Back in May, HTC made its initial announcement of a blockchain-powered smartphone called Exodus followed by details around anticipated pricing and availability in the following months. Since then, though, there has been little else in the way of information on the somewhat unique addition to the company's smartphone lineup until now.
For those interested in the handset, pre-orders for the Exodus 1 are now open, with the device sporting a six-inch Quad HD 18:9 display, Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB RAM, and 128GB of onboard storage. In addition, the smartphone will include dual 16-megapixel cameras on the back, dual 8-megapixel cameras on the front, and a 3,500mAh battery. The Exodus 1 also appears to be up for a bit of punishment thanks to its IP68 dust and waterproof rating. Rounding out the headline specs is the inclusion of Android 8.0 Oreo rather than the most recently released Android 9.0 Pie.
Speaking with Mashable with respect to the device's impending release, Phil Chen, HTC's Decentralized Chief Officer, said:
"This is a 1.0 version. The problem we’re solving is obviously very complicated and there’s a reason no one has managed to do it yet. Namely, giving tools to the people to own their own keys and also when they lose they their phone, the ability to recover it. We need the help of the community to harden our wallet and make it more secure. The crypto internet is still in its infant stages, the Exodus is the first attempt to lay the foundation for that internet. And the first step is to empower and educate the consumer to own their own keys."
Furthermore, Chen said that the capability to use the smartphone to run a cryptocurrency node will make an appearance at a "later stage".
From today, HTC has opened pre-orders in a total of 34 countries, spanning the US, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, UK, Austria, Norway, and "other European countries", for an "early access" variant of the Exodus 1 via its website. Perhaps most notably, pricing will be in alignment with the intended purpose of the phone as you won't be able to use fiat currency but, instead, bitcoin or ether will be accepted, with pricing set at 0.15 BTC ($959) or 4.78 ETH ($965).
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