In summary
- The launch of the Solana Saga smartphone was initially unsuccessful, but a surge in demand at the end of the year cleared out the remaining stock.
- Solana Labs announced that the new smartphone called Solana Seeker will be launched in mid-2025, with 140,000 pre-orders.
- The Solana Seeker will have a brighter display, longer battery life and better cameras, with a focus on Cryptocurrency users.
Last year’s launch of the Solana Saga smartphone was a big bet by Solana Labs that initially didn’t seem to be paying off. But a surge in demand late in the year, driven in part by the rising value of airdrops of tokens tied to it, liquidated the remaining stock and raised questions about what would come next.
Next up is “Chapter 2.” Revealed in January, just weeks after the airdrop craze that revitalized the Saga’s fortunes, the next Solana phone is set to launch in mid-2025 as the Solana Seeker after already attracting 140,000 pre-orders.
Solana Mobile, the Labs division behind the hardware, revealed official branding and a first look at the upcoming Android phone on stage at Token 2049 in Singapore on Friday.
Solana Seeker. Image: Solana Mobile
And it is different. The previously announced pre-order price of $450 — less than half that of the Saga — might have suggested as much, but Solana Mobile General Manager Emmett Hollyer told Decrypt that we shouldn’t judge the Seeker by its much lower price point.
“We’ve set it very aggressively because we want it to be accessible for growth,” he said, “not necessarily because we see this in any way as a step backward.”
Full hardware specs have yet to be released, but Hollyer said the Solana Seeker will have a brighter “star” display and longer battery life than the Saga, as well as “better cameras,” including a new third sensor built into the back.
Solana Seeker. Image: Solana Mobile
And as for performance, he suggested it will be a “significant step up from the Saga,” in part because it’s been a long time since the Saga’s specs were set in early 2022. The Seeker’s hardware is also “lighter and smaller” than the Saga’s, in part because he believes many users plan to use it as a secondary device rather than replacing their primary phone.
That marks a change in form, as well as a pivot in messaging, which Hollyer said was based in part on feedback about Saga and emerging use cases such as running node software and Mining tokens for decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs). The name Seeker, he explained, was inspired by the idea of users trying to “find new opportunities,” whether it be rewards, experiences or connections.
“People are constantly looking for that stuff,” he said, “so it came to mind very, very quickly.”
He admitted that the focus around the Saga may have been confusing as to its focus on cryptocurrencies. But with 140,000 people having already made deposits for the Seeker, they are confident that there is a growing pool of potential users, and that this phone will be aimed at new and established crypto users, rather than the general public.
“I don’t expect this to be a device that we’re pushing to the masses, like, ‘Hey, use an Android phone and maybe try out some of the cryptocurrency features,’” Hollyer said. “I’d love to get there, but I think we really need to get this right, and learn a lot from our users before we can start appealing to the masses.”
Solana Mobile 2.0
Amid all the changes, though, some elements of the Seeker are very similar to the Saga. Cryptocurrency integration is again powered by the Seed Vault, a custom custody solution built within a secure environment on the phone. This time it stands out visually in the phone’s design, as seen in product images, in a shiny cutout wrapped around the right side of the frame.
Solana Seeker. Image: Solana Mobile
In addition to the Seed Vault itself, Solana Mobile has designed a custom software wallet for the Seeker in collaboration with Solflare, promising what Hollyer described as a “better user experience” compared to the wallets currently available on the Saga.
They’ve also seen substantially increased interest from Solana developers and builders in launching mobile decentralized applications (dapps) alongside the Seeker. Only 20,000 units of the Saga were produced, but with Seeker pre-sales already reaching a multiple of 7x that, he said developers have more incentive to dedicate time and resources to mobile.
“Frankly, we’ve been inundated by the scope of the ecosystem,” he said.
Finally, as with the Saga, each Seeker phone will ship with a Genesis NFT, a token eternally tied to the owner’s wallet. The Saga pioneered this model, and quickly proved to be a “rewards magnet” for owners, as Hollyer described it, thanks to the BONK memecoin surging in value late last year and other projects that also rewarded owners.
All of those incentives were driven by the community, he said, and there has been a huge wave of interest from Solana builders to tap into Seeker’s audience as well. While there will undoubtedly be rewards, he also expects projects to offer exclusive access and experiences to owners.
“It will of course be a rewards magnet,” Hollyer said, “but it will also open up some doors of unique experiences that I think will be new to the Seeker compared to the Saga.”
Edited by Guillermo Jimenez
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