS on a MediaTek chip is objectively weaker in security than GrapheneOS on a Pixel.

Our recommendation: Wait for the first wave of shipments and independent reviews. Let someone else be the guinea pig. If the kill switches work as advertised, the build quality matches the price, and HIROH commits to a meaningful update schedule — this could be genuinely important for the privacy phone market.

But right now, $999 is a lot to bet on a promise. If you need a privacy phone today, a Pixel 9 Pro with GrapheneOS remains the safer choice — even without the kill switches.

We’ll be publishing a full review as soon as we get our hands on shipping hardware. Stay tuned.

Have thoughts on the HIROH Phone? Preordering or waiting? Drop us a line — we’d love to hear from our community.