• Home
  • Forum
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Want to write for us?
  • Privacy Policy
  • RSS

Grimag

  • Blog
  • Forum
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Rumors
  • Apps
  • How To’s
  • The Other Half
Home 2013 December [In-Depth Review] One Week Experience of the Jolla Phone.

[In-Depth Review] One Week Experience of the Jolla Phone.

One week has past with my Jolla in my hands and while everyone were rushing through reviewing the phone without understanding it, I kept it and my laptop’s HDD decided to go bankrupt. Anyhow I made it till today which is the day of the truth!

Please Note: This review is not based on my love and respect to Jolla, and it is totally a one week experience with the phone. So please beware that I’m not being biased. I’m just telling you my experience, my opinions and my understanding of the concept behind Jolla, Sailfish and being open source.

Speaking of open source, why don’t we start?

Shall we ignore any photos or videos of me seen by anyone while un-boxing my phone?

One like this?

It's nice to have one of the developers around when you open your #jolla for the first time. #hauskinjono pic.twitter.com/ONXA6f7y7g

— DNA (@DNA_fi) November 27, 2013


 

Okay yes that was just show off, I don’t have any other picture opening my phone so just let me be happy with it and please continue reading!

The Box:

Well, it’s an absolutely fantastic design but you don’t actually know what you’re looking at until a person from Jolla tells you that this is a part of the actual source code of Sailfish OS written on the box looking like a fingerprint all together. It totally shows how open they are right from the beginning.

Jolla's Box Containing Sailfish OS Source Code

Jolla’s Box Containing Sailfish OS Source Code

There is this Sailfish logo on the very top of the box (If you hold it vertically) and that is the beginning of the codes. There’s some genius behind this I’m sure because it’s certainly more impressive than the quality of Jolla’s portable charger after you find out it doesn’t even have Jolla logo on it and frankly speaking and to be kind at the same time, it’s a bit too… cost saving I would say. I don’t want to stress on it nor I want to bash in the beginning! but the build quality of the charger is something that does NOT match the build quality of the phone. Use N9’s charger if you still have it I’d say. Matches the white other half perfectly and they have the same output (Both are 1A).

Let The Code Begins

Let The Code Begins

There is a USB cable as well, nothing too special and nothing too bad about it! Because it’s a cable! What can possibly go wrong with that?

Yes, you heard right from here and there! I couldn’t find any headset/headphone either, and I can gladly say that I’m not disappointed because I have never ever used any stock headphone provided on any phone thus they always turn me and my ears down. Always use a third party headphone and I suggest, pay good money for the headphone you’re choosing because it can easily triple the music experience/fun.

The Phone (Hardware)

Photographer: Jaakko Roppola

Photographer: Jaakko Roppola

And finally the phone. So my criticisms about some stuff are done, now I can easily brag about the exquisite and fantabulastic (Yes, that’s a word!) build quality of the phone. I was only “hoping” for some Nokia build quality and my hope turned out to be my luck! I was expeting the other half to get lousy after a while of usage, but it didn’t turn me down and it is absolutely glued to it’s place.

The aluminum first half is great for shooting out some heat while 3G is transferring massive amount of data so the phone won’t turn out to be your expensive heater in Nordic winters. Oh and yes I said 3G, because 4G is not supported until the 1st quarter of 2014. Disappointed? Nah, as long as the hardware is there, which it is.

The key to all the magnificence you see and feel on Jolla phone

The key to all the magnificence you see and feel on Jolla phone

Being curvy at the side helps a lot for the edge gestures. Unlike Nokia N9 which used to have a curved glass on top of the screen, Jolla phone has a flat gorilla on top but uses the side curves on the aluminum body to help you slid your finger through the ample 4.5” screen. It is slippery enough and there’s no drama.

On top, the first thing that gathers your attention is the unlike way that Jolla used their logo to show off or better say use the customer as a moving little billboard. Jolla logo as you saw in many photos, is engraved by laser on the top left corner of the device, in a way that when you’re holding the phone it definitely will gather the attention of the person in front of you (Even if they are not a geek)

Then next to the logo from left to right, there is the noise canceling microphone being beautifully crafted into aluminum, micro USB port and 3.5mm 4pin headphone jack.

The Top.  Photo By Jaakko Roppola

The Top.
Photo By Jaakko Roppola

Afterwards you’ll reach the aluminum made power button and volume rockers gathering your attention on the right side of the phone covered in a sort of black/gray color and feeling cool! They are extremely easy to push yet they won’t be misused by accident quite easily.

The bottom of the phone, from right to left, contains the microphone and speaker grills, crafted into the aluminum quite nicely.

They are not too small so when dust goes in, it’s extremely easy to clean them ou with a brush.

And there is a design improvement since the latest prototype that the grills are down by one layer of … grills!

I’d say this is less busy and more good looking while it does not affect the quality of the sound no matter on the microphone (right) or the speaker itself (left).
The N9’s speaker/microphone grill was super good looking but if some small things went into it you were doomed! Thankfully we won’t have that issue here.

They are just resting! Photo by Jaakko Roppola

They are just resting!
Photo by Jaakko Roppola

Front, you have nothing but pitch black! It’s obviously an all screen phone but not a fake one with virtual soft buttons.

Some may say the bezels are big, but I personally have no problems with them because I know how sensitive the edges are on a gesture based OS like Sailfish and I seriously don’t want to mess with them while having my palm interacted with the edges by accident.

There is a well disguised notification light at the bottom of the lower bezel, there is a 2Mpx (1Mpx usable by the software at the moment, and I am wondering why?!) front facing camera plus an ear-piece and at last the proximity and the ambient light sensor.

Inside

There is a 1.4Ghz Qualcomm glowing in there waiting for commands to process, and it does it well! I have a suspicious that it is a bit under-clocked on purpose because you know how linux communities love to overclock stuff, so they made it easier to have fun with!

The processor does it’s job well, and as you will see in the video, it is fast enough because there are no lags or glitches.

Qualcomm's Krait. Image Courtesy: Softpedia

Qualcomm’s Krait.
Image Courtesy: Softpedia

There is an Adreno 305 GPU helping the processor to do it’s job better by processing all the graphics. I have tested Munion Rush and Asphalt on it and it performed better than my Xperia V! (Well the Xperia suffers from Adreno 225)

1GB of RAM available is apparently enough, but who wouldn’t go for a 2GB as we have a multitasking super machine here?

