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Jolla on track to ship new phone with Sailfish OS, user-replaceable battery
- ChrisArchitect 8mo agoPreviously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47216037 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47216037
- rzerowan 8mo agoThis is why i keep saying the Jolla management neds a rethink. Its 2026 GraphenOS is in a partnership with Motorola while Jolla is still doing early 2K style kickstarter campaigns. The market is there , product is loved and ppeople have proved they are willing to take some pain adopting the product.But still the execution to serve that market is shambolic to say the least.
- polar 8mo agoJolla does have an arrangement with Sony, so there are a few other device options: https://docs.sailfishos.org/Support/Supported_Devices/ https://docs.sailfishos.org/Support/Supported_Devices/
- rzerowan 8mo agoAs i recall , they do not come preloaded and the usr has to do a song and dance to flash the ROM with the new OS. While also paying a separete license fee for the OS and updates. Too much friction and limiting the potential - thats why i reiterate. The SailFishOS is a delight technically and aesthetically - the business side though needs a major overhaul. Just thinking out loud , they could partner with someone likee huawei to preload for EU/rest of world customers that cannot use HarmonyOS outside CH. Or even one of the other smaller OEM with access to the deep tech ecosystem to give a prebuild/preloaded f;agship at a cost competitive price. Or do a Apple and auction search/maps defaults to keep BOM costs down and aim for widespread adoption.
- 4k93n2 8mo agothey sell some preloaded xperias on their website, but i get the impression the only have a few at any given time because ive been checking every now and again and half the time they are sold out
- mempko 8mo agoI used to use a Sony phone with Sailfish but stopped when US shifted to voice over LTE and phones I used were not supported by the networks. If this phone works on US networks, I can't wait to get rid of my Android phone for sailfish. I vibed with Sailfish so hard.
- shmerl 8mo agoWhat network connectivity does it have for US?
- embedding-shape 8mo agoSomeone correct me if I'm wrong, but they're aiming to serve the EU and UK (and Norway and Switzerland) markets only. Although, with that said, the page for the September 2026 phone says this (https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sept-26 https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sept-26): > LTE FDD: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28AB, 66 > LTE TDD: 34, 38, 39, 40, 41 > 5G NR: n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n26, n28, n38, n40, n41, n66, n77, n78 But I have no idea if that means it'll work for you in the US/elsewhere.
- toast0 8mo ago> But I have no idea if that means it'll work for you in the US/elsewhere. Yeah, that's a fun part of the crazy bandplan for lte/5g where it's just a little here and there without global coordination. But a look here [1], says it has all 5G bands for AT&T, 2/4 bands for TMo, and 4/5 for Verizon. Seems maybe a bit iffy for TMo, one of the missing bands is n71 (600 MHz) which is extended range that helps fill in coverage. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_5G_NR_networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_5G_NR_networks
- kevvok 8mo agoAlso missing Band 13, which is Verizon’s main band for coverage
- shmerl 8mo agoWhy aren't modern SoC modems just support all bands? How hard is it?
- microtonal 8mo agoJust a guess: maybe it requires fairly expensive certification that is not worth it when a SoC family is barely used in a region (yes, I know, chicken-egg).
- drnick1 8mo agoThey should have collaborated with GrapheneOS like Motorola instead of starting from scratch with Linux and a proprietary user interface. As it stands, this phone will have worse security than a Pixel with Graphene or the upcoming Motorola phone. It's not an improvement over common closed source Android varieties either, and will certainly have worse app compatibility than Android. Hardware switches are irrelevant if you can't trust the software.
- jasonvorhe 8mo agoAgreed. Also, the second I found out that their entire UI stack is proprietary I lost all interest in that platform.
- fsflover 8mo agoDon't the security hardware features of the GrapheneOS phones also rely on proprietary software/firmware?
