Saga Review Experience: An unfinished flagship smartphone, a bold Web3 experiment
Original author: Yobo, Foresight News
Before we start, thanks to Daniel from the Solana Foundation for his international delivery service, which allowed me to experience this hard-to-find phone. I hope he doesn't block me after reading this.
Saga is cool, both in terms of its backstory and the special meaning it brings to Web3 through Solana.
However, Saga is not good enough, at least not as a flagship phone. It falls far short in terms of completeness.
In 2014, Andy Rubin, known as the father of Android, left Google and took away a whopping $90 million in severance pay. Yet, his legendary life hit a somewhat rough turning point. In 2017, Andy launched the first Essential Phone, which is still sought after by tech enthusiasts today due to its association with the "father of Android." However, Essential's poor product design and unreasonable official price did not inspire enough Android users to invest in it for their beliefs, and Essential soon declared bankruptcy.
In 2021, some members of the Essential team once again entered the smartphone market under the brand OSMO and announced their first phone, the OSOM O V1. However, their story of resurgence is still full of obstacles. In June of last year, OSOM officially changed the name of the O V1, and the protagonist of this article, Saga, emerged.
The Snapdragon 8+ is the predecessor flagship processor, with only a dual-camera setup. Since the Snapdragon 845 era (Qualcomm's flagship chips have gone through 7 iterations and a complete cycle from Ice Dragon to Fire Dragon and back to Ice Dragon), we haven't seen a rear fingerprint module on a flagship-level phone. At a time when Sony managed to fit a 5000mAh battery in a body weighing less than 190g, Saga comes with a 4200mAh battery, weighing a whopping 247g. It's a series of unimaginable combinations in terms of specifications, coupled with a price tag of $1000. Are we supposed to suffocate ourselves in faith this time around?
With a head full of question marks, I played with this phone for a few days. Although the overall hardware shortcomings have pinned its potential to a not-so-high level, some novel attempts may really attract a small group of tech enthusiasts who may be "killed" by curiosity.
Getting back to the point, let me first talk about the most essential part of the Saga product's premium - "Solana ecosystem" and "Seed Vault + dApp App Store".
(PS: If you are more interested in the product itself, you can skip the next section and go straight to the regular unboxing part. But a friendly reminder, after skipping and finishing reading, please remember to come back to this position and read about the most important reason why Saga can go from O V1 to Saga.)
Solana, Seed Vault, and everything you can't see on a regular phone
The Seed Vault hosting solution is an important feature that you can perceive when you first open Saga and activate it. The wallet mnemonic phrase will be stored in a secure local environment and support operations such as quick signature with fingerprint. During the process of activating the phone, you will be prompted to create or bind a Solana wallet. Users familiar with wallet operations should have no barriers, just import the mnemonic phrase.
The supported wallets by default include Phantom and Solflare. Wallet binding is not difficult. In the case where the Seed Vault has been set up, you only need to verify and confirm with your fingerprint.
After binding, you can receive 20 USDC and 0.01 SOL tokens to lower the threshold for new users to experience Solana ecosystem applications. In addition, you can also claim Saga commemorative NFT airdrops.
As of writing, the built-in dApp app store on mobile phones has launched 36 applications, covering wallet, DeFi, NFT, social, audio, games, and browsers.
I tried out Magic Eden briefly, and using fingerprint for signature verification is simple, but during the verification process, there are occasional errors that require multiple attempts. It would require more time to verify if this is due to isolated network issues.
In addition to the launched applications, Saga also supports opening Solana applications directly in the browser and calling Seed Vault to quickly link wallets for interaction. However, compared to dApp applications that have been launched, the probability of failure is higher with this operation, and there are also cases where clicking the connect wallet button is completely ineffective for some applications.
I encountered a situation where Google Play warned of risks when downloading applications from the dApp app market. Web2 and Web3 really don't get along (facepalm.jpg).
I specifically tried out Minty fresh, which was "commended" by the official as a dApp that can generate NFTs with one click from images or camera shots. The interaction logic is very simple: connect wallet - select image - mint. However, several images I tested failed to be successfully minted due to unknown errors. Due to limited time, I was unable to thoroughly solve the problem. Currently, Web3 applications have indeed implemented some user-friendly features, but the issue of user experience remains a long and challenging road.
However, Saga at least shows us another possibility beyond the Apple App Store and various Android app stores, a possibility that bypasses complicated review processes and allows creators and developers to more directly unleash their imagination and further narrow the gap between application publishers and users. Isn't this exactly the goal that Web3 wants to achieve?
Starting with the most frequently used mobile phone in daily life, simplify the interaction logic on the mobile end, so that more people can directly access excellent dApps within the on-chain ecosystem. Solana's attempt may still seem clumsy at the moment, but I think the future imaginative space is worth looking forward to.
Let's start the unboxing seriously
Next, forget about the platform on which this article is published. Let's return to the content that a normal mobile phone unboxing should have.
The size of the mobile phone packaging box should indicate that it is also environmentally friendly. Forget about the charger; the plastic packaging quality is worrying. It is definitely unqualified for a price of a thousand dollars, but the wild United States may not care about these things.
Compared to hasty plastic wrapping, the sliding design of the packaging itself is much more comfortable, and it deserves full marks for not using a very stupid snap-on lid.
I took everything out and took pictures to commemorate. Except for the phone itself, everything else should never leave the cabinet again.
I have been using the iPhone 12 Pro and Flip 3 combination for the past six months, so my first impression of the Saga is its heaviness. The overall quality is better than expected, the metal treatment of the frame is excellent, the 2.5D glass ensures a smooth edge sliding without any sharpness, and the matte metal finish is much better than the glossy stainless steel that Apple has been using for years in terms of fingerprint resistance, which is a relief for those with OCD. Needless to say, the ceramic back feels even better, except that it is not as good as some specially treated glass in terms of fingerprint resistance, but the warm sensation of ceramic is clearly felt when held.