To be very honest with you, Jolla should go for a higher RAM. I mean, overall everything seems to be normal but when you have several Android apps open plus a few native apps and then you are willing to run the browser, it’s the moment you see “loading…” for 2-3 seconds! Which is quite okay but unexpected on Sailfish.

IPS LCD panel feels sharp and at the first look you won’t notice any lack of pixels. Honestly, a 720P screen would be sweet and look much better but even on this qHD screen, you barely notice the pixels unless the text is too tiny. I am quite satisfied, but this goes back to personal opinions! I came from a 720P screen to a qHD which is literally downgrading! But I can’t feel it that much because the sharpness of the screen and the colours are just too good. They are *real* colours!
It is the UI as well, it is made to look like as a pixelized glass while not messing with your eyes.

The only criticism goes to the part when you are using the peek feature of the OS and the text on the tile you’re peeking on is too small. Then you run into a problem and you’ll notice the lack of pixels.

Camera is way better than what anyone expected it to be! It is fast and fluid, of course it still lacks some software-wise features such as zoom, or exposure settings, or even Macro mode (I have found out it has a sort of auto Macro but that’s not good enough for me!) but still, the matter of taking photos is well defined for the phone! You can change the place of your shutter key according to your hands position which I found very cool thus it adds speed to your shooting performance.

Selecting The Location of The Shutter Key

Selecting The Location of The Shutter Key

On the other hand there is this issue with “switching between still and video mode” which is following the N9’s tradition that you have a toggle so you can switch between photo mode or video mode, but nowadays it’s more modern if you simply have both keys (Video shutter / Photo snapper) in one page but looks like it’s not happening, at least for now. It switches very fast but it’s outdated already.
The rear camera is customize-able between 6Mpx and 8Mpx (16:9 and 4:3) and the front cam can do 1Mpx and 0.3 for now. I wonder if they will use the actual 2Mpx front facing camera capacity so duck-facers will be more happy 😉

Oh and one question from Jolla: Couldn’t it be easier if the camera menu would appear from the bottom of the screen so all the buttons were available to use without moving the hand too much? It can be considered for the next update maybe! Pretty please? 🙂

I took a night mode sample last night which turned out to be decent! There are noises, but it was really dark and the only lights sources are the ones you see on the round and well, they only light themselves up!

Jolla Camera Performing at Night.

Jolla Camera Performing at Night.

There is a trick with Jolla’s camera! Always use 4:3 aspect ratio to get the best result. 16:9 doesn’t do a good job in detail capturing. Here you have a 4:3 aspect ratio example taken with Flash:

Might not have Macro mode yet, but takes good photos close-up! Photographer: James

Might not have Macro mode yet, but takes good photos close-up!
Photographer: James

Battery life, well if you are okay with a phone that lasts 1 day when you thrash it’s 3G and use everything in that day (Which is quite normal on these days) then you’re good to go. If you use only 2G then you will have a 2 or more days of usage, but yet you’ll have to wait more for the Internet 😉

There still is work to be done on the power saving or power management in the OS by Jolla’s engineers but this is good enough for me. Better than N9, better than my Sony.

If you need a detailed battery life experience, please tell me in the comment section so I can manage something.

The Battery, OtherHalf and a Rather Close Look on the I2C Photographer: Jaakko Roppola

The Battery, OtherHalf and a Rather Close Look on the I2C
Photographer: Jaakko Roppola

Overall Hardware

More than what was I expecting. I have been hearing that it’s good and it’s well made, but I never believe as I should until I see what I hear.

You can believe this or not but I’m being honest; hands down… This is so well made!

The two halves stick together like a they are glued together (At least after 1 week of usage and demoing the Other Half features to people there’s no drama) And the phone itself grips to your hand like Nissan GT-R grips to tarmac!
The phone might be bigger than N9, but it is well sized as I can easily use it with one hand *except while typing and walking* and I have relativey small hands.

There is nothing “beta” about the hardware and it is solid as a rock, inside out!

I have been hearing bezel nags from here and there and yet again I have to admit that if ever we had a smaller bezel, as I have mentioned above there would easily have been problems with Sailfish gesture based OS because while holding the phone, there is a high chance of palm interaction with the side bezels, so please let it be like that! Trust me it looks good enough!

Here is a quick hardware video, apologies if the sound is not as loud as possible, I couldn’t make it louder unfortunately.

Dual-core or more? Well I’d say this is more than enough for a simple OS like this. It does not lack performance at any point plus the GPU is doing it’s job well so there always is some performance available to use and thanks to this powerful yet power efficient chip, we have a long lasting battery (In my opinion) with a beta OS.

1GB 2GB? I have said that 1GB is okay but I was hoping for 2GB and I still want 2GB of RAM since this OS is built to do multitasking while having a 2GB RAM also means multitasking! So why not sticking them together for the next device?

Father, Son, Holy Jolla!

Father, Son, Holy Jolla!

Software

Sailfish OS Beta.
It’s all you need for a start! It’s fast, it’s fluid, and it’s fairly responsive. It is the beginning!

Sailfish being Beta

Sailfish being Beta

Gestures are definitely not complicated if you have a functional brain, some muscles and some nerves to control the moves, because it’s been proven that once your muscle memory gets the gestures, you will undoubtedly apply them on regular phones at least once until you realize that the phone has buttons! If you are a true N9er you’ve already experienced that a lot!

Double tap to unlock gives me a very nostalgic feel from N9 days, and once I push the lock screen up to the home view it immediately makes itself look like a candy bar to my eyes! Because the screen is mounted so high up near the glass, you can actually touch what you see! And since you’re away from tapping on icons, you’ll have a sweet time experiencing the UI. Though it’s hard to explain but you can definitely feel the soul in the OS! I personally am addicted to just play around with the UI already! Just do NOT look at the screen too closely as the pixels will bug you down if you are migrating from a 720P or higher Android device. If you’re coming from N9, you’ll have a good time!

20131205001312

Applications run fast on the phone and they function well. Android apps take only a few seconds to be installed and they run quite smooth. There are some crashes on Android apps here and there at a time, but I blame the OS being beta or the compatibility layer being yet to be fully optimized.

Interacting with active covers are just pure joy! You can do basically every important thing that an application might need to do without opening the app. On the browser, you can add a new tab or refresh the page without opening the app, in media player as you’d know you can play/pause, go to the next song and shuffle! On Jolla store you can directly select search before entering the app, or on the phone app you can simply bring up contacts with a simple interaction. As for third parties, you can simply take screenshot via active covers! Sweet.