- jasonvorhe 8mo agoTo my knowledge you have some proprietary firmware blobs, drivers, HAL and the Trusted Execution Environment shipping with GrapheneOS. But replacing Pixel's stock Android with GrapheneOS doesn't expose you to more proprietary components but instead reduces it (by sandboxing Google Play Services for example) and improves upon Android security overall (memory allocation, etc). So yeah, GrapheneOS isn't 100% OSS, as far as I'm aware. But it doesn't expose me to more proprietary stuff like Jolla would.
- fsflover 8mo agoYou're not wrong, but the main selling point of GrapheneOS in comparison to other options is security, and it relies on proprietary software. So to me it looks a bit similar, although I agree that less blobs is definitely important.
- embedding-shape 8mo ago
- poisonborz 8mo agoJolla / Sailfish is a 13 year old project and through all this time they couldn't make a foothold, or even sustain some small motivated community around them. During this time: - company folded and changed hand multiple times, including russian ownership - the tablet scandal leaving users with lost funds - closed source parts - locked bootloader - charging a $50 device reset fee - not much change in Sailfish OS since ages - buggy Android compatibility and near zero native devs, all jumped ship At this point I think they are just one of the grifters preying on naive "EU first" supporters shoveling whatever they still have in a new casing. I'd love the idea of a greenfield EU Linux mobile OS, but I don't think it should come from this company.
- embedding-shape 8mo ago> but I don't think it should come from this company. Could*, maybe than should, unless you believe that all those things will apply to the phone they plan to release in September. Otherwise I don't see the issue with a company keep trying until they get something right (or give up). Why not?
- poisonborz 8mo agoTrue, but I also wanted to signify that I find any user trust (eg as a result of this new marketing campaign) is misplaced and steals air from a better alternative.
- fsflover 8mo agoWhich is?
- poisonborz 8mo agoSee my reply above
- tpoacher 8mo agoon one hand you're not wrong on the other, I really, really loved my original jolla phone back in the day. I happily used it as my daily driver and only phone for 2 years. Until it had a hardware fault which I could no longer repair via the company.
- _imnothere 8mo agoSo many years and they can't(or refuse to?) ship to Asia, ridiculous.
- muhehe 8mo agoI really wish them success, but I just can't see it anymore. I had the first version and it seems it didn't move much forward from that time. And there were also many screwups, as poisonborz reminded a bit earlier. Their UI looked novel, but wasn't that great in practice. It wasn't stable (hopefully that changed) and the lack of real apps was killing it before and now even more, as more banks/govs require some "trusted" apps
- fractallyte 8mo agoI dispute your assertion: Sailfish's UI is WAY ahead of iOS and Android. It's simple, consistent, and intuitive; a complete contrast to the mess of iOS and the clunkiness of Android. As for stability, native Sailfish apps on my Xperia XA2 seldom, if ever, crash. And, to my eyes, it simply looks better.
- muhehe 8mo agoI won't dispute you. Maybe it evolved into more usable state, but the beginings had many problems and rough edges.
- Matl 8mo agoI had Sailfish on XPERIA and it was no less stable than Android/iOS in my experience. But that wasn't the first version I don't think.
- joecool1029 8mo agoAmericans/Canadians (and I guess Asians since they won't ship there) don't waste your time reading this, they have a Mediatek SoC and made the choice long ago to not touch these markets. The devices will not carry the band support needed for these markets. Europeans, I guess good luck, have fun. I followed them in the early days and ran early builds of Sailfish on the N9, had high hopes but have long given up on them. EDIT: I will say though I'm still impressed by the libhybris project which went on to make it possible to run linux distros on android SoC's, but the guy who did that for Jolla I think is not with the company anymore for some time.
- walterbell 8mo ago> The devices will not carry the band support needed for these [non-EU] markets. Would they have zero radio coverage, or sub-optimal coverage? Could be a feature for those wanting a Wi-Fi only mobile Linux device.
