About 10 months in the past, Solana’s co-founder and CEO, Anatoly Yakovenko, introduced the launch of Saga, a web3-focused Android smartphone. The telephone is now being rolled out, and we acquired to check one forward of its launch.
Solana says Saga was launched to make crypto services extra accessible for customers by providing them via a telephone as a substitute of the normal method of accessing crypto platforms and purposes, which is through computer systems.
I had an fascinating few days utilizing the Saga as my each day driver. Right here’s what I thought of it.
Saga telephone at a look
Let’s get the fundamentals out of the best way: The $1,000 device comes packaged in a black field that features the telephone itself, a USB-C charging cable and a bodily seed phrase paper card so you may write down your restoration phrase, which is a sequence of random phrases that you must entry your crypto pockets.
The telephone’s working system relies on Android 13, and it comes with 512 GB of storage with a 6.67-inch OLED show.
The setup course of is your normal Android expertise, involving the standard prompts for organising your account and web connection. You’ll be able to skip most of that and set it up later, however I’d suggest organising the fingerprint unlock, because it additionally serves as a verification technique for signing crypto transactions.
I used Saga as my work telephone for a number of days. The telephone’s 4011 mAh battery lasted me about 1.5 days beginning at 82% on Monday night time after I unboxed it to about 4% Wednesday morning. So I’d say it really works nicely so far as battery life is worried.
The telephone additionally has a built-in cellular pockets adapter, which is a part of the Solana Cell Stack (SMS) that’s invisible to customers however is infrastructure that connects dApps to wallets, Steven Laver, the engineering lead at Solana Cell, informed TechCrunch. Much like how MetaMask has a join button on its desktop shopper, this adapter is a “complete know-how” that may bridge internet dApps to cellular units, he added.
The machine additionally features a web3-focused function, the Seed Vault, which is embedded into the telephone. 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 core goal of this telephone’s existence: dApps.
A singular expertise marred by bugs
In contrast to typical Android units, the Saga has web3 options and a “Solana dApp Retailer,” the place you will discover apps for web3 platforms.
The shop has a slim handful of purposes:
- 4 wallets: Phantom, Solflare, Ledger and Squads
- Three DeFi apps: Marinade.finance, Jupiter and Mango
- Three NFT apps: Nokiamon, Minty Recent and TIEXO
- Three social apps: Dialect, Audius Music and urFeed
- And the dApp “workspace”
Curiously, Magic Eden isn’t on the listing of dApp shops, despite the fact that {the marketplace} shared plans to associate with the Solana Cell Stack (SMS) final yr when Saga was introduced. After publication, Chris Akhavan, chief gaming officer at Magic Eden, informed TechCrunch in a tweet its app could be stay quickly and is presently in a overview state.
When the telephone is launched to the general public “within the subsequent two weeks” the Solana group is hoping extra purposes will likely be added to the dApp retailer, however Laver didn’t open up to TechCrunch what number of the shop would finally home.
“We’ve been reaching out and interesting with large gamers within the Solana ecosystem and people who acknowledge that cellular has gained for every part else,” Laver mentioned. “Plenty of builders are realizing cellular will win finally they usually wish to be there when it occurs.”
Saga homeowners get $20 value of USDC and 0.01 SOL, or 0.0026 of a greenback, as a part of the dApp retailer welcome pack. The 0.01 SOL was not sufficient to mess around with a few of the purposes, so I had a pal ship my new crypto pockets a number of {dollars} value of SOL to check out the dApps.
The dApp Retailer presently offers Saga homeowners rewards, which incorporates an airdropped Saga genesis token, which is an NFT that gives entry to rewards supplied by dApps. The token is non-transferable and non-burnable, so customers ought to ensure it’s not related to a short lived pockets.
We examined out the Minty Recent dApp and minted an image of ourselves for 0.01197 SOL inside seconds. It now lives without end on the Solana blockchain and could be discovered here.
The method itself was simple — and admittedly, enjoyable — however utilizing the telephone was not the smoothest expertise. The telephone was typically gradual, and I needed to shut and reopen dApps a number of occasions as a result of the crypto pockets and NFT minting platform saved freezing.
It’s value noting that I confronted these points the entire time I used the machine, not simply with dApps. I discovered myself having to shut purposes, faucet the display plenty of occasions to unlock it or use dApps, and even order myself an Uber.
That’s not an issue you wish to have with a model new telephone.
Rollout and future plans
Laver mentioned that whereas the telephone remains to be in its early phases, there will likely be software program upgrades over time to maintain issues contemporary.
Final June, Yakovenko mentioned the telephone could be delivered in Q1 2023, however deliveries have since been pushed to Q2. The telephone is out there for preorder with a $100 deposit.
Various main web3 corporations like crypto pockets Phantom, NFT market Magic Eden and the now-collapsed crypto alternate FTX shared in June that they had been partnering with Solana to assist launch the telephone, alongside a $10 million developer fund for individuals who construct apps on it.
This telephone is an try for web3 to compete with Huge Tech suppliers like Apple, Microsoft and, in fact, Android — however many are skeptical of its potential to take action given its area of interest market.
Final yr, Yakovenko mentioned the telephone is “concentrating on the hardcore individuals who know what self-custody means. You gotta begin with a gaggle that loves this product and develop from there.”
However, Laver sees this as a tool for an even bigger crypto viewers. He mentioned Saga’s group is planning a advertising and marketing push with crypto-native customers in addition to people who find themselves “crypto curious.”
“We wish this to be somebody’s telephone,” Laver mentioned. “That is the one telephone I carry, I don’t have a second telephone; it does every part a telephone ought to do plus web3 issues.”
Laver didn’t disclose the precise variety of telephones that had been preordered, however mentioned the quantity was within the “excessive single digits of hundreds.” The telephone 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 fascinating place the place we’re constructing fascinating applied sciences, but in addition to see the place folks take it subsequent,” Laver mentioned. “We don’t have a roadmap of A, B or C. We’ve executed ‘A’ of constructing this telephone, however we’re excited to see the place folks take it subsequent for ‘B’ and ‘C.’”