Each and every interaction you make, has a special feedback with vibration and sounds. The pulley menu feels absolutely fantastic and it wants you to actually use it every time!! Active covers also have their sounds and vibrations, though the vibrator motor could be something like what we had in N9, very accurate! It’s not that anyways, it’s more of a normal rotation motor.

Social media integration still lacks many components such as a real native integration.
Yes you can have notifications from your Facebook and Twitter, and yes you can see your Twitter feed plus replying or retweeting or switching accounts if you have more than one but no further than that. The most further you can get with the social media is the messaging system which is integrated into your messaging app and everything goes into one place but that needs polishing as well.

Here is a quick software video I made. Sorry if the sound is not as loud as it should be. Apparently I wasn’t able to make it louder. Again!

Many people use Whatsapp and Viber and other services as their messaging apps and those only work of you leave them open which is a pain because there is no active cover for Android apps. No active cover for Android apps means you’ll get motivated to use native apps but there are very limited native apps available to the device and no one knows if for instance Viber is going to make an integrated Silica native app for Sailfish OS. At first it’s the matter of getting big to be noticed by these companies, and Jolla is not yet big enough as a matter of fact. So basically if you have your Android apps open, and you close them, no more notifications for you. That’s why we need native applications ASAP.

It’s not so pleasant to click on your Facebook notification and wait for the browser to come up and open Facebook’s webpage and in that case we all wish for a native solution which in fact was shown in the previous demos of the device and the OS but for some reasons they are not available at the launch. There are some rumors that some guys at the community are making an unofficial client for Facebook, integrated into the OS. But for now, if you don’t want the browser to come on every time simply turn the notifications off as they are not even push notifications. Sadly I found out that they work like N9 and the OS randomly refreshes itself to sync all the notifications in.

Messaging is different though, good job on that and hope to see more integrations into the app soon. (Can anyone make a whatsapp client for Sailfish as an integrated client? Come on! Chop chop 😀 )

Music Player looks and sounds amazing. I mostly listen to metal music and when I’m satisfied, others will definitely be satisfied. The loudness is amazing but sometimes too much! The overall quality can be improved by time but as a beta I totally adore it.

20131205010645

 

Everyone probably knows about the feeds view of Jolla phone by now so I’m only gonna say it’s accessible from basically anywhere with only swipe from the bottom of your screen. It shows every kind of notifications including Facebook and Twitter but if you want to actually tap on them, it opens the browser. I really hope they fix these and have a nice and fluid native social media support.

From the way I see it, it’s a forward going thing. As we have seen on demos before the Facebook feed support is there but not yet published for some unknown reasons (Perhaps it still has polishing and it will soon be added via software updates)

Overall software

It is absolutely nothing that anyone has experienced no matter if they had N9 or not. It is totally new, totally sweet and maginificant. Yes I loved Jolla from the beginning but thet’s not the case here, my case is my experience with Jolla within 1 week and it is absolutely brilliant. Not perfect, but good enough for a beta.

Lags? Nope! Apparently according to Frame Rate Display (Activated via developer mode) there actually are some lags but my eyes could not catch them yet. And that’s the native UI. If you ask me about Android UI, there are lags as it’s pretty normal because it’s Android. Yet still, despite everything it performs decent!

You can see with all the apps up and running, it barely lags or misbehaves!

Here is a screenshot from the Frame Rate Display. Green means no lag and red means lag for a few miliseconds:

Note: There are 8 native and 2 Android apps open

Note: There are 8 native and 2 Android apps open

And before we end, I’d like to answer some frequently asked questions from the awesome community The rest of the questions will be answered in our future posts:

  1. Do some water resistance test!

no-meme

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.   Games?

  • Android games run pretty smooth on the device, I have tested Munion rush which used to lag on my Xperia V but runs smooth on Jolla

3.   Can you get birthdays/avatars/profile/ to the calendar/contactlist from a social media site like FB, G+ or Twitter?

  • The phone gathers them automatically.

4.   does the plastic feel cheap ?!

  • Not a chance.

5.   I only have one thing to ask – can I have your phone?

  • I’d love to lend it to you for 0.5 second 😉

6.   Does it fits comfortably in your hand . Does it has any rough edge?

  • It grips to my hand, it has sharp corners but doesn’t bother my hands.

7.   Can you login to Facebook VIA Android apps?

  • Instagram worked. Haven’t tried the rest, but should be the same!

8.   1) How’s the battery life in your opinion? 2) How easily does the other half fall off the device? 3) How responsive is the UI generally? 4) How is the Facebook and Twitter experience? 5) How good is reception?

  • 1) Decent   2) Easy, but it makes cracking noise. 3) More responsive than imagination can handle 4) Not quite as I hoped! 5) Decent enough

9.   Is there any difference between the poppy red other half, and the white?

  • Yes, Limited Other Half brings you a special ambience, special ringtones and it has “The First One” written on it.

10.   Have you gotten any updates for Sailfish or any apps yet?

  • Yes, Wikipedia app got updated yesterday!

11.   Does it get hot on the back or on the front like the N9 when used alot.? Can you OC it?

  • Most of the heat generated by 3G modem goes out via the aluminium first half (Mostly on top of the device)

12.   In the email application, with various imap folders, is there a ‘mark folder as read’ function? (to mark all emails in that folder as read)

  • Interesting question, but could not find it…

13.   Can it record hd video? Full hd?

  • Yes, 1080P

14.   System wide font magnifier/manager…?? Does it have a flashlight as default ??

  • Magnifier, yes! Manager? Not yet. Flashlight is available as an application.

 

 
There were more questions on Jolla Pioneer Fans group on Facebook but this is getting way longer than expected so why don’t we postpone them to our next articles? Or maybe dedicate an article just for Q & A? Tell me your opinions!

And in case if anything is missing, kindly please remind me in the comment section so I can make more in depth posts about them.

Any request, is highly appreciated as well.

If you think this review was biased, well you’re wrong. I still have criticisms left out that I want to dedicate a post to them just for the sake of being more organized, this was an overall 1 week experience of mine.

In my personal opinion from what I see, Jolla is the future of mobile industry only if they continue what they are doing exactly as they are inspired to do it now. They are changing some definitions and one can not understand unless they try the OS out. As said, it’s a forward going thing and according to them, and my experience, despite the awesomeness there is a lot work to do on the software.

