Everything you need to know about Solana Saga is here. Solana Saga launched in April 2023. Can users profit by using Saga for crypto transactions? Follow us on the digital currency site to receive the latest articles about the crypto market and more.
Solana Network launched its Web3 mobile phone in April 2023. The phone has all the usual functions that users have come to expect from a smartphone and adds a Web 3 experience to it. It includes a decentralized application store (DApp) and integration between crypto wallets and DApps.
The phone has been up for pre-order for several months, and those who pre-ordered have enjoyed airdrops like Saga Pass. Saga Pass holders also received several art airdrops in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). On April 13, 2023, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko took the stage to announce the launch of the phone and its features.
Due to supply chain challenges, Saga was delayed in reaching its European users. Even when US users started getting their phones in April, it took a while for those on the other side of the Atlantic to get theirs.
The green buttons, ceramic back and stainless steel frame make this phone look like a normal phone. The operating system of this phone is Android and it was produced by OSOM, which was presented at the presentation ceremony along with the founder of Solana.
This phone has a set of hardware elements. It has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with 1080p resolution and 120Hz display. The processor used is Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 with 12GB of RAM. The phone’s camera takes good pictures, although an objective analysis of how it compares to an iPhone or Samsung camera is beyond the scope of this article.
Setting up the phone is very fast. The setup process involves creating a Solana wallet and a repository where the seed phrase is stored. Users can then rely on their fingerprints (biometrics) to unlock their wallets and sign transactions. Seed vault is a fundamental feature that sets it up for the Web3 experience. This phone works like any other Android phone and therefore, the basic settings are no different from a normal Android phone.
The Saga phone has a DApp store based on Solana. The app store provides its users with access to a number of applications on the Solana network, including gaming, NFTs, and decentralized finance (DeFi). When the phone launched, there were no more than a dozen apps. But now it has been added to their number.
Setting up the commonly used Phantom wallet on the Solana network is completely seamless and simple. However, some users have encountered problems downloading other apps on the phone. In April and May 2023, the DApp Store had a few updates that seem to have fixed these issues.
Saga brings the Solana user experience to life by providing exclusive access to multiple DApps. Initially, Saga users receive a genesis token that helps the Solana DApps ecosystem identify loyal users and reward them over time. On the practical side, transactions using Phantom Wallet to exchange USD coins with Solana using the fingerprint sensor were completely seamless.
Another key application worth mentioning is Dialect, a Web3 messaging application using NFT tags. Solana’s compact NFT technology makes it very cost-effective to mint an NFT. The Dialect app also sports a collection of NFT tags that can be used in messages.
Apart from these exclusive and integrated user experiences, the Solana Mobile team has also announced significant airdrops. For example, Claynosaurz, one of the top NFT communities by market cap in Solana, is doing an airdrop for users who pre-ordered the phone.
Each phone costs $1,000, which is a big ask from a cash-strapped Web3 user in the depths of a bear market. Usually, it’s Solana loyalists, cash-rich and Solana-curious, who usually seek this innovation.
While the fingerprint sensor is useful and intuitive, it’s still not the same as facial recognition, which is perhaps a more intuitive and immediate experience. Saga does not support e-Sims either. For users who travel often and may need to use two or three mobile numbers on one phone, e-Sims is very useful. One of the key sectors expected to bring 1 billion users to Web 3 is gaming.