Solana Launches Seeker Device, Promises It’s More Than a ‘Memecoin Phone’

• Solana Mobile has announced its latest smartphone, the Seeker, which it says is lighter, brighter, has a better camera and a longer battery life for half the price of its previous device.
• Solana says that this time, its new device isn’t going to rely on meme coins to support the device, as happened with its Saga device and the Bonk meme coin.

Solana has announced its latest smartphone: the Seeker. The new device is touted to be faster and more powerful than its predecessor for nearly half the price, and this time, Solana won’t rely on a meme coin rally to hold up its device.

The Solana Seeker has been in development for months, the company says. It describes it as “the definitive web3 mobile device, designed to harmonize hardware & software.”

1/ We’ve been deep in build mode for months, and we’re excited to show you what we've been working on.

Introducing the next chapter of Solana Mobile: the Solana Seeker pic.twitter.com/2UW3Wqhymw

— Seeker | Solana Mobile (@solanamobile) September 19, 2024

The Solana Seeker is the successor to Saga, a smartphone that started out as a complete failure before its fortunes turned around. Saga failed to impress technophiles as it couldn’t compete with other similarly-priced premium devices from the likes of Samsung and Apple. It also failed to capture the crypto crowd as its crypto features were readily available on other non-crypto-native devices. Additionally, it costs way more than most available rivals.

However, it all changed when Bonk, a meme coin built on the Solana network, started to take off. Saga phones came with free airdropped Bonk tokens. This made the tokens it held more valuable than the actual phones, and a scramble soon ensued. At some point, Saga cost five times more than the most premium iPhone, and even then, interested users could still not lay a hand on the device.

In Comes the Seeker: Will Solana Strike the Jackpot?

Solana Mobile says it has learned from its past mistakes. For one, it no longer prices its new smartphone in the premium range. Users can preorder the new phone for $45o, less than half the price of the Saga, at least up until the Breakpoint event in Singapore.

Additionally, it comes with several new features. This includes the Seed Vault Wallet, created by leading ecosystem wallet provider Solflare.

“This mobile-first wallet integrates with Seed Vault for seamless self-custody. Send transactions with a double tap and get a smoother, upgraded UX,” the company says.

Users will also enjoy dApps Store 2.0 where they can track all their rewards in one place. It comes with zero fees and crypto-focused policies, making it an ideal platform for Web3 enthusiasts.

For buying the Seeker smartphone, users get a soulbound Seeker Genesis Token, which Solana says will be a VIP pass to access, rewards and content in the entire ecosystem. The phone will also come with access to dozens of dApps, games, NFT platforms, DePINs and more.

3/ Introducing Seed Vault Wallet, created for Seeker in partnership with @solflare_wallet!

This mobile-first wallet integrates with Seed Vault for seamless self-custody. Send transactions with a double tap and get a smoother, upgraded UX. pic.twitter.com/o0cOnRlBsy

— Seeker | Solana Mobile (@solanamobile) September 19, 2024

SOL trades at $141.83 after surging 10.75% in the past day, the best performance among the top ten coins, for a $66.445 billion market cap.