Good luck Jolla Family.

Dec 5, 2013Sepehr James Noori

You Might Also Like

  • Your review of Jolla Phone! ( ReviewJolla’s DIT Project) Your review of Jolla Phone! ( ReviewJolla’s DIT Project)
  • Exclusive Interview with an Anonymous Sailfish OS DevExclusive Interview with an Anonymous Sailfish OS Dev
  • [Video] Jolla’s The Other Half Vs. Motorola’s Moto Maker[Video] Jolla’s The Other Half Vs. Motorola’s Moto Maker
  • In Depth Overview of Jolla Sailfish UI
  • [An Article From a Friend] Why Sailfish OS?[An Article From a Friend] Why Sailfish OS?
  • Nixie Pixel Chose Sailfish Among Others!Nixie Pixel Chose Sailfish Among Others!
Comments: 145
  1. Avatar
    Simo
    6 years ago

    Loved reading this, thanks! Detailed battery info would be welcome in my opinion.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Sure! Thanks!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        JollaTides
        6 years ago

        What a fantastic review – well done my friend James and thanks so much for taking the time out to do this!

        I was also really pleasantly surprised to hear your views on the battery life after some other user experiences I’ve been reading. 🙂

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          Hey glad you liked it man! It’s my absolute pleasure.

          Really? were you expecting a better battery life or…?

          ReplyCancel
  2. Avatar
    Marius
    6 years ago

    Nice job, congratulations!
    One quiestion: what is the quality of the display in direct sunlight?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I haven’t tested that actually yet, as in Sweden we don’t have enough sun at the moment (It’s 16:00 and pitch black 🙁 )

      ReplyCancel
  3. Avatar
    Narendra Kumar
    6 years ago

    Awesome .. A very good job.. Congrats..

    ReplyCancel
  4. Avatar
    andrei
    6 years ago

    I also would like some more detailed review on the battery.
    Also there has been a video taken by the phone out on the street and the background noises felt a bit out of control. Can you maybe make a demo? (1 inside and 1 out in the street) Thanks.
    Can you also make some demos on the email and calendar apps? Thank you 🙂

    PS: good read … now I cannot wait anymore for the Jolla device to arrive :p

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Everything you asked for => Sure thing!
      And thanks for reading!

      ReplyCancel
    • Avatar
      Pirkka Jokela
      6 years ago

      For battery review, please see these tweets:
      https://twitter.com/search?q=%23jolla%20%40JanneEdelman%20battery&src=typd

      They have links to detailed forum posts.

      ReplyCancel
      • James (Sepehr Noori)
        James (Sepehr Noori)
        6 years ago

        Thanks a lot! It helps big time!

        ReplyCancel
  5. Avatar
    kaien (@kaienmy)
    6 years ago

    Saw you operating Jolla Malaysia Twitter account on one of your video.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I do 😀

      ReplyCancel
  6. Avatar
    Pirkka Jokela
    6 years ago

    Thanks a lot for this review! At least for me it’s really useful to hear what other who liked N9 think about Jolla. I also really like my N9 – still in use – so I’ll probably have similar views with you.

    (On the other hand, I do not care if people who only ever like Android still only like Android after seeing Jolla phone.)

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I agree, and trust me you’ll not be disappointed.

      Android fans will like Jolla after using it if only they understand the concept behind it.

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        kaacz
        6 years ago

        You are write right. .. only if understand the concept .. This is main rule.

        ReplyCancel
  7. Avatar
    Andrew
    6 years ago

    Thanks for the review. I have one question though. As far as I remember the built-in e-mail client was crappy since N810 times. It lagged on N810, kept on lagging on N900, and is still lagging on my N9. Every time I open the client on N9 I get an OS notification ‘The app ain’t responding. Wanna close it?’ So the experience is nowhere near the decent gmail app on Android. Have they fixed it? Does it finally run smoothly?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Actually yes, that’s a big improvement!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Andrew
        6 years ago

        Sounds great! That was the only thing that annoyed me in fabulous N9

        ReplyCancel
    • Avatar
      kaacz
      6 years ago

      Hmm .. I use N9 (with 300 apps) with 3 email accounts. Little IMAP, POP3 with 600 emails (mainly sailfish devel maillist) in and MfE with cca 300 emails (some with attachment). I see ‘app is not responding’ only occasionally and only in short time.

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        kaacz
        6 years ago

        But i don’t have Gmail. 🙂

        ReplyCancel
    • Avatar
      Neil Hoskins
      6 years ago

      …and does the email client support IMAP IDLE? (The N900 didn’t).

      ReplyCancel
  8. Avatar
    peetarkea
    6 years ago

    Thanks for the review! Nice screenshots.

    ReplyCancel
  9. Avatar
    peter-berlin
    6 years ago

    thank you very much for this great review!!!

    ReplyCancel
  10. Avatar
    Reks
    6 years ago

    I like the phone too, but it’s far from ready…

    ReplyCancel
  11. Avatar
    icebox
    6 years ago

    i thought reading this would make the wait easier. it didn’t 🙂 one question though, is there any vpn sollution available? had openvpn on my n900 and it was great.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I was just checking the settings, I couldn’t find anything yet…

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Marius
        6 years ago

        I understood that the VPN could be started from the terminal, so a GUI for that would be easy to do. I will try to do that (with the emulator, for now). I intend to develop many applications for Sailfish.

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          I spent too much using Android lately, I totally forgot how to use Terminal… I was good with it on N9 and N900 days but now I need to get back on track…

          ReplyCancel
  12. Avatar
    Vladimir K
    6 years ago

    Hello,
    Is it possible to install SWYPE keyboards on the Jolla (through the Android compatibility) ?

    Thank you.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      No, it might become available as a native keyboard though.

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Andrew
        6 years ago

        I hope they will implement SWYPE natively. The N9 SWYPE is the best one I ever used. All Android ones suck at picking up the right word for me.

        ReplyCancel
    • Avatar
      Vladimir K
      6 years ago

      Thank you for your answer James.

      By the way, your review is quite good, much better than presentation made by Jolla. Actually, the pictures you took make the smartphone more desirable than what one can see on Jolla’s website

      ReplyCancel
  13. Avatar
    Joni Autio (@autio_j)
    6 years ago

    Great post mate, looking forward on getting my hands on the device!

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Thanks! glad you liked it. Hopefully soon.

