Cyclon has nerve, and I rather like that. The YC-backed San Francisco startup is taking preorders for an AI phone that runs its own OS and does the tapping for you, and its founders say out loud that they’re coming for the iPhone. Mine included. Order today and the first box at your door holds a Google Pixel wearing Cyclon’s software.
Most of my AI errands start and end in ChatGPT, with Hark handling the more serious tasks. I copy something over, get an answer, then move to the next app. Cyclon wants to cut out that back-and-forth. But there’s a catch.
You hand over $ 199 and hold a spot in line for a phone Cyclon expects to cost around $699. Nothing else gets charged unless you say yes later, after an email tells you the final price, and you can bail for a full refund within seven business days. Fair terms from a company with no finished hardware. Credit to them.
The handset is due in Q2 2027, assuming the FCC signs off. Americans in the first batch get a Pixel 8a prototype within 30 days to use until then, AI usage included. Over here in Armenia I can preorder just fine, yet the Pixel won’t ship to me and Cyclon hasn’t named a single country for the final phone, so my deposit would buy a very polite form of hope.
I can see why Adam Zinebi’s Cyclon demo on X has attracted 1.4 million views. The phone handles notifications for an hour, tracks down photos a friend requested, and even puts together a language-learning app. That last bit was my favorite. Zinebi starts with Spanish, adds Mandarin a moment later, and changes the streak system from daily to weekly.
There’s a bigger implication here than adding another language to a learning app. Zinebi also demonstrates Cyclon building an ad-free CamScanner knockoff from scratch.
My wish list is humbler. Half my ideas show up on walks with Theia, and by the time I’ve fished out my phone and typed a passcode, the good line’s gone.
Near the end of the video, Cyclon claims your sensitive data stays on your phone. Go read the preorder FAQ. Requests get sent to cloud AI providers along with whatever they touch, messages and location included, and some providers keep that data a while for safety monitoring.
Memory lives on the device, and you can wall off any app. Fine. Two different stories from one company in one week still make me twitchy.
CTO Thomas Kiefer did Android at Google, a résumé line that calms me down more than the silver renders do. Building a phone with a headcount of two still sounds a little mad. You’d have a refundable seat to watch whether they pull it off.