Solana Seeker Evaluation: A Extra Measured Crypto Cellphone – Decrypt

Solana’s first smartphone, 2023’s Saga, was a giant swing for Solana Labs—and initially a miss with shoppers, at the least till a large worth minimize and crypto airdrop incentives drove sudden, sellout demand months after launch.

Now, the two.0 mannequin has arrived. The new Seeker serves as an try by Solana to ship a extra palatable crypto telephone. It prices half the worth of the Saga at launch, presently promoting for $500, with early pre-orders getting it $50 cheaper. By some measures, it’s expectedly much less strong and ultra-premium than the dear Saga.

However the Seeker hits a a lot better candy spot at this worth, with largely good-to-great {hardware} plus the added crypto options that assist set it aside out of your common Android telephone. It’s nonetheless decidedly area of interest in enchantment, and the state of the Solana dapp retailer doesn’t really feel that totally different from again in 2023, with little to maintain my consideration past buying and selling apps.

However Solana customers don’t should take as a lot of of venture shopping for the Seeker, and if the cell dapp ecosystem improves and/or there are critical airdrops forward, possibly it’ll show to be simply as worthwhile because the Saga was to early adopters. However that’s nonetheless a possibly, for now.

A strong Android

The second it hit your hand, it was clear that the Solana Saga was a beast—heavy and expensive-feeling, due to the ceramic backing, with distinctive visible components.

At half the worth, the Seeker has taken a unique route. A plastic body and glass backing make it extra mid-range in really feel than flagship, although it’s hardly nameless amongst Androids due to the reflective “Seed Vault” cutout on the again and alongside the aspect (which homes the fingerprint sensor), plus a pair of Solana logos.

The 6.36-inch display—whereas smaller than the 6.67-inch show of the Saga—is definitely each brighter and noticeably crisper than its predecessor, with the identical form of dynamic refresh fee (as much as 120Hz) that makes for clean scrolling. That’s a giant win.

The Mediatek Dimensity 7300 chip here’s a step down by way of uncooked horsepower, although, with Geekbench benchmark testing displaying a 33% dip in multi-core and 44% drop in single-core efficiency in comparison with the Saga’s extra highly effective Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 chip.

What does that imply in observe? Not a lot, actually: In on a regular basis use, the Seeker feels snappy and responsive when navigating round Android, shopping the online, and utilizing social media and video apps. It’s not constructed to deal with the glossiest video games at high settings, however by way of day-to-day wants, the Seeker didn’t disappoint. And the beefy 4,500mAh battery ought to get you to bedtime with no top-up, with wi-fi charging right here as a welcome comfort.

Digicam high quality was the one notably underwhelming factor of the Seeker throughout my testing, which is typical at this worth level. Throughout my week of carrying the Seeker round, the three rear cameras—a 108-megapixel principal sensor plus 50MP telephoto (zoom) and 13MP ultra-wide—gave me broadly related outcomes: fairly good pictures when there was lots of pure mild, and routinely tough and blurry snaps in low mild.

The Solana Saga was largely conceived throughout a bull run and finally launched after SOL cratered in worth. In the meantime, the Seeker was created following that collapse, although finally launched after the Solana ecosystem’s monumental comeback.

It is sensible that the Seeker is a extra measured system at a way more cheap beginning worth—and digital camera qualms apart, it did the whole lot I wanted it to as a smartphone.

Room to develop

Just like the Saga, the Solana Seeker is designed from the bottom as much as be a safe crypto pockets due to the Seed Vault, which shops your personal keys and guards transactions behind your fingerprint approval.

The native, Solflare-powered Seed Vault Pockets is simple to make use of, with a double-tap of the aspect button and fingerprint scan used to authorize strikes. Phantom and different wallets may also be added by way of the Solana Dapp Retailer. And the Seeker ID, which supplies you a plain-English .skr pockets identify (or “digital passport”) for sending and receiving crypto, is a pleasant user-friendly contact that might develop into extra helpful in time.

The Seeker is primed to energy a possible world of decentralized, on-chain apps… and but, the Dapp Retailer choice provides me an identical feeling that it did with the Saga again in 2023. Past buying and selling apps like Jupiter, Drift, Vector, and Marinade.finance, there have been few Solana-powered apps or video games that actually grabbed my consideration.

For those who’re actively buying and selling within the Solana trenches, then the Seeker can maintain you within the recreation wherever you might be. However should you’re betting on Solana Cell’s imaginative and prescient of disrupting the Google/Apple duopoly and upending centralized apps and companies with comparable crypto-powered alternate options, then that potential future nonetheless feels far off proper now. A lot of the apps I wanted to speak and keep linked and entertained nonetheless got here from Google’s Android Play Retailer.

However there’s promise, and the Saga confirmed us that being an early adopter to the Solana Cell ecosystem may repay huge time by way of unique token airdrops and entry.

Whether or not the Seeker can recreate that magic—or crucially, broaden upon it—stays to be seen.

Simply 20,000 Saga telephones have been finally made, whereas 150,000 Seekers have already shipped. A bigger group of customers means higher adoption for builders, nevertheless it additionally means dilution and fewer exclusivity for airdrops and rewards. And we’ve but to see how the upcoming SKR token, which can be distributed to each customers and builders, will assist increase progress.

Shopping for a Seeker is a guess that the Solana Cell ecosystem will continue to grow within the coming years, and that the entry and incentives for homeowners will justify the buy-in worth. That’s of venture for now, nevertheless it’s a way more reasonably priced one than the Saga. And should you’re already actively within the Solana world, then selecting up a Seeker appears like a no brainer.