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The Web3 smartphone market is heating up as new kid on the block, XProtocol, introduces its Ethereum phone, XForge.
Dubbed the world's first DePIN phone, the Android-powered smartphone is optimized for gaming and has a focus on entertainment.
Featuring 256GB of storage, 12GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, the XForge will use the layer-3 network for earning rewards and participating in airdrops.
XProtocol is built on Coinbase's layer-2 scaling network, Base, and plans to eventually migrate to its own layer-1 network to achieve “greater autonomy and scalability.”
Blockhead
The network intends to be powered by software running on XForge as well as Xardian Nodes.
Priced at $299, XForge undercuts the recently announced Solana Seeker, the successor to Solana Saga. Additionally, users can earn a free node for every 10 XForge devices purchased through referrals, plus 10% commission on every sale.
Revealed last week at Token2049 in Singapore, Solana Mobile said the new phone has attracted 140,000 presales across 57 countries.
Blockhead
Early Founder pricing at $450 for Solana Seeker presales was available until September 21, 2024.
The first Saga phone was released in May 2023, priced at $999, before dropping in price to $599 (see here for our review. Spoiler: we weren't impressed). The device had dated specs, and with Solana Mobile saying its dApp store would be compatible with any Android device in the future, the phone wasn't so unique after all.
An astronomical surge in Solana-backed memecoin BONK, of which 30 million tokens were loaded onto every Saga phone, led to the Saga being sold out.
Blockhead
XProtocol announced that it raised $800,000 in a strategic funding round in July, totalling $5.2 million in raised funds. Saison Capital, Dragonfly, Razer and Caballeros Capital are among the other participants.
“XProtocol is pioneering a new era in blockchain technology,” said Saison Capital Partner Qin En, in a statement. “By combining the accessibility of mobile devices with the power of decentralized networks, XProtocol is setting a new standard.”
Although XForge comes in at a cheaper price than Solana Seeker, its price point is almost three times that of the new Jambo phone, which has the Aptos and Solana ecosystems integrated.
Revealed at Solana Breakpoint over the weekend, Jambo said its JamboPhone 2 will be priced at just $99 - the same as the previous edition. According to the team, their first device, the JamboPhone, is now the most globally distributed Web3 mobile phone.
Perion Lim
The device is integrated with the Aptos network via pre-installed apps, such as the Aptos-compatible wallet Petra. It also aims to educate users about Web3 markets including DeFi and gaming.
Building on that success, the JamboPhone 2 introduces advanced improvements like the next-generation JamboGPT, fine-tuned specifically for crypto knowledge in real-time powered by the most cutting-edge large language model (LLM).
