Blackphone, the smartphone designed for those worried about security and privacy on their device, has started to ship to customers.

Pocket-lint saw the phone from partners Silent Circle and Geeksphone at Mobile World Congress in January and thanks to "overwhelming demand" they had to suspend pre-orders so existing customers could be sent their devices first.

The order page will re-open on 14 July at store.blackphone.ch and you'll be able to get one for yourself, for $629 (£369) SIM-free. Customers in some countries will also be able to order the phone through local carriers, such as KPN in the Netherlands.

READ: Blackphone Android phone: The smartphone for the privacy aware

While the Blackphone is Android-based, the operating system and pre-installed software have been heavily customised to form PrivatOS, a security-enhanced OS.

It offers private encrypted voice and video calls and text messaging with attachments. A Kismet Smarter Wi-Fi Manager technology prevents Wi-Fi hotspots from capturing the Blackphone user's wireless connection history or any other information that reveals their location. In addition, the user gets complete control over application permissions through a Security Center.

The ability to remotely wipe the Blackphone is present, to ensure that no data can be recovered if lost or stolen. And the phone features VPN and anonymous web browsing.

Blackphone users also get access to SpiderOak's privated encrypted cloud service to store files.

In terms of specifications, the device comes with a 4.7-inch HD IPS screen, 2GHz Nvidia Tegra 4i processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage with a microSD card slot for expansion. It is a 4G phone and features an 8-megapixel camera on the rear 5-megapixel on the front.