      ReplyCancel
  14. Avatar
    Shane
    6 years ago

    sub.

    ReplyCancel
  15. Avatar
    Yanbo Jia
    6 years ago

    How about the Email in Sailfish? does it support Mail for Exchange? does it support SMTP? How does the email UI feel?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      It’s smooth, and it supports microsoft mail for exchange. I will make another article for it if necessary.

      ReplyCancel
  16. Avatar
    kaacz
    6 years ago

    Same for me with headset. I not need it. I have eight never-used Nokia Headsets. Better is buy reduction with mic&button and use REAL headphones. 🙂

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      +1 ! Exactly right. Better put more effort on the phone rather than a useless headset!

      ReplyCancel
  17. Avatar
    kaacz
    6 years ago

    Vladimir K: “SWYPE keyboards on the Jolla (through the Android compatibility) ?” NOO .. don’t put Android mess to OS – only apps. SWYPE must be done by Maliit input plugin/engine. As is on N9.

    ReplyCancel
    • Avatar
      Vladimir K
      6 years ago

      I don’t want Android, this is why I preordered a Jolla, but SWYPE keyboard is something I really appreciate on my N9, and as usual, Jolla doesn’t communicate on it (this is why I asked about the Android compatibility, as I know it exists on Android, and as I thought it’s an app, not an extension)

      Anyway, thank you for your answer, and I hope to see it on Sailfish anyhow.

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        kaacz
        6 years ago

        Change standard OS keyboard input for all apps isn’t possible via App.

        ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Yes. Hopefully we’ll see it soon enough… But first let the bugs be pested out!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        dadiego
        6 years ago

        yes i also need to have SWYPE!

        ReplyCancel
  18. Avatar
    kaacz
    6 years ago

    Please for all: you must forgot about Android things in OS space. This is NOT Android. Exist only one possibility: compatibility to run Android Apps. Apps, not Android OS extesions & etc. If you must to have some things in OS as is in Android – then go away and use Android OS. Thank you.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      +1

      ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I second that. So true.

      ReplyCancel
  19. Avatar
    kaacz
    6 years ago

    The aluminum first half .. wow .. realy? I don’t believe .. 🙂

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Yes the main structure is alumimium 🙂

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        JollaTides
        6 years ago

        It’s black anodised aluminium and has been since the very early proto… I didn’t realise the volume/power keys were also aluminium – nice touch! 🙂

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          Yes they are, and the really feel nice and soft! 🙂

          ReplyCancel
  20. Avatar
    kaacz
    6 years ago

    Big thank’s James.
    In time 2:40 in video I got answers to my questions about feeds. Maybe I am little dissapointed – feeds are not on first screen mixed in timeline as is on N9. But – maybe this is better solution.
    This is one more little click in ergonomy of controll, but one big step in ergonomy of read. 🙂

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      The good thing about the feeds is that you can access them from anywhere you want. any application! no matter what.

      ReplyCancel
  21. Avatar
    Das Linux User
    6 years ago

    Thanks. I appreciate the review.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Thanks for reading!

      ReplyCancel
  22. Avatar
    Franz Brummer
    6 years ago

    Thank you for this great review! I don’t mind a little bias as I appreciate your enthusiasm.
    On to counting the days. At least I can use the waiting time to learn a bit more about the SDK 😉

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Glad you liked it! Well, yes the enthusiasm is high 🙂
      Please do! We need native apps!

      ReplyCancel
  23. Avatar
    Harald
    6 years ago

    Can you sync the calendar with google?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      It does it automatically!

      ReplyCancel
  24. Avatar
    hewi
    6 years ago

    THX for the awesome review.
    One thing is still missing for me, In an video earlier this year (i think one from Marc D.) they showed the usage of profiles. For example home / office / etc. Each profile had different settings – Wifi on/off BT on/off and so on.
    Did you came across that? Or was it one of the thing they cut off and add it later in future updates?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      You’re welcome!
      That feature, I could not find it actually. When I install the limited other half it changes my ringtones and stuff automatically but it doesn’t have any settings *yet* to program the halves…

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        the_mgt
        6 years ago

        Thanks for your review!

        That profile thing is something I wondered about, too. Especially since Nokia phones always had at different profiles preinstalled.
        Is there anything like advanced ambience settings, so that an ambience is more than an optical effect? You mentioned it changed ringtones…
        Also, can you sort contacts/people into groups? Would be nice if only the Family&BestestFriends group could call at night when I sleep, while all others were blocked, via a profile/ambience.
        And all the other situation aware stuff, like shutting down business/work mail reception in the afternoon and on weekends.
        All of that integrated with features as the Situations app on S^3 had…

        ReplyCancel
  25. Avatar
    spacenewt
    6 years ago

    Thank you! After seeing the photo examples (and other critics confirmed it) I thought the camera, or rather the photo rendering algorithm/software in Jolla was so crappy that I almost cancelled my pre-order! Now I’m glad I didn’t.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Yes those were the early prototype photos, they weren’t so good… But now they are even good in Beta!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        JollaTides
        6 years ago

        The night shot you took was excellent James – I’m so excited – did you do any post editing to that or was that straight out of the camera ?

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          Oh trust me I am too lazy to edit photos! Each photo I ever share is a straight output. I even *Normally* don’t put any filters on my photos on Instagram either.

          ReplyCancel
    • Avatar
      Neil Hoskins
      6 years ago

      Yes, I was concerned by the camera too. These look much better than other reviewers have been posting.

      ReplyCancel
      • James (Sepehr Noori)
        James (Sepehr Noori)
        6 years ago

        well, I elected the best photos but no editing.

        ReplyCancel
  26. Avatar
    someone
    6 years ago

    Hi! Nice review! I’d like to ask you about wazzapp: if the app is running do you receive notifications on system tray as a native one? I believe that the community will bring us cool native apps 🙂 I miss my N900 so much! BTW do you know something about caldav and cardav support? Thanks.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Hi! thanks!
      As you would see in the video, notifications come for every app. For Android apps, they come as long as the app is open, once you close it completely, notifications stop.
      About Caldav, I haven’t tested yet…

      ReplyCancel
  27. Avatar
    Oscar Guzmán
    6 years ago

    I love your blog, but I feel that this time the review is too light. Do not talk too much of what porbaste. I found (not exempt from criticism, just because Apple lovers) deeper reviews on Engadget, Techcrunch, TheNextWeb, etc..

