Solarin smartphone launches offering ‘military grade’ security for just £11,400

Israeli startup Sirin Labs has launched what it calls ‘a military-grade super smartphone’, a premium device with a premium price tag of £11,400.

Solarin has been in development for a couple of years and at the launch event in London, co-founder Moshe Hogeg revealed that the device was born of a desire to make the best smartphone possible regardless of the cost. As well as top specs and industrial design, they identified security as a major, under-served demand among the discerning high-end smartphone user. “We do not accept that price drives what’s available in technology,” he said. “With Solarin, we break the rules.”

The security secret sauce is Zimperium mobile threat protection, which it’s claimed incorporates privacy technology so advanced you can’t currently get it outside of security agencies. There’s military-grade 256-bit AES encryption and a special switch on the back that puts the phone into ‘shielded mode’ and raises the encryption level further yet.

“Cyber-attacks are endemic across the globe,” said Tal Cohen, the other co-founder. “This trend is on the increase. Just one attack can severely harm reputations and finances. Solarin is pioneering new, uncompromising privacy measures to provide customers with greater confidence and the reassurance necessary to handle business-critical information.”

Other highlights include support for 24 LTE bands, WiGig and 2×2 MIMO wifi, a 23.8-megapixel camera, a 5.5” IPS LED 2k resolution screen and 90dB speakers. It seems to run a skinned version of stock Android. The claim to a top spec list is somewhat undermined by the presence of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, with the 820 having been available for a while, but they stressed this is just the first of many devices and inferred the next one would run an 820.

There is a rich history of mobile phones for the person who has everything, most notably Nokia’s Vertu line. Even the most expensive iPhone will cost you less than £800 so they seem to have decided that anyone willing to pay a grand will probably pay ten. They clearly spent a bit on the launch event, including getting Rachel Riley from Countdown to host it, and that phone is not meant for the mass market, obviously.

The Solarin will go on sale at a special Sirin Labs store in Mayfair from Tomorrow and at Harrods in a month. This tells you everything you need to know about the target audience and unless you’re someone with the lifestyle to require military-grade security and have 11k to spend on it, you might want to slum it with the rest of us.