Solana Mobile has just announced the release of a new phone, titled “Chapter 2” which follows on the heels of the initial Saga phone. The Saga phone initially had lackluster sales, reportedly only selling 2,500 units up until early December 2023. Not even a price drop in August 2023 from $1000 to $599 USD could boost sales.
Fortunes would turn quickly for Saga phone on the back of the success of the meme coin $BONK. In June 2023, Saga phone holders were eligible to receive 30 million $BONK tokens as an airdrop by downloading a dapp on Saga. At the time this equated to roughly $10. However, as the price of $BONK rose rapidly in December the airdrop amount was worth more than the price of the phone.
Saga quickly sold out, selling 15,000 units in one day— with phones selling for almost 10x their price on eBay.
Source
Saga phone owners have subsequently received additional airdrops, including a Saga Monkes NFT currently trading at a floor price of >$1300. More airdrops to Saga phone holders are expected to come
With the announcement of the Chapter 2 phone, is it worth pre-ordering?
Let's dive in.

What is the Solana phone/Saga?

Solana Saga is a mobile phone created by Solana in collaboration with Osom (a mobile hardware developer). It is essentially an Android phone that integrates blockchain features natively. This is done in three ways:

• Solana mobile stack — Android developer environment that unlocks developers to build mobile native Dapps and integrate them into the phone
• Seed vault — secure storing of seed phrases
• Dapp Store — Specific app store for crypto applications (e.g., Phantom wallet, OKX etc.)

What is Chapter 2?

There is extremely little detail on what the phone is, what upgrades it has over Saga, or even any features it is offering. Even the official website does not even refer to it as a phone, but rather as a “product”. It is also possible that this is not even a phone at all — rather a tablet or some smart device.
Currently, it is expected to ship in the first half of 2025 — but Solana Mobile has put a strong caveat that this is an estimate only.
The lack of details and clear shipping dates likely points to the fact that Solana Mobile is attempting to leverage the recent hype of the Saga phone to fund the development of a new phone.
Solana Mobile is asking for a deposit that is only refundable in the event the phone does not go ahead — which Solana Mobile has said could be a result of “not enough preorders in your market” or if they do not hit 100k pre-orders.
My suspicion is that they have not yet started the development of the phone, and are looking to 1) Assess market demand and/or 2) Raise enough money to underwrite phone development.

How much does it cost?

Chapter 2 is currently available for a limited time in the Founder Window for a deposit of $450 USD. However, as per the below screenshot, it's possible that the final price may be higher — and you will be required to pay more for delivery.

Is it worth buying?

Case for:

• Airdrops prior to the phone release: You are required to connect your Solana wallet when you pre-order the phone. Particularly for the Founder pre-orders, it's quite likely there will be airdrops for those who pre-order. The most likely candidates are the Solana ecosystem projects listed on the official website (e.g., Backpack, Tensor, and Magic Eden)
• Airdrops when the phone is released: As this is a Solana-owned phone, Solana will encourage other projects to do airdrops when the phone is released to support sales
• Relatively cheap phone: If the price stays at $450 (and it is indeed a phone), it is not particularly expensive for an Android phone (particularly since the Saga did not get terrible reviews, but was criticized for its $1000 price point)

Case against:

• Airdrop dilution: The original Saga sold only 20k units. This version will sell at a minimum of 100k (the preorder threshold for it going ahead). It is relatively safe to expect that the value of airdrops will be lower for Chapter 2 than Saga (noting however the value of airdrops for Saga is estimated to be around 3k currently), as it is spread around a greater pool of owners
• Uncertain timing & cost: The phone is slated to be released in the first half of 2025- but could well stretch later than that. This forces you to spend the money today for a product that could eventually be 2+ years away, and potentially have to pay more for delivery
• Uncertain product and product quality: There is a material risk that 1) You end up with a bad quality phone and 2) You are not buying a phone at all

My take: I am (begrudgingly) going to pre-order the Chapter 2. I do not like supporting this kind of sales model (i.e., asking people to spend $450 without even telling you what the product is). However, my bet is that it will eventually yield airdrops equal to $450, and worst case I end up with a decent phone.

How do you pre-order it?

Currently, you can only pre-order the phone from the official Solana Mobile website.
If you found this article informative, feel free to use my referral link if you end up buying: solanamobile.com/refer/cryptonardez