Sirin Labs' $17,000 Solarin Phone Finally Launches, But Is It Worth it?

Sirin Labs' $17,000 Solarin Phone Finally Launches, But Is It Worth it?

How much is too much for a cellphone that claims it is the most secure in the world? According to Sirin Labs, the maker of the Solarin handset, that price is $17,000 and a queue of celebrities are in line to snap one up.

At the London launch earlier this week, superstars Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hardy were on hand to lend their support, Hardy talking about the extreme lengths hackers will go to in order to monitor his cellphone activity.

According to the British actor, he ‘burns’ his phones all the time, relying on several cheap handsets and mobile numbers to protect his privacy. It’s not surprising that such personalities will pay top dollar for a handset if it can guarantee security.

But is the Solarin worth the money? Sirin Labs, the company behind it, certainly seems to think so. The product has been in development for two years at the company’s facilities in Sweden and Tel Aviv and it has spent $72 million in the process.

The company says that is made up of more than 2,500 inner components and can fight off any array of advanced device, network and application mobile cyberattack, without impairing functionality of its smartphone.

It also says that it incorporates the ‘most advanced privacy technology, currently unavailable outside the agency world’. It partnered with KoolSpan to integrate chip-to-chip 256-bit AES encryption, the same technology used by the world’s most advanced militaries.

“Cyberattacks are endemic across the globe. This trend is on the increase. Just one attack can severely harm reputations and finances. We are pioneering uncompromising privacy measures to provide customers with the reassurance necessary to handle business-critical information”, said Tal Cohen, CEO and Co-founder, Sirin Labs.

The power specs are impressive. The Solarin is is powered by a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 810 processor with X10 LTE and Wi-Fi, and offers up to 450 Mbps downlink and up to 150 Mbps uplink speeds, coupled with support for 24 bands LTE compatibility.

It supports 802.11ac 2×2 MU-MIMO (multi user multiple input, multiple output) technology, offering up to three times the speed and capacity of conventional 1×1 configuration and incorporates WiGig™ (802.11ad) multi-gigabit Wi-Fi technology with speeds of up to 4.6Gbps, enabling near-instant cloud access.

Naturally, it also looks the part. It has titanium panels for structural strength, reinforced glass to protect the curved display screen as well as the camera lens and a technical leather back panel.

Moreover, its retail outlets are top end, being available in London’s prestigious store Harrods from June 30th, where the city’s oligarchs, celebrities and sheikhs are regular shoppers.

Is there a market for such a phone? Clearly, there is. $17,000 is small bills for those who have everything and regard their privacy as sacrosanct. If Hollywood stars such as Tom Hardy have to resort to extreme measures by burning phones and changing numbers, a luxury handset such as the Solarin is worth the price.

For other mortals such as you and me, we shall have to make do with our iPhones and Androids, but happy that we are not important enough to be hacked.

Fame and prestige have many drawbacks, but the Solarin will certainly help to sugar that particular pill. That $72 million in research is probably money very well spent.