    I feel a little disappointed because I was hoping this post too.

    thank you anyway, you do a great job! goes well!

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Thanks for the comment.
      Well our goal is a bit different from engadget or TechCrunch as they have a cliche and they follow it plus they get phones to review every day but our aim is Jolla. And we get a new Jolla once in a while thus we’re not as pro as them in reviewing phones.
      Another thing is that this was more of an experience not a review. The other websites make theirs based on the few hours they spend with the phonebut this was 1 whole week of testing the phone as an everyday phone. Not only a few hours.
      The last point is to be simple. I didn’t personally want to make it complicated and use stuff that many would not understand. This motto has been the goal of our blog ever since we started blogging about Jolla.

      Hopefully there will be improvements for the next time according to your feedback though!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Oscar Guzmán
        6 years ago

        I really appreciate the article, this site gets a lot of people.
        again, to be a week there is little depth of analysis. The title says: In-depth.

        Continue talking to us about the system 🙂

        ReplyCancel
  28. Avatar
    Ali Najafi
    6 years ago

    Thank you James for the great article. It reminds me the poem by Sa’di:
    گفتم ببینم اش، مگر ام دردِ اشتیاق / ساکن شود، بدیدم و مشتاق‌تر شدم
    I couldn’t wait to see the phone in my hands, and now it’s become harder. I hope I will see it in Iran very soon!

    Open source and the gestures are two things in which I believe for the future.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Yea that poem part amazed me a lot!
      thanks for the nice words man, I really hope they come to Iran somehow pretty soon!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        JollaTides
        6 years ago

        I hope so too – we all wish Jolla to spread around the world many times.

        To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi: ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’.

        We can all be that change, it starts with you and me.

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          Absolutely true… Nice one!

          ReplyCancel
  29. Avatar
    müd
    6 years ago

    much thanks for the review.
    can u now tell me (us) if headsets designed for iPhone will work or does the Jolla has the other pin config?

    ReplyCancel
    • Avatar
      JollaTides
      6 years ago

      We had confirmation that iPhone headset works ok: http://www.jollatides.com/forums/discussion/71/compatible-headsets-for-jollaphone#Item_3

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        müd
        6 years ago

        Thank you now I can buy a headset form my Jolla (hope it arrives soon)

        ReplyCancel
        • Avatar
          Carol Chen (@cybette)
          6 years ago

          Please see my comment below. In any case, I recommend testing before buying — I’ve had trouble previously with sound quality and compatibility of headsets (not with Jolla but other devices) because I didn’t try stuff out before buying…

          ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      You’re welcome. As confirmed by JollaTides, yes you can! It’s a 4pin 3.5mm jack so naturally it’s possible to use any headphone available on the market.

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Carol Chen (@cybette)
        6 years ago

        Jolla uses AHJ headset standard, which is what iPhone uses, except Apple uses a different resistance (or is it impedance?) on the control for signalling. Thus I won’t guarantee that all iPhone headsets will work on the Jolla (playback should be fine, but adjusting volume, pausing etc. may or may not function as desired). Also the older headsets using OMTP standard won’t work. I’ve added some discussions/links to the forum that JollaTides mentioned above if anyone’s interested.

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          Thanks a lot!

          ReplyCancel
  30. Avatar
    torcida
    6 years ago

    Thank you very much for your effort and this great article!

    Btw: How is the call quality (earpice/loudspeaker and microphone)? 🙂

    Cheers

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      You’re welcome! In my opinion it’s a great leap forward from N9 or even my Xperia V (Trust me it has a great call quality but I think Jolla does better)

      ReplyCancel
  31. Avatar
    d
    6 years ago

    have they removed the screen transition effect when we swipe left or right in an app?

    ReplyCancel
    • Avatar
      d
      6 years ago

      i saw the early prototype video, the app is slowing fading away when we swipe it left or right slowly. is it still there?

      ReplyCancel
      • James (Sepehr Noori)
        James (Sepehr Noori)
        6 years ago

        It is still there as you can see in the software video. It’s considered as a feature!

        ReplyCancel
  32. Avatar
    Shane
    6 years ago

    Hmmm, subs not working for me, again, I’ll try once more, sub2.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I don’t think it works that way Shane!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Shane
        6 years ago

        Not sure what you mean? Hopefully it works this time 🙁

        Just found out the body’s mostly Alu, not sure I like that, it’s gotta have some impact on reception/transmission (albeit minimal)

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          It doesn’t have any impact on the reception as dar as I can say till now!

          ReplyCancel
  33. Avatar
    StefanP
    6 years ago

    Thanks for the review!
    “Dual-core or more? Well I’d say this is more than enough for a simple OS like this.”
    Would call it rather “efficient OS” than “simple OS”! 😉
    Do you have a list of all available (and possibly planned) native apps?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I would say so… I think efficient is indeed a better word for it.

      ReplyCancel
  34. Avatar
    CheekyChex
    6 years ago

    Thank you for this excellent and speedy review. I am in UK and my Jolla has not arrived yet, but I am consuming all the literature I can find. I believe it should be possible but can you side load *.apk files from an Android backup of app via ES Task Manager, and install on Jolla device?

    Thanks again for review.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      No worries! Glad you liked it.

      Well, it should be possible! because .apk files simply get installed on Jolla in 2 seconds!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        CheekyChex
        6 years ago

        Cool thanks, now just need mine to arrive!

        ReplyCancel
  35. Avatar
    Ramin
    6 years ago

    Developer of wazapp said he would port it to sailfish))

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Superb news! Thanks!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        kaacz
        6 years ago

        And coderus working on “Persecute” Whatsapp client for Sailfish also. https://openrepos.net/content/coderus/persecute-sailfish

        ReplyCancel
  36. Avatar
    Znurre
    6 years ago

    Does the built-in music player support gapless playback of ogg and flac?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      It does support the files but I’m not sure about the gapless playback.

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Znurre
        6 years ago

        Okay, thanks. Will have to wait until I get mine to try it I guess 🙂
        The built-in one in the N9 did not support gapless playback, but Quasar MX did.
        Since Sailfish uses GStreamer for audio playback, which supports gapless playback of ogg and flac, it should be possible.

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          Yes, hopefully!

