Solana Seeker evaluate: Is the $500 crypto telephone value it?

Discover key highlights within the Crypto house. This article dives into: “Solana Seeker review: Is the $500 crypto phone worth it?”.

It’s been two weeks for the reason that worldwide launch of the Solana Seeker, the successor to the Solana Saga. About 150,000 folks have begun receiving their telephones within the mail, and their critiques are trickling in.

As a basic telephone, the Seeker could not flip heads. It’s measurably slower, and most reviewers say the digicam is a far cry from flagship units just like the Samsung S25 Ultra or the iPhone 16 Pro.

The Solana Seeker includes a grey matte backing that feels premium within the arms. (Cointelegraph)

As a crypto telephone, the jury’s nonetheless out. The Seeker is arguably miles forward of the rest on account of its “Seed Vault,” which permits customers to securely retailer their Solana property.

But there are only some apps that assist this, and the juicy airdrops that turned the Solana Saga into an in a single day success are noticeably missing for the Seeker.

But issues are set to vary shortly and for the higher in September with “Seeker Season,” which brings a raft of latest apps, experiences and advantages for Solana Seeker house owners.

So, is the Solana Seeker a superb telephone? Is it a superb crypto telephone?

Over the previous week, I’ve gathered on-line critiques and reactions to the Solana Seeker whereas conducting my very own exams to reply that query.

Solana Seeker evaluate: How does it carry out as a telephone?

The Seeker is unlikely to blow the socks off tech reviewers like Marques Brownlee, who known as the Solana Saga the “bust of the year” in 2023. 

At the time, Brownlee slammed the telephone’s subpar digicam, buggy software program, inconsistent fingerprint scanner and jaunty price ticket. 

“This becomes the perfect embodiment of crypto in 2023, at best, ahead of its time. At worst, completely useless to most everyday people and gives whatever else is going to follow it an even harder uphill battle,” he mentioned on the time.

Two years later, we now have the Solana Seeker in our arms. While there are components of it which can be truly worse than the Saga on paper, I didn’t discover this impacting my expertise. There are additionally a number of locations the place the Seeker will get it very proper.

Its inside storage has shrunk from 512 gigabytes to only 128 GB, reminiscence has gone from 12 GB to only 8 GB of RAM, and its processor — the Mediatek Dimensity 7300 — barely loses out in opposition to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which was used within the older Saga.

This wasn’t an issue in my playtesting, which included a spherical of battle royale shooter PUBG Mobile and some chapters of The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land, a turn-based technique sport. However, benchmarking exams point out the telephone might have bother with AAA sport graphics. 

Solana Seeker reached solely 25 frames per second in 3DMARK’s “WILD LIFE” benchmarking take a look at. The Samsung S25 Ultra maxed at 179 FPS. (Cointelegraph)

On the opposite hand, the digicam, as soon as a ache level for the Solana Saga, has vastly improved, going from a 50MP main digicam to 108MP with optical picture stabilization. The selfie digicam has additionally been upgraded from 16MP to 32MP. 

One reviewer, YouTuber Cryptocomix, gave the digicam a 1/10, and in one other video mentioned, “The camera on this thing is pretty rough, but Androids are always like that.”

Other critiques mentioned the digicam is “unlikely to win any awards,” but it surely was “in line with what you’d expect from a mid-range Android Phone,” whereas one other evaluate known as it “good but not spectacular.”

In testing, I discovered the digicam on par or barely higher than my outdated iPhone 13 Pro, the flagship digicam from simply three years in the past, which is greater than satisfactory except you’re a telephone pictures snob. However, the distinction in high quality is noticeable once I put it subsequent to my buddy’s new Samsung telephone. 

Picture captured by Solana Seeker (left), Samsung S25 Ultra (proper). 

Battery-wise, the Solana Seeker boasts a decently massive capability battery that may take round two days of average use (in my testing). 

It’s additionally cheaper than the Saga at simply $500, is smaller and weighs much less, whereas its show has a barely increased decision than its predecessor. 

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Solana Seeker: Is it no less than a superb crypto telephone? 

This is a sophisticated one, so I’ll put it this manner: The Solana Seeker has all of the components to be nice — sort of like crypto — however nobody’s discovered the killer recipe but. 

One of those components is the “Seed Vault,” which makes a return from the Saga. 

“Seed Vault” is their catchy title for the {hardware} wallet constructed instantly into the telephone, which may be accessed with consumer biometrics. Thanks to a “Trusted Execution Environment,” this seed vault is remoted from the gadget’s predominant processor, which means hackers theoretically can’t get into it. 

Thumb placement on the fingerprint scanner is in a extra pure place than its predecessor. (Cointelegraph)

It is arguably the one crypto-centric a part of the gadget that may’t be copied with software program, which units it other than the rest on the market right this moment.

“When you approve a transaction, the signing request and approval are facilitated entirely by this secure environment. Your private keys never leave this isolated hardware, and the main operating system never sees them,” explains Emmett Hollyer, Solana Mobile’s basic supervisor.

“This is the same type of secure hardware that protects mobile payments and biometric data in flagship smartphones,” he provides. 

From a consumer perspective, this implies they’ll really feel slightly safer storing crypto on their units, and because of the Seeker’s thumbprint scanner, they’ll now execute transactions simply by a fast repositioning of their finger. 

Closely tied to all of that is the Seeker Genesis Token and Seeker Wallet. 

The Seeker Genesis Token is a novel soulbound non-fungible token that’s linked to each particular person Seeker telephone and is claimed as soon as a consumer units up their telephone for the primary time. It’s key to proving you’re a Seeker proprietor and is supposed to unlock distinctive perks and rewards sooner or later. 

This Seeker Genesis Token can be what offers customers their very own distinctive Seeker Wallet handle, like “Anatoly.skr,” for instance. New Seeker house owners will likely be prompted to set this up once they activate their units for the primary time, and the method is refreshingly fast and simple. 

Unfortunately, that is the place the new-tech awe instantly stops. 

Setting up a Seeker ID may be accomplished in only a few very fast steps. (Cointelegraph)

Solana DApp retailer, a piece in progress

The Solana Seeker is at the moment let down by its decentralized app retailer, often known as the “dApp Store” — one of many telephone’s large promoting factors.

Hollyer says loads of enhancements are coming down the road in September as extra folks get their arms on their orders.

Solana Seeker’s app retailer is marketed like Solana’s model of Google Play or Apple’s App Store. It options apps constructed on the Solana blockchain and optimized particularly for Solana Mobile customers, sans the predatory 30% dev tax. 

However, whereas the Solana DApp retailer has a formidable 141 apps on supply, spanning buying and selling, NFTs, DePIN and extra, many Seeker customers discover some apps don’t work, significantly with Google logins.

Many additionally don’t at the moment assist the Seeker Wallet, forcing customers to undergo electronic mail registration, which feels outdated compared.

I analyzed over 110 apps on the Solana DApp retailer, discovering that solely round 67 have been up to date someday in 2025, and solely 24 of them have been up to date this month. 

In testing, some apps don’t seem to have any actual performance or are shortcuts to the Brave browser. One app, which claims to pay customers with crypto to coach AI, returned an error message after I spent quarter-hour arduously tagging a photograph to coach the AI mannequin, which means I didn’t earn any rewards. 

The Moonwalk Fitness app, which rewards customers with crypto for hitting step targets, failed to hook up with my health tracker and, as of right this moment, is now perpetually caught within the login display. 

Writer’s replace: I’ve since discovered that there’s a non permanent challenge with utilizing Brave because the default browser, which at the moment has points with the cellular wallet adapter (which is what’s used to attach apps to the Seed Vault).

