The world's 'most secure' smartphone costs £9,500

The company claims its Solarin smartphone is the "most secure" in the world

Sirin Labs, a startup that's amassed $72 million (£49m) in venture funding, has launched the Solarin, a luxury smartphone with an emphasis on "military-grade" security.

The company, headed by former Google and Sony Mobile alumni Tal Cohen and Fredrik Öijer, will compete with the likes of the encryption-focused Blackphone from Silent Circle, GranitePhone, various BlackBerry options and Samsung's KNOX mobile security software.

Firmly knocking on the door of competitor brand Vertu and its £6,500 Signature Touch high-end mobile, the £9,500 Solarin is supposedly aimed at the “international business person who carries a lot of sensitive information” and “doesn’t want to compromise on usability, quality or design”.
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In terms of security, the Solarin comes with mobile threat protection courtesy of Zimperium, which looks to stop an array of device, network and application-based mobile cyberattacks. Sirin has also partnered with KoolSpan, a company that specialises in mobile voice and messaging security, to build in chip-to-chip 256-bit AES encryption – supposedly the same technology that militaries around the world use to protect communications.

In a neat secret-agent-style function, this protection tech is activated by a "Security Switch" on the back of the handset. Once pushed, the Solarin enters its shielded mode, whereupon it offers up its on-board options for fully encrypted calls and messages.
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"Cyber-attacks are endemic across the globe. This trend is on the increase. Just one attack can severely harm reputations and finances," said Tal Cohen, CEO and co-founder of Sirin Labs.

Aside from security, what does £10,000 buy you in the world of luxury smartphones? The handset boasts Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor with X10 LTE and Wi-Fi (450mbps downlink, 150mbps uplink); support for 24 bands LTE compatibility so it can be a "global phone", plus using 802.11ac 2x2 MU-MIMO the phone can reach three times the bandwidth of a standard smartphone; there's also WiGig Wi-Fi, which pushes data transfer to 4.6Gbps. Qualcomm Quick Charge is included for fast charging, too.

There's a 23.8-megapixel camera, with laser autofocus and four-tone flash (there is a front-facing flash, too). The 5.5in IPS LED 2K screen couples with a sound system that uses three bass-boosted speakers, linked through a "smart amplifier" to maximise volume and control any unwanted distortion.

"Exceptional audio and vision capabilities feature highly on our target audience's wish list," said Cohen.

The phone has been designed by industrial designer Karim Rashid, no stranger to the luxury sector. The Solarin's metal matrix composite chassis (previously seen in the aerospace industry for its rigidity) incorporates titanium panels, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 to protect the curved display screen and camera lens, plus a leather back panel.

The phone will come initially in four flavours: Fire Black Carbon Leather with Titanium; Fire Black Carbon Leather with Diamond-like Carbon; Fire Black Carbon Leather with Yellow Gold; Crystal White Carbon Leather with Diamond-like Carbon.

The Solarin will be sold online, at Harrods and at Sirin Labs' first store in London's Mayfair from June 1, 2016.

Commenting on the release, Gordon Watson from Sirin rival Vertu told WIRED: "I’m delighted to welcome a newcomer to the market. I see it as a positive for the category. Luxury tech is now more prominent than ever before and more and more consumers are being attracted to this end of the market, which can be seen in the raft of luxury wearable launches over the last 12-months."

My comments:

I still said: For that kind of money I could provide a roof over my head. a car and my personal phone still free and not proprietary,