          ReplyCancel
        • Avatar
          kaacz
          6 years ago

          Message from QuasarMX developer:
          https://twitter.com/evilJazz/statuses/408755461723127809

          ReplyCancel
  37. Avatar
    Cyril
    6 years ago

    Thank you very much from your french followers! It is very “politically correct” (oups, very french, … is it clear in english) , but very nice as made by an N9 lover as me.
    I also think that Android apps compatibility is a postive option but is not the normal way of working.
    But what about the Jolla store!? No jolla.store.com for the moment !
    Can you please make a small video just by travelling in the Jolla Store, to see what is available!

    For the rest and as my “minimum” :
    I’m dissapointed about the no-FM-radio = need IP Radio like on N9 or similar.
    Google calendar synchro, you say yes = a basis for me, nearly a minimum for a smartphone 🙂
    Somebody wrote about Whats app = I hope for Wazapp
    What about the native RSS feeds application ?!
    Any games in native store ?! which one ?!
    What about the Wifi-Hotspot ?! in native store ?! A Joikusoft solution ?!
    May be cool also as native for Fidme, Photo enhancer or Sophie (similar to instagram), Skype, Accuweather, Dropian, Panorama, …

    Anyway, many thanks, it is a good job… wating for my Jolla…….

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      French and politics… Tell me about it 😉

      The FM Radio hardware is there so we should expect something very soon!
      The Jolla Store is still not so crowded but sure I will make a video of that.
      I hope for wazapp as well! or whatsup by Cepi!
      I’m not so much into RSS but I know there is an app for it in the store.
      There are basic games, but Android games run fine!
      Hotspot according to official jolla people, the HW is there and the SW is in schedule of doing.

      Photo apps will be added later on as for now it’s still in beta.

      You’re welcome! My pleasure!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Nikos
        6 years ago

        Are you absolutely certain about the presence of FM radio hardware? Is there any way to check? If this is true, then you have made my day because I’m sure an app will pop up sooner or later!

        PS. Thanks for the nice and lengthy review!

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          You’re welcome.
          I will ask around!

          ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          Looks like I was wrong. Many said it doesn’t have the HW…

          ReplyCancel
  38. Avatar
    Cyril
    6 years ago

    For FM radio, via Twitter :
    me @jollaHQ : what about FM radio ?
    jollaHQ : No FM Radio
    jjaone : Is that a HW or OD limitation ?

    And I did not saw any answer…

    Waiting for your video of the Jolla store, or for my Jolla as expeditions seems to be done soon :)…

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I have heard the AM radio’s hardware is there…

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        kaacz
        6 years ago

        In case, when is used chip 8930AA, FM receiver is included in this chip. I do not understand why Jolla is silent about this HW specs.

        ReplyCancel
  39. Avatar
    James Lindsay
    6 years ago

    “If you think this review was biased, well you’re wrong. ”

    You’re not helping your case. Should have just left out all the constant ‘reminders’.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I was being sarcastic. don’t get these too seriously 😉

      ReplyCancel
  40. Avatar
    Vladimir K
    6 years ago

    I have another question for you : what languages are available on the UI ? About the same as on the N9 ?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      They are limited to European languages, Russian and Chinese at the moment.

      ReplyCancel
  41. Avatar
    Christian Lampl
    6 years ago

    Thank you for the excellent review! I really enjoyed reading it, plus some nice photos and videos!

    I am desperately awaiting the arrival of my device, and having read your confirmation of the excellent build quality of the hardware and the fluency of the OS makes me even more looking forward to it 🙂

    Keep up the great work!

    Christian

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      thanks!! glad you enjoyed!

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Christian Lampl
        6 years ago

        Btw, great taste in music! Ensiferum is one of my favourite bands! 8)

        ReplyCancel
        • James (Sepehr Noori)
          James (Sepehr Noori)
          6 years ago

          Being a metal head is a good thing indeed!

          ReplyCancel
  42. Avatar
    heipa
    6 years ago

    Hello James, first many thanks for your work here…

    In front of latest disclosures about Android (Torch-)Apps – my question, ist there in the Jolla-Store an possibilty to see, which recources want apps to use? E.g. Position, Adressbook. etc. …
    (And what about yandex, amazon…)

    TIA
    heipa from Germany (with N9)

    ReplyCancel
  43. Avatar
    Simon Taylor
    6 years ago

    Very pleased to hear hardware is good. Thanks for a very informative and encouraging review. Could you comment on the mapping and in particular the navigation capabilities of the device? How does it compare with Nokia Maps/Drive as running on Nokia?

    ReplyCancel
  44. Avatar
    0rphu
    6 years ago

    Thanks for the review James. It was exactly what I needed to refuel my eagerness to finally lay my hands on the Jolla. I’ve read a lot lately on various forums regarding the Jolla and was actually asking myself whether I made a mistake by ordering. But I never went as far as cancelling my order, I was telling myself that being “unlike” is good enough, even when the phone won’t live to my expectations. Now I will get back to my routine of mail-checking for the tracking number in frequent albeit irregular intervals 🙂

    ReplyCancel
  45. Avatar
    Hntr20
    6 years ago

    Hey Sepehr,

    Can you tell me if the jollaphone has a option to select which gsm freqiencies to use? for example only LTE1800 or GSM1800?

    Thanks!

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Not as far as I’m concerned. You can select between 3G 2G but no dedicated freq.

      ReplyCancel
  46. Avatar
    Sven
    6 years ago

    Am i right, when my conclusion is that the other half (i2c) is not useable yet, because there is no possibility for an extra battery or qwerty keyboard?

    I don’t understand it. I thought they would deliver us a 2nd half with a qwerty keyboard or extra battery?

    Can you tell me more about it James? Or someone else?

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      They never promised to deliver any extra featured other half to the customer.
      They have put the I2C there for the user to use it! Yes the battery and keyboard is indeed possible but not yet produced. No one knows if Jolla is going to procude anything or it’s going to be 3rd parties? Anyway, there is the possibility. Yet to be produced.

      ReplyCancel
  47. Avatar
    L
    6 years ago

    Nice article!
    I was wondering if you have any feedback on importing contacts from other phones (e.g. Nokia) and especially sms messages.
    Also, how does it handle large amounts of photos in the gallery (GBs of images) and thousands of sms messages?
    These would be some good performance tests.

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      Contacts, no problem!
      SMS? Haven’t tried! (Don’t know how to!)
      I have about 3000 photos in my galery and it takes 2-3 seconds for it to load them!
      Thanks

      ReplyCancel
  48. Avatar
    Soren
    6 years ago

    Unboxed my Jolla today, and I must say it was a huge disappointment,have they destroyed Meego?
    And made it too complicated,the best thing about Meego o was the simplicity.
    And Jolla store does not respond to just any request,Yandex store is not available? WTF
    Does not find the second half,the list is getting long here.
    The Sailfish update does not download.
    aso,aso. HUUge disappointment….

