When the name Saygus is mentioned, many people think "dream high [specs] and pay less [prices]". To r/Android, it went from a darling to a pariah. On this sub, many of us already knew the skinny.

As a history lesson, the original Saygus V¹ - first outed in late-2009, it claimed to have the top-end of the then-current hardware all in a phone running Android. Perusing Engadget here:

...624MHz PXA310 XScale core, 512MB of Flash on board coupled with 256MB of RAM, 3.5-inch capacitive WVGA touchscreen, WiFi, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, front-facing VGA camera and -- of course -- EV-DO Rev. A support. The current incarnation is running Android 1.6, but it should be running 2.0 by the time of its launch next year...

No word on price or a firm release date.

Intrigued yet? Engadget thought so too when Saygus teased the V² that promised seemingly the same strategy:

The smartphone will come with a 5-inch 1080p display, quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon processor (the chipset is unknown, but we'd guess 801), 64GB onboard storage and expandable memory that will "best any competitor," 60GHz Wireless HD for low-latency wireless HD streaming, Qi wireless charging, 3D audio, a high-end camera with OIS, root access and a new type of biometric scanner on the right side of the device. It also says that it has a 3,500mAh battery, but a mysterious new tech is supposed to extend its life by 50 percent.

Given its curious history with the vPhone, Saygus has a lot to prove. It's not easy to pick a company off of the ground after its first and defining device turns into vaporware, but that's exactly what Saygus is setting out to do. It took a year and a half to get certified by Verizon, by which time the device was completely obsolete and largely forgotten....

r/Android search on Saygus, sorted by date (newest first)

Notes: I'm not doing NP links if the threads are over 6-months old (standard Reddit time limit archive setting). Even if you wanted to, you can't vote or comment on those threads anyways. Each paragraph in the quotes represents a single comment unless otherwise indicated.

V² "hands-on":

If this thing is actually released with all advertised specs, it would be a total flagship killer. Id ditch my N5 for one. (+40)

In some strange fashion, I am just impressed this is coming from a Utah company (+20)

WANT. (+3)

I was 90% sure I'd be buying a Galaxy S6 this year but if this thing delivers on performance and is actually available to buy, I'd probably get it instead. (+7)

Reminder of V² pre-orders for $599 apiece:

Entirely too much money for a phone from an untested and unknown OEM. (+70)

I'm sorry, but this is not a dream-specced phone, nor does it have 320GB of storage. It has a 1080p screen (old), Snapdragon 801 (old), 3GB ram (common), 64GB internal storage (good) and 2 SDCard slots. / But I'm sure they paid you well enough to make this post. (-1)^{controversial}

Hoping that I haven't missed any emails.. I signed up for the pre-order a while ago (+7)*

Take note of the asterisk here - we'll revisit it later.

Anyone preordering this phone?

I am personally waiting for them to let me give them the money. I support any US company willing to give it a shot. Especially when the product is unlike anything we've seen in the market thus far. (+7)

do they even have an estimated ship date? I don't think it's smart to buy from an unproven company...if it ships as expected and is well reviewed I may buy it (depending on what the Galaxy S6 looks like..) (+3)

Preorders open at $549, ships 6-8 weeks:

I've decided to take the risk... Hopefully I don't get burned. (+18)*

V² shipping (orly?):

This doesn't say anywhere that it's shipping. The only official thing I can find says at least March. / Can the mods mark this as false/rumour? (+13)

And then it happened. V² was first delayed to May 22.

One redditor met the boss of Saygus in their Utah offices. Thread 1, and thread 2. Some comments from both threads:

...Those of us who have had pre-orders are desperate for info. Their marketing and communication really sucks and they've done a really good job at alienating their core supporters. (+30)

...I don't see a very bright future for Saygus. I totally agree with their design philosophy, but (although I know nothing about business) that just sounds like bad management to me. (+111)

...I'm not sure about this because my biggest reason for no pre-order was the fact that their site looked like it was made on geocities in 1997, and for lack of support being that their first offering was crazy expensive and if it didn't sell extremely well they wont be around long. / With all that being said i DO want a ton of people to buy them so they DONT go out of business and if they deliver a solid peice of hardware I will most definitely buy one (+7)

Delayed then delayed again. Still haven't seen the final version of the phone yet they ship may 22nd, ships with kitkat... Yeah I don't have much faith in them any more, and I was one who preordered back in February. (+5)

Okay, fuck it, I'll just link this post in thread 2.

Second delay to "Fall 2015 shipment". OH BOY. This is when I made this thread, followed by this sub's creator's.

OMG Youtube clips of this unicorn of a phone working!

One r/Android redditor tears apart the Saygus scam:

I think the people running the company are in over their heads. Building a smartphone is no easy task, especially if you have little to no manufacturing experience... (+45)

The phone looked cool at the time but you have to remember the phone was marketed as having the most incredible specs possible for the time and the longer you wait the more outdated the specs get. Unfortunately for Saygus there product becomes less relevant the longer they wait. :( (+6)

I posted in that thread. The user who replied to me would later repeatedly gush how it's the dream Android phone. I can't tell if he's a paid Saygus shill or not, but he sounded unnaturally enthusiastic over it. At this time I have to assume he is, because every time he makes such a post, he gets downvoted to oblivion.

At this point Android Police officially called bullshit on Saygus. Threads: r/Android and here

Such a flop. / Seems like a scam almost, they had no money to actually make the phones and relied on the crowdfunding and even that was not enough to make the phones. This tells me they likely did not even have enough money for operating costs and probably spent the money meant for the phones to operate the company. / Buying a 5 year lease in an office when you can't even ship your product should say it all. Saygus won't even be around in 5 years (+96)

This article is written as if this all started in June, but by June it was really really obvious that this was a hoax. I remember reading about this back in February and even then it was just a question of googling the dude's name to find out he pulled a similar scam in 2009. (+26)

(note: one of AP's writers) I'd like my downvotes back for calling BS and seeing through their crap months back. (+151)

Remember that asterisk? Ladies and gents, here it is!

Third delay (orly?). But the story didn't end there! CES appearance! Specs changed... AGAIN!

Further reading if you have time to kill: Saygus' Twitter, third-party site documenting the saga