Sirin Labs' Finney: World's first blockchain smartphone launching this November
Finney, the world's first blockchain-powered smartphone, will reportedly launch in select markets in November this year. Designed by Sirin Labs, an Israeli start-up, the Finney smartphone comes with top-end internals, built-in "cold storage" crypto wallet, a secondary display dedicated for cryptocurrency transactions, and a custom OS for enhanced security. Here's everything you need to know about Finney.
The futuristic-looking smartphone, Finney gets a notch display, single rear camera, and a slightly chunky build (measures 9.3mm in thickness). The key design highlight of Finney is its high-tech security-laced secondary slider display screen, that comes up from the back during cryptocurrency transactions. The phone's primary display is a 6-inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, 402ppi resolution, and 95% NTSC color gamut coverage.
The secondary slider touchscreen display, called the Safe Screen, slides from the back, much like OPPO Find X camera. This slider screen also activates the cold storage wallet and comes with physical security as well as a software-backed firewall.
Finney is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, coupled with 6GB RAM, 128GB storage and packs a 3,000mAh battery with fast charging support. You get a 12-megapixel f/1.8 aperture rear sensor with low-light imaging and ultra-fast laser autofocus and an 8-megapixel front camera with f/2.2 aperture. Its connectivity options include 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, single Nano SIM support and NFC.
Running on Sirin OS (based on Android Oreo 8.1), Finney comes with a built-in crypto wallet and a secure token exchange service that automatically converts tokens for decentralized applications. Sirin OS also has a dedicated decentralized app store (Dapps), a multi-layer cybersecurity suite, allows encrypted communications, and P2P sharing of payment and apps which is backed by Sirin Lab's in-house SRN token.
Given the phone is aimed at the mass-adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency, Sirin Labs is selling Finney only through SRN tokens. The phone costs $999 (approx. Rs. 68,500) and is now available for pre-ordering with a 10% discount (deliveries expected in November). Notably, the phone will be available in select markets of UK (London), US and Japan (Tokyo) in November this year.
Sirin Labs has roped in star footballer Lionel Messi as the brand ambassador for its Finney smartphone. Also, the device has been named after late Hal Finney, the famous developer who received the first bitcoin transaction from Bitcoin's creator Satoshi Nakamoto, in January 2009.
