Published in: Blog

Solana Saga 2. Should you buy it?

Author Duy

Published on: February 21, 2024

The Solana Saga 2 has already opened pre-orders and has gone through the initial rounds with special incentives for early adopters. So, what features does this phone have, what improvements does it offer over its predecessor, and is it worth investing in?

Let’s delve into it in the following article.

Table of Contents

The Solana Crypto phone

Solana is a quite famous layer 1 blockchain, and it made a remarkable comeback in early 2024 as the value of the $SOL token (Native token of Solana chain) surged significantly compared to the previous period.

On June 23, 2022, Solana announced their first crypto phone – the Solana Saga 1. A blockchain-focused smartphone that integrates with the Solana network and allows users to access decentralized apps, manage digital assets, and enjoy a secure self-custody solution.

Setting aside its most notable feature of quick connectivity to the Solana network and web3 applications, this phone is actually a very solid product. With a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, a 6.67-inch OLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and running on the Android 13 operating system.

It’s evident that with the launch of the Solana Saga 1 phone, it boasts quite impressive specs. From this, there’s even more reason to believe that the Solana Saga 2 phone will also have very impressive specifications.

The Saga History

The Solana Saga 1 phone had a rather challenging launch. Priced at a not-so-cheap $1,000, the phone faced numerous obstacles upon release, and sales didn’t meet expectations. To address the difficulties in selling the product, they decided to lower the price of their phone to $599.

However, things only started to look up when news emerged that those who own this phone would receive an airdrop of 30 million $BONK tokens, at the time one of the fastest-growing memecoins in the market.

With just the value of the $BONK airdrop alone, the reward from the airdrop exceeded the price of the phone. This sparked a surge in demand for this crypto phone, and not long after, the Solana Saga 1 phone sold out in the US market.

Let’s review the notable airdrops that owners of the Solana Saga 1 phone received (the values here are estimated based on the December 2023 timeframe):

BONK: 30 million BONK tokens, worth about $1,025.
Access Protocol: 100,000 ACS tokens, worth about $3,702.
Samoyedcoin: 10,000 SAMO tokens, worth about $1,063.
Saga Monkes: One Saga Monkes NFT, worth about $1,069

The total value of these airdrops, assuming they were sold at their high prices, is approximately $6,859. This figure significantly surpasses the price of the phone itself. However, it’s important to note that some of these airdrops may have expired or become unavailable, meaning not all Saga owners may have claimed them.

Therefore, the actual value obtained by each Saga owner could vary depending on various factors such as timing, market conditions, and individual actions. Additionally, some Saga owners may have sold or traded their airdrops for other tokens or NFTs. Therefore, the actual value of the airdrops for each Saga owner may vary.

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What to expect for the Solana Saga 2 phone?

Price

You can pre-oder the Solana Saga 2 now, as the time of this blog, the first pre-oder round has completed,

Drawing from the lessons learned from Solana Saga 1, we can expect significant improvements in its next generation. The first noticeable change is the initial price of the Solana Saga 2, which has been reduced to a reasonable level.

Founder Window: $450
Early Adopter Window: $500
Supporter Window: Not opened (as of the time of writing on February 23, 2024)

This price reduction compared to its predecessor’s launch will make the product more accessible to many. The developers also add that the price displayed are covering the taxes and shipment fee (hopefully)

However, the pricing parity with the previous version raises questions about the quality of this new product. Will this phone be equipped with the best features and configurations available at the time of its release?

Specifications

Currently, the specifications of the Solana Saga 2 phone have not been announced. However, based on the specifications of other phones in the same price range and the previous Solana Saga 1 model, we can make the following predictions:

Display: The Saga 2 is expected to feature an OLED display, ensuring high-quality visuals for users.
Performance: It is anticipated to be powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform. Although the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is now available, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 remains one of the most powerful chips on the market, providing smooth performance for web browsing, gaming, and using decentralized apps (dApps) on the Solana network.
Memory: With 12 GB of RAM, the Saga 2 will likely offer seamless multitasking, allowing users to switch between apps without any slowdowns.
Storage: The Saga 2 is expected to come with a generous 512 GB of internal storage, providing ample space for apps, photos, videos, and other files.
Operating System: The previous Saga 1 model came with Android 13, the latest operating system at the time. The Saga 2 will likely come with the current latest version, Android 14.

Expected Airdrops

The reason for the modest performance expectations is quite understandable, as most people interested in owning the Solana Saga 2 phone are primarily concerned about the benefits it brings, specifically the airdrops!

Therefore, expectations for Saga 2 are at least equal to or higher than Saga 1 because the crypto market is very bullish, along with the Bitcoin Halving event looming.

Currently, at least 6 airdrop projects have confirmed airdrops, including:

Drift Protocol
Solend
Helium
Dialect
Step Finance
MonkeDAO

Not to mention that names from V1 could also airdrop to users, such as: Backpack, Phantom, Solflare, Jupiter, Magic Eden, Tensor, DRiP.

In Saga 1, users could only receive airdrops directly on their phones, which was inconvenient due to the risk of theft or long waiting times.

Recognizing this, in Saga 2, all users will receive a Chapter 2 Preorder Token. This token will be sent directly to the owner’s wallet. Instead of waiting for the phone to arrive to receive the airdrop, Saga 2 makes it much easier to receive airdrops.

Pre-order customers will not be able to own this phone until 2025, meaning Solana Mobile will ship this phone to pre-order customers in about another year.

However, one reassuring factor for pre-order customers is the commitment that if there is insufficient pre-order volume or if Solana Mobile decides not to proceed with this project, pre-order customers will receive a full refund of their pre-order amount.

Utilizing the Solana Chain on KEYRING PRO Wallet

KEYRING PRO Wallet is a non-custodial multichain wallet designed for securely storing and managing various blockchain assets. It allows users to connect and interact with different Web3 sites and Dapps across multiple networks through the Wallet Connect infrastructure.

Users can benefit from features such as NFT support, custom chains, and compatibility with NFC hardware. Additionally, the Solana chain is officially supported on the KEYRING PRO Wallet, enabling users to create Solana wallets and manage $SOL directly within the KEYRING PRO Wallet, along with numerous other tokens.

Creating a Solana wallet on the KEYRING PRO Wallet is straightforward: