Sirin Labs offers smartphone users a new Android phone with US military-grade encryption, for a hefty price of $13,900 (plus tax and options). That's seventeen Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge units.
The Swiss-Israeli company has launched its new Solarin smartphone and released details about it on Tuesday, Mashable reports. The expensive smartphone, which the company hails as the world's first true smartphone, was supposedly made for international businesspeople who prioritize information security above anything else.
The phone is believed to be built with encryption technology or "shielded mode" for calls and messages - something that is currently not available outside the agency world, according to the company's press release.
The handset uses 256-bit AES chip-to-chip encryption, which can be turned on and off using a unique Security Switch found at the back.
"Cyber-attacks are endemic across the globe," Sirin Labs CEO and co-founder Tal Cohen said. "Solarin is pioneering new, uncompromising privacy measures to provide customers with greater confidence and the reassurance necessary to handle business-critical information."
The company also talked about the ultra-high price tag on the Solarin."We do not accept that price drives what's available in technology," Sirin Labs President and co-founder Moshe Hogeg declared. With Solarin, we break the rules."
Apart from the super-encryption system of the Solarin, there's nothing else that's notable about it. Mashable notes that the phone's specs is pretty much comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
The Solarin comes with a Snapdragon 810 2gHz eight-core processor, while the Galaxy Edge has a better Snapdragon 820. Solarin is also heavier than the Samsung model and weighs half a pound.
PC Mag reports that the phone is capable of 450Mbps download speed and supports 24 LTE bands. It also has 802.11ad gigabit Wi-Fi, which still depends on whether or not that kind of bandwidth is available in the area, of course.
The Solarin phone is definitely not for the mass market, targeting elite business types with corporate secrets to keep and a lot of money to spend. The phone will go on sale on June 1, at Sirin Lab's retail store in Mayfair, London and June 30 at Harrods, Knightsbridge.