Emmett Hollyer reveals the Solana Seeker at Solana Breakpoint 2024. (Solana Mobile)

There had been, in fact, many apps that labored effective. Phantom, a Solana wallet app, has the very best variety of critiques on the app retailer, scoring a sturdy 4.9 stars. Jupiter Mobile (a DeFi and wallet app) and Marinade Finance (a liquid staking platform app) had been reportedly additionally working properly (however didn’t in my testing). 

I attempted Candy AI, which permits customers to create distinctive AI-generated movies from prompts and mint them as NFTs. It helps the Seeker wallet and was enjoyable and simple to make use of. HIO Music, a social streaming platform, was additionally a well-polished expertise.

Hollyer says he expects the tempo of improvement to “increase rapidly” now that units are beginning to get into folks’s arms. 

“The real acceleration happens now that devices are shipping. Developers can finally build for a meaningful user base rather than a theoretical one.”

Hollyer additionally factors to Seeker Season, a program they plan to launch in September, introducing new DApps and experiences weekly.

It comes after a month-long Solana Mobile Hackathon, which introduced $100,000 in prizes for tasks to construct for the Solana Seeker, working from July 1 till August 4.

Seeker DApp ecosystem. (Solana Mobile)

So, perhaps the apps aren’t right here but, however no less than you’ll make some cashback with airdrops, proper? Well, I’ve some dangerous information for you there, too. 

Are there Solana Seeker airdrops?

Yes, however not should you simply purchased it. 

If you hope to make a fast buck from airdrops, assume once more. Solana Seeker is noticeably naked on this division, although this might change shortly with Seeker Season.

According to Two Loot, the mixed worth of airdrops aimed toward Solana Seeker holders is about $139.72, however you need to have pre-ordered no less than earlier than April 1, 2024, to be eligible for the most important one (MEW). There have been no new airdrops for the reason that telephone was launched on August 4. 

It’s an enormous distinction from the Solana Saga days, when every holder might declare 30 million BONK tokens per telephone (amongst different airdrops), value round $1,400 at its peak worth. The Saga went from flagging gross sales to fully promoting out in only a few days. 

Solana Saga holders made a killing on airdrops. (Checkphone.xyz)

“Airdrops were definitely part of Saga’s story, but I think that narrative misses the bigger picture, which is that the Solana community discovered the value of being part of an exclusive ecosystem and organically created ways to pursue that,” Hollyer tells Magazine. 

Hollyer says that for the Solana Seeker, this idea has been in-built with the Seeker Genesis Token and the SKR economic system. 

The SKR is the brand new native asset of the Solana Mobile economic system, however not a lot is understood about it apart from that it’ll “power economy, incentives and ownership across the ecosystem.” 

“It’s an evolution of the organic patterns we saw on Saga, one that goes beyond airdrops towards a complete economy.”

“SKR will be a critical element of the Solana Mobile economy, and there will be more details forthcoming soon,” Hollyer provides. 

Final verdict: Buying the Solana Seeker is a guess on good issues to come back

The Solana Seeker improves from its predecessor however continues to be measurably worse than right this moment’s flagship telephones: It’s slower and buggy, and the digicam most likely received’t enable you win any Pulitzer prizes. Meanwhile, the Seed Vault and companion Seeker Wallet aren’t doing a lot with out app assist. 

But let’s be actual: You’re not in crypto since you’re impressed with what it could do now. 

So, should you’re a Solana consumer with spare money or on the lookout for a crypto-first telephone that may do all of it decently properly for $500, it’s a no brainer: You ought to contemplate one. 

“Right now, we’re focused on getting all 150,000+ devices into people’s hands. We think our users will be very excited with what we’ve got planned,” says Hollyer. 

People are nonetheless attempting to scalp the Solana Seeker. (eBay)

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Felix Ng

Felix Ng first started writing concerning the blockchain trade by the lens of a playing trade journalist and editor in 2015. He has since moved into overlaying the blockchain house full-time. He is most desirous about progressive blockchain know-how aimed toward fixing real-world challenges.

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