Earlier this weekend, HTC broke its silence and officially unveiled the Exodus 1s. The phone, which was announced at the Lightning conference in Berlin, Germany, is a follow-up to the brand’s Exodus 1, but with some noticeable differences.
One of those differences is the cost of the phone; where the Exodus 1 costs 0.15 BTC (~RM4972), the Exodus 1s will retail for just €219 (~RM1023), which is a fraction of its predecessor’s pricetag. In addition to the lower asking price, Phil Chen, decentralised Chief Officer at HTC, says that the phone will also come pre-installed with several cryptocurrency-related features that will enable users to “exchange, lend, and borrow digital assets”.
Of course, at that price point, the Exodus 1s is clearly not designed to be a powerhouse. Whereas the original Exodus housed a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, the Exodus 1s comes with a Snapdragon 435, 4GB RAM, and 64GB of expandable storage. On top of that, it still runs on a tweaked version of Android 8.1 Oreo.
On the outside, the Exodus 1s sports a single 13MP main camera, while the selfie camera also uses a 13MP sensor. Additionally, the phone uses a 5.7-inch HD+ display, and last but not least, the phone is powered by a 3000mAh battery.
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What really sets the Exodus 1s apart from the first Exodus is its ability to run a “full bitcoin node”. Simply put, the feature would enable users to verify all transactions of an underlying bitcoin network. And allow cryptocurrency wallets on the phone to calculate and verify future transactions. The one caveat to this feature, though, is that owners will need to dish out for a 400GB microSD card.
In regards to its availability, HTC says that the Exodus 1s will first be made available in Europe, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. With other countries to be named soon. At the time of writing, HTC didn’t specify if the phone could be paid for with real currency, but a quick check on the official page shows that at this moment, only the “Crypto” payment option is available.
(Source: HTC, TechCrunch, CNBC)
