Solana's Android phone is now in the hands of thousands of people after being unveiled last year. We spoke to several users to gather their feedback on the phone.
While most layer-one projects target developers in the non-fungible tokens and decentralized finance market, Solana is carving out a niche in the mobile industry, known for devouring and spitting out challengers.
About a year ago, Solana first introduced its plan to disrupt the telecoms space with Saga, a new Android phone. Additionally, they released the Solana Mobile Stack, a set of libraries for developers to create mobile-first decentralized applications on the blockchain.
Currently, Saga is being used by a few thousand individuals, but it has already made an impact on the workflow of various crypto enthusiasts, including developers, venture capitalists, and even journalists. We spoke with a few users to learn how they have been utilizing the platform.
Upon initial inspection, the device resembles a typical Android phone, but closer scrutiny reveals green accent buttons and a discreetly placed Solana logo on the back.
The phone's "crypto" identity goes beyond the logo; it incorporates built-in functionality throughout. For instance, approving transactions on decentralized applications using fingerprint and seed vault authentication is relatively seamless compared to using Metamask or Phantom on an iPhone.
Emmett Hollyer, head of business operations at Solana Labs, stated that the ultimate goal is to make web3 accessible to any consumer, whether they are crypto-centric, crypto-curious, or otherwise.
According to Cameron Tynes from The Block, the device lives up to Hollyer's claims, describing Saga as offering "by far the smoothest web3 experience I have had, especially considering it is all on mobile."
For venture investor Carl Vogel, a partner at 6th Man Ventures, the Seed Vault and the security it provides are among the phone's benefits.
"It combines the secure elements of hardware wallets with the usability of a mobile device," he said.
Tynes, an Apple iPhone owner, attributes most of the negatives to general issues with Android devices.
"Not being able to use Apple Pay/savings has been my biggest barrier to adopting this as my everyday phone," Tynes added.
The Saga device is part of Solana's broader mobile ambitions, which also include the Solana Mobile Stack. Chris Osborn, co-founder of the secure messaging application Dialect, uses both.
Saga's openness eliminates some of the barriers that exist when building apps within the Apple and Google environments.
"We are already facing challenges getting these experiences approved in the major app stores, and we’ve only barely started," Osborn said, referring to new features for Dialect. "Saga will continue to be the platform on which we can design and ship experiences that are unconstrained by app store restrictions and are best for the user."
The fate of Saga is linked to these developers and the robustness of its app store.
"The challenge lies with Saga and web3 developers in general to create the first wave of these groundbreaking web3 apps," Osborn said.
In Vogel's perspective, Saga provides developers with a third path "to iterate and capture more value."
"While in-app purchases on iOS and Android incur fees of 15%-30%, Saga charges 0%," Vogel explained.
Nonetheless, Solana is primarily focused on Saga rather than direct competition with behemoths like Samsung and Apple.
"Our goal is not to directly compete with Apple and Samsung, but to showcase the potential of a superior web3 experience on mobile," stated Emmett Hollyer from Solana Labs. "We aim to advance the entire space by creating and curating unique experiences that are mobile-first and feel native to a web3 audience."
