yeah RISC has been around for a while. most interesting about that phone is the FPGA, a chip that can "morph" into any kind of CPU. making it harder to target by blackhats/gov surveillance.
main point of the VPN is hiding your IP. it doesnt "protect" you by default. there are lots of ways to find out who you are. even if you resize your TOR browser window you are already finger printing your traffic.
like a bike lock. you make it harder, but not impossible. use TOR, but if you want to private download torrents ect. you will need a decent (paid for) VPN. protonVPN (pro) works well and is fast. blackfriday is soon, so i'd advice to buy then.