Co-founder and CEO of blockchain startup Solana, Ukrainian Anatolii Yakovenko, announced the launch of a Saga-based smartphone in New York, reports TechCrunch.

“This is what I fundamentally believe the industry should do,” Yakovenko said. “We didn’t see any cryptocurrencies at the Apple Developers Conference after 13 years of Bitcoin.”

People will pull out their laptops in the middle of a date so as not to miss the opportunity to mint NFT, Yakovenko joked. “That’s why I think it’s time for cryptocurrencies to move to mobile platforms,” Yakovenko added.

The Saga smartphone aims to implement digital asset products and services so that users can easily make transactions with their cryptocurrency through the device, rather than a browser for the laptop.

In addition to the Saga announcement, Yakovenko shared the launch of the Solana Mobile Stack, or SMS, which is a web3 layer for Solana created on a smartphone. It will consist of a number of products, including a data warehouse, a Solana Pay wallet for Android and a decentralized dApp app store.

A number of crypto companies, including FTX, Phantom, and Magic Eden, will work with SMS, and Solana has raised $10 million for developers to stimulate software development.

Yakovenko said that the $1,000 Saga smartphone will be available for pre-order with a deposit of $100, and its delivery will begin in the first quarter of 2023.

The Saga smartphone is being developed by Essential Phone employees based on the OSOM OV1 model with a metal-ceramic body, which is built on the Qualcomm platform with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor with 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.

The Saga is also equipped with a 6.55-inch pAMOLED screen with FHD+ resolution, a refresh rate of 120 Hz, and a brightness of 700 nits.

The device uses two main cameras: 50-megapixel wide-angle Sony IMX7666 and 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle Sony IMX373. There is also a front-facing 15-megapixel selfie camera.

The set of wireless modules in Saga is standard: WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and support for 5G networks. GPS and GLONASS satellite system modules can be used for positioning.

The smartphone received a 4100 mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 5.0 and wireless charging. Its dimensions are 166.2×75.9×7.99 and it weighs 195 grams.