A new start-up company, Sirin Labs is launching a new super-secure Android smartphone called Solarin with a price tag of $14,000 (£9,500 or AU$ 22,000). The new device promises “military grade” security and is aimed at billionaires, millionaires and business executives who value security and privacy over luxury. At the moment, it is only available from Sirin Labs’ store in the Mayfair and will also be available later this month at high-end department store Harrods, Knightsbridge.
Solarin uses the same chip-to-chip 256-bit AES encryption from security company KoolSpan, currently used by most military smartphones around the world. There is a Security Switch on the rear along with the fingerprint sensor which triggers the ‘Super-Secure’ mode. In this mode, outgoing calls only and messages are securely encrypted; also other hardware features are shut down.
Despite the high price tag, the device does not have the same aesthetics other luxury smartphones but still manages a titanium metal frame and leather material back where the camera/power-button/fingerprint-scanner module are located. Asides the whole security and privacy ish which is the selling point, the fairly thick Solarin weighs 250 grams, runs a heavily skinned version of Android Lollipop OS not Marshmallow and is backed by a sizeable 4000mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge.
It packs a 5.5-inch 1440p 2K IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection, octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB built-in storage space and single SIM Slot. It sports a rear facing 23.8MP camera with Laser Autofocus, Four-tone Flash, f/2.0 aperture and Corning Gorilla Glass lens while the front camera is a 8MP camera with f/2.2 aperture and Flash. Other features includes – 4G LTE connectivity, Wi-Gig 802.11ad, 3 x bass boosted speakers, DAC and Microphones.