Although the current trend of exploding mobile imaging has led to increasingly outrageous protrusions of rear camera modules, the Saga's rear camera bump is not too high. However, because the module is triangular in shape, the bottom of the bump is a small triangular corner, which is clearly felt when operating the phone on a flat surface with the screen facing up. It can be solved by adding a phone case, but I searched on X Bao and couldn't find one. Besides, it's already heavy enough, so I'll stick with going bare.
One minor disappointment is that the front camera does not have a black coating, and I even suspect it was designed in this silver ring style. This kind of blatantly disruptive behavior undermines the overall unity and is a bit confusing.
Translated content:
The three side buttons have been processed into green color with a lively feeling. However, firstly the green color seems to have nothing to do with Solana, and secondly, the power button is so small and placed in the golden position of the right thumb. I have been accidentally pressing the volume down and power buttons frequently these past few days, so the bonus points have been successfully brought back to a level of neither good nor bad.
Power on.
Activation requires scientific internet access, otherwise, Wi-Fi will keep reminding that it cannot access the network, even if you skip online activation and enter the system directly. But in fact, accessing websites within the Great Firewall is not a problem, so you can figure out what you can do without me continuing to explain, right?
The system is a standard stock Android, with Android 13 out of the box. I don't know how many major version upgrades the official can push. The factory only has Google apps, and nothing else, very comfortable.
The screen has three refresh rate options (60, 90, 120). The first impression of the fineness is still good, after all, the 2400✖1080 resolution can be called a 2K screen for domestic manufacturers.
However, the color of this screen is a bit explosive, with a serious red cast under a light background, and it is like this at all brightness levels. I feel that's why this device defaults to dark mode. As a light mode user, I briefly used it for a few hours and switched back to dark mode honestly.
The rear fingerprint registration requires approximately 15-16 attempts for one finger, which is not surprising for a "nostalgic" operation.
As for the camera, the main camera is the IMX 766 that Huawei has polished. However, without the algorithm, it's already outdated, as it was released over two years ago, so don't expect too much. The wide-angle camera is the IMX 373, which is the sensor used for the front camera of the Xiaomi 6 X released five years ago. You could say it's "retro" or "not retro," depending on your perspective. Here are a few sample images I randomly took, focusing on color reproduction rather than composition.
The overall style is a standard saturation warrior, and it's not surprising that the 766 lacks Huawei's algorithms and appears old-fashioned. Under this operation, the large red areas in Figure 4 become blurry. The details are not good even in well-lit conditions, and they have been compressed several times, so it's hard to see the details. The flower parts in the original image in Figure 2 have a noticeable oil painting effect. In scenes that can already be handled by budget phones, there is a noticeable difference in the main camera. The antique wide-angle lens and night scenes are not worth looking forward to. Let's take a look at two sample photos.
This wide-angle lens, both in terms of center image quality, edge image quality, edge anti-distortion algorithms, and anti-purple fringing, is not up to par. It perfectly presents the image quality level of front-facing cameras from 5 years ago.
As for night scenes, ummm, because I turned on night mode in an environment that wasn't that dark, I got the left image, while the right one was taken randomly with the S 23 Ultra default mode. I don't really know what else to say.
Here's an interesting point. Saga missed a content change when customizing the system, and the product name of OSMO is still visible in the camera.
With such a large screen and high refresh rate paired with a battery of less than 4200 mAh, poor battery life is inevitable. The daily screen-on time is basically around 4 hours. It's not a problem if you can charge it while sitting at your desk every day, but it becomes an added worry once you go out. Charging speed is also far behind domestic Android phones; most of the power is probably used for the ceramic and middle frame.
A major issue is that although the phone supports wireless charging, the wireless charging coil position needs to be precise. The Xiaomi 80W I'm using is very friendly to my iPhones and Samsung phones; I can simply place them down and charge without worry. However, with Saga, the placement needs to be very precise, and the connection often breaks during charging, leading to an awkward user experience.
As for external performance, front-end effects, and gaming experience, I won't go into detailed explanation here. From the perspective of temperature control performance, it can be considered as an 8+ performance without too many restrictions. Games like Genshin Impact, which are at the level of benchmarking software, can definitely be played with an 8+ device. However, it may not be comfortable to play continuously. I believe no one would choose a small battery phone like this as their gaming powerhouse. It is not meaningful to elaborate too much on non-targeted usage scenarios.
Conclusion
If we ignore the support from the Solana ecosystem, considering the pricing strategy of domestic Android phones, such a flagship chip device, even with the 12+ 512GB configuration combination, ceramic back cover, and craftsmanship, it would be difficult to justify a price higher than 3000 RMB. This means that more than half of the price of this phone needs to be reflected in the Solana ecosystem.
Therefore, the real question you need to think about before purchasing this phone is whether you are willing to pay for this deep integration of interactive experience and Solana ecosystem applications. Or, are you willing to pay for the attempt to break the homogenization and over-concentration of the mobile phone market through opening up the on-chain application channel?.
However, after a simple experience of three days, I have already put the SIM card from my Flip 3 into the Saga, making it my primary Android device. After all, as a digital product enthusiast, what I want is for the technological iteration of smartphones to not make products become more and more boring. Even if it is wishful thinking, I am willing to pay for those bold attempts. Saga is not good enough, but it has given me the desire to "play with" a phone that I haven't felt in recent years. And next, I am looking forward to more surprises from the Solana ecosystem.
