Got some seriously sensitive information to keep safe and a spare-no-expenses attitude? Then the new Solarin from Sirin Labs is the smartphone for you and your $17,000.
The Solarin is touted as the world’s most secure smartphone. The makers of the Android-based phone packed it with “military-grade” encryption to keep it protected from pretty much anybody trying to break in to swipe your bank account details, trade secrets, nude selfies, or plans for world domination.
The phone’s advanced security measures make it perfect for celebrities, CEOs, and others in high places of power that need to keep sensitive financial and personal information secret at all costs. Well, depending on where you live, anyway.
Sirin Labs is only selling the phone to customers in select countries, presumably in an effort to keep the Solarin out of the hands of terrorists, drug lords, and other potentially wealthy criminals. According to the website, the phone is only currently available in select European countries and Israel.
Sirin Labs launched the phone Tuesday, May 31st at an event attended by actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, which gives you the idea of the sort of people the phone is being marketed to. Right now you can order the phone on the Sirin Labs website, or head to their store in London to pick one up. Upscale London department store Harrods will begin carrying Solarin on June 30th.
In addition to the security measures, the handset boasts some pretty good specs, but the hardware probably doesn’t contribute too much to the steep price tag. Solarin runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor, with 4 GB RAM, and 128 GB on-device storage. It has a 23.8 megapixel camera and a 5.5-inch IPS LED 2K display, which Sirin says is the best smartphone display available on the market today. I’d check it out for myself, but I’m saving up for this bad boy. Oh, and Solarin isn’t available stateside yet.
Zuk Avraham, CEO of Zimperium, whose security software is built into Solarin, told CNN that the phone is not “unhackable,” but Sirin will monitor each phone’s activity 24/7, so at the very least it will be able to identify and defend against any attack as it occurs, without the need for the user to take any action.
Obviously, from my perspective, the idea of a $17,000 smartphone is absurd—and just as absurd as a $17,000 smartwatch—but I guess that’s a small price to pay if it winds up saving you millions, or even billions of dollars in the long run.
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