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      How come only you have these issues? o.O

      ReplyCancel
  49. Avatar
    Soren
    6 years ago

    Day 2 with Jolla, and I think I have to start up the N9 again….

    ReplyCancel
  50. Avatar
    N9FromChina
    6 years ago

    Don’t you miss the Glance Screen? Having the time, battery & notifications displayed on the standby screen is the most useful feature for me, because I check it at least 20 times a day. I hate to have to open the phone to see if I have missed calls and to check the time…

    Just waiting for Jolla to sell in HK and/or China…

    ReplyCancel
    • Dario
      Dario
      6 years ago

      +1 That is the feature I miss the most.

      ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        N9FromChina
        6 years ago

        Does Jolla screen hardware support the screen memory feature? If it does, then it could be implemented at some point in Jolla… as long as no IPR applies…

        ReplyCancel
      • Avatar
        Jari
        6 years ago

        Exactly!

        ReplyCancel
  51. Avatar
    Christopher
    6 years ago

    Hi, a few questions:
    1. Is it possible to natively synchronize an ical-calendar file?
    2. Is it possible to define which apps have which rights to access the address book, camera, microphone etc.?
    2a. Is it possible to define these rights for non-native android apps?
    3. Is there an official statement of the jolla developers on the topic of privacy? I would expect that no personal data will be transfered to servers without the user being able to see and prevent such data transfers… For me this is the main argument to switch from Android to Jolla.

    ReplyCancel
  52. Avatar
    S. Miah
    6 years ago

    Hi

    Can someone tell me about;
    1. Speaker quality loudness regarding call/music volume. Is it louder than the poor Nokia N9 speaker?
    2. Music player does it have built in equaliser?
    3. Bluetooth file sharing?
    4. File browser?

    ReplyCancel
  53. Avatar
    10basetom
    6 years ago

    Hi, thanks for sharing your in-depth review! I’m a pre-orderer from Singapore, so not sure when we’ll get ours — I’m so jealous! 😛 Anyway, just two things regarding what you said…

    (1) “I have been hearing bezel nags from here and there and yet again I have to admit that if ever we had a smaller bezel, as I have mentioned above there would easily have been problems with Sailfish gesture based OS because while holding the phone, there is a high chance of palm interaction with the side bezels, so please let it be like that! Trust me it looks good enough!”

    If Apple can add logic to their iPad mini to detect accidental touches around the bezel that works most of the time, then the complaint is justified. In the next iteration Jolla should add similar logic and decrease the bezel so that we can have a larger 720P display. The Motorola RAZR i’s bezel is something to set our standards against.

    (2) “Dual-core or more? Well I’d say this is more than enough for a simple OS like this.” I wouldn’t consider Sailfish a simple OS. The UI may be simple (which is a good thing), but it has very complex Linux underpinnings which would benefit from having four cores, especially when processing the Android layer. Even a mid-tier four-core CPU such as the Snapdragon 600 would be an upgrade.

    I do agree with you that the Jolla phone should have 2GB of memory since it’s bred for multi-tasking. In summary, here’s my wishlist for Jolla phone 2.0:

    – Slightly larger screen (4.7-4.8″ would be perfect)
    – 1024×720 or higher screen resolution
    – 2 GB RAM
    – Quad-core
    – Trim the weight and thickness a bit (about 120-130 g would be perfect)

    As for the software, even though Jolla released to the public what is really beta software (hence rather mixed first impressions from some major blogs such as Engadget), I can understand why they needed to get the product out the door and into the wild as soon as possible; I just hope that the poor reviews don’t scare people away and make an already small target audience even smaller. Maybe the big hope is in China.

    Jolla also needs to put a BIG effort into having a super busy app store because one of my saddest memories of using the N9 was when the Nokia app store died a slow, slow death. It felt like everyone moved out of the village and I was the last one standing, maybe still holding on to the past. Let’s hope this experience doesn’t get repeated!

    ReplyCancel
  54. Avatar
    Pepe
    6 years ago

    This article has a lot of useful information, however, its so dispersed in gibberish, its not worth reading in my opinion.

    I hope you get paid by the word 😉

    ReplyCancel
    • James (Sepehr Noori)
      James (Sepehr Noori)
      6 years ago

      I get it! Thanks for the feedback. I’m currently working on another one. Sorry if you got disappointed.

      ReplyCancel
  55. Avatar
    koskinen
    5 years ago

    Well, Gadget Sam – http://www.gadgetsam.com/jolla-a-new-beginning/ – still salutes the newcomer and wishes best of luck on their quest to the gadget stardom. And to say that I mean every competition is very good in this situation where iPhone, Samsung and Nokia cut the major piece of the cake. And that is also good for the consumers because Jolla can bring to the field new ideas and things others are maybe entitled to follow.

    ReplyCancel

Leave a Reply to JollaTides Cancel reply

Sepehr James Noori
Sepehr James Noori

Hi! Sepehr James Noori here! A geek living in Sweden.
Maemo/MeeGo/Mer/Harmattan/Sailfish & Jolla enthusiast who is keen to share knowledge with friends.
Proud N900, N9 and Jolla owner!
Hope you guys enjoy my writing.
Feedback is appreciated!

6 years ago 148 Comments ReviewsJolla, jolla hands on, Jolla phone review, Review, sailfish os hands on, sailfish os review, Sailfish UI33,886
Share post
0
GooglePlus
0
Facebook
0
Twitter
0
Pinterest
Most Viewed
Why Sailfish is better as a modern OS? Here is a comparison
93,925 views
Sailfish ported to Nokia N9! +miniTutorial
83,705 views
How to install Sailfish OS on Nexus 5, The easy way
57,528 views
Latest Poll

Would you buy and use next Jolla phone?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
About

Jolla Ltd. is an independent company, continuing Nokia’s excellent work on MeeGo based smart phones together with the people who worked on N9 development, and us being N9 and MeeGo fanatics just couldn’t resist not to support Jolla and their efforts to popularize Sailfish OS.

JollaUsers is a blog for spreading Jolla Love all over the world in which you can find news, reviews, interviews, rumors, etc.

2016 © Jolla Users
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.OK Read More