About 10 months in the past, Solana co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko introduced the launch of Saga, a web3-focused Android smartphone. The cellphone is being rolled out and we have been capable of take a look at one earlier than launch.
Solana says Saga was launched to make crypto services and products extra accessible to customers by providing them via a cellphone as a substitute of the standard means of accessing crypto platforms and functions, which is thru computer systems.
I had an attention-grabbing few days utilizing the Saga as my each day driver. Here’s what I considered it.
The Saga cellphone at a look
Let’s knock out the fundamentals: the $1,000 gadget is available in a black field that features the cellphone itself, a USB-C charging cable, and a bodily seed phrase paper card so you’ll be able to write down your restoration phrase , which is a sequence of random phrases it’s worthwhile to entry your crypto pockets.
The cellphone’s working system is predicated on Android 13 and it comes with 512GB of storage together with a 6.67-inch OLED show.
The setup course of is your normal Android expertise, involving the standard prompts to arrange your account and web connection. You possibly can skip most of this and set it up later, however I like to recommend organising fingerprint unlock because it additionally serves as a verification technique to signal crypto transactions.
I used Saga as a piece cellphone for just a few days. The cellphone’s 4011 mAh battery lasted me round 1.5 days from 82% on Monday night once I unboxed it at round 4% on Wednesday morning. So I might say it performs nicely in the case of battery life.
The cellphone additionally has a built-in cell pockets adapter, which is a part of the Solana Cell Stack (SMS) which is invisible to customers however is an infrastructure that connects dApps to wallets, stated Steven Laver, head of the engineering at Solana Cell, at forexcryptozone. Much like how MetaMask has a login button on its desktop consumer, this adapter is a “complete expertise” that may bridge net dApps to cell units, he added.
The gadget additionally contains Web3-focused performance, the seed vault, which is constructed into the cellphone. Customers can import a seed phrase from one other crypto pockets or create a brand new one (Solana recommends creating a brand new one).
And that brings us to the primary objective of this cellphone’s existence: dApps.
A novel bug-tainted expertise
In contrast to typical Android units, the Saga has Web3 performance and a “Solana dApp Retailer”, the place you could find apps for Web3 platforms.
The shop has a small handful of apps:
- 4 wallets: Phantom, Solflare, Ledger and Squads
- Three DeFi apps: Marinade.finance, Jupiter and Mango
- Three NFT apps: Nokiamon, Minty Contemporary and TIEXO
- Three social apps: Dialect, Audius Music and urFeed
- And the “workspace” dApp
Curiously, Magic Eden is just not on the dApp retailer record, despite the fact that the market shared its intention to associate with Solana Cell Stack (SMS) final 12 months when Saga was introduced.
When the cellphone goes public “within the subsequent couple of weeks,” Solana’s crew hopes extra apps can be added to the dApp retailer, however Laver did not inform forexcryptozone what number of the shop would ultimately home.
“We have reached out and engaged with massive gamers within the Solana ecosystem and those that acknowledge cell has received for the whole lot else,” Laver stated. “Many builders understand that cell will ultimately win they usually need to be there when it does.”
Saga homeowners get $20 USDC and 0.01 SOL, or $0.0026, as a part of the dApp retailer welcome pack. The 0.01 SOL was not sufficient to play with a few of the apps, so I requested a buddy to ship my new crypto pockets just a few SOL {dollars} to check the dApps.
The dApp Retailer is at present providing rewards to Saga homeowners, which embrace an airdropped Saga genesis token, which is an NFT that grants entry to rewards provided by dApps. The token is non-transferable and non-burnable, so customers ought to guarantee it’s not linked to a brief pockets.
We examined the Minty Contemporary dApp and snapped a photograph of ourselves for 0.01197 SOL in seconds. It now lives without end on the Solana blockchain and might be discovered right here.
The method itself was simple – and admittedly enjoyable – however utilizing the cellphone wasn’t the smoothest expertise. The cellphone was generally gradual and I needed to shut and reopen the dApps a number of instances as a result of the crypto pockets and NFT minting platform stored freezing.
It ought to be famous that I encountered these points all through utilizing the gadget, not simply with dApps. I discovered myself closing apps, repeatedly tapping the display to unlock it, or utilizing dApps, and even ordering myself an Uber.
That is not an issue you need to have with a model new cellphone.
Deployment and future plans
Laver stated that whereas the cellphone remains to be in its early levels, there can be software program upgrades over time to maintain issues contemporary.
Final June, Yakovenko stated the cellphone would ship in Q1 2023, however shipments have since been pushed again to Q2. The cellphone is offered for pre-order with a $100 deposit.
Various main Web3 firms akin to crypto pockets Phantom, NFT market Magic Eden, and now-collapsed crypto change FTX shared in June that they have been teaming up with Solana to assist launch the cellphone, together with a $10 million growth fund for individuals who create apps on it.
This cellphone is Web3’s try to compete with massive tech distributors like Apple, Microsoft and, in fact, Android – however many are skeptical of its potential to take action given its area of interest market.
Final 12 months, Yakovenko stated the cellphone was “focused at hardcore individuals who know what self-care means. It’s important to begin with a bunch that loves this product and develop from there.
Then again, Laver sees this as a tool geared toward a bigger crypto viewers. He stated the Saga crew is planning a advertising and marketing marketing campaign geared toward crypto-native customers in addition to people who find themselves “inquisitive about crypto”.
“We would like it to be somebody’s cellphone,” Laver stated. “It is the one cellphone I’ve on me, I haven’t got a second cellphone; it does the whole lot a cellphone ought to do plus web3 stuff.
Laver did not reveal the precise variety of telephones that have been pre-ordered, however stated the quantity was within the “excessive digits of the 1000’s”. The cellphone is licensed on the market in 33 international locations and the corporate plans to broaden to different international locations in the long run, he added.
“We’re on this attention-grabbing place the place we’re constructing attention-grabbing expertise, however we’re additionally occupied with seeing the place folks take it subsequent,” Laver stated. “We do not have a roadmap of A, B or C. We have made ‘A’ of constructing this cellphone, however we’re excited to see the place folks take it subsequent for ‘B’ and ‘C’ .”