- joecool1029 8mo ago> Would they have zero radio coverage, or sub-optimal coverage? Sub-optimal for data if it allows attach. If they don’t have working IMS profile it may reject the attach at worst or just have no working calls/texts at best (we do not have fallback 2g/3g except for 911 on 2g with pockets of t-mobile). There is 911 IMS profile but it sometimes doesn’t work with foreign phones, its tricky: https://optimerainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OptimERA_VoLTE_Emergency_Calls_Report.pdf https://optimerainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OptimERA_... > Could be a feature for those wanting a Wi-Fi only mobile Linux device. I’m sorry but this is cope for a phone. At that point just buy a better linux device not built on a complex phone soc, it’s not a phone then.
- walterbell 8mo ago> better linux device not built on a complex phone soc Any suggestions in handheld form factor, comparable to iPod Touch? There was PinePhone Pro with Sailfish and RK3399S SoC, now discontinued.
- 8mo ago
- nottorp 8mo agoAre these non Google non Apple phones viable any more? Considering you almost can't do banking, and in some places interact with the government, without a locked down phone...
- carlosjobim 8mo agoYou are allowed to have more than one cell phone.
- poulpy123 8mo agoAfaik there is an android compatibility layer but I don't know if it allows banking apps to works
- HNisCIS 8mo agoMaybe I'm out of the loop but what is everyone doing with banking apps on their phones that's so essential. I see this argument all the time but it's baffling to me.
- distances 8mo agoFor quite many banks a mobile phone is now the only 2FA they support.
- nottorp 8mo agoOr worse. My bank closed down their old online banking site and the new one needs the phone for 2FA... but ... drumroll ... ... the idiots also want me to keep using the token device to log in before approving the log in via my phone. Security theater.
- fsflover 8mo agoSo switch the bank? Worked for me.
- kombine 8mo agoThe absence of eSIM is a deal breaker for me. I need to travel to the US for work and last time I was there I was having a hard time to find a physical SIM for the phone I had then.
- slipheen 8mo agoI certainly do not want to try to talk you into this particular phone – but just in the general case so you know, it's pretty easy to get physical Sims that you can download an eSIM onto.
- Fnoord 8mo agoYeah but usually you need to use an app to upload the eSIM to the SIM card. And that app runs on a certain OS. Whether they run on SFOS, I do not know. It is worth finding out, if you can afford the time for the research.
- microtonal 8mo agoIn 2026, I would not want to travel to the US with a phone that does not have the level of device security of a Pixel with GrapheneOS or an iPhone. (I actually do not want to travel to the US, period. But that's a different story.)
- Fnoord 8mo agoIf you travel to communist/fascist or otherwise authoritarian [1] countries, use a burner. And if your boss wants you to go to USA, have the guts to say no. [1] Includes UK, as they have FDE unlock laws. No cooperation = years of prison.
- ozlikethewizard 8mo agoWould highly recommend not taking your actual phone to the US anyways
- craftkiller 8mo agoYou could purchase a physical sim card that you load eSims onto. Personally I own one from https://jmp.chat/esim-adapter https://jmp.chat/esim-adapter
- notorandit 8mo agoI would like it to have also hardware video output. Then I could become a PC in our pocket.
- fsflover 8mo agoLibrem 5 already exists: https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/ https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/
- curt15 8mo agoHow can a review of a smartphone not comment on how well it works as a phone? Calling, texting, and battery life are table stakes for a mobile phone, and the last time I heard about this device it was still struggling with those basics.
- notorandit 7mo agoHonestly I would not buy such a dock: same weight and size of a laptop without the power. But it's a cool idea.
- elseleigh 8mo agoI had a SailfishOS phone for four years; an Xperia XA2+. The operating system was wonderful, and being able to run Android apps when there was no alternative was a good way of filling in the gaps in the Jolla store. However, as I've got older I find large phones more and more unwieldy, and I couldn't find a small enough SailfishOS phone to switch to. I'm now running LineageOS on a Jelly Star. The form factor is perfect for me. Would I return to SailfishOS? Absolutely. But there'd need to be a small phone in the line up for me to migrate to.
- onli 8mo agoWhich version of LOS do you run exactly? Did you compile it yourself, or did you pick a pre-made version? One from XDA? I ask, because the device is not officially supported by LineageOS, but if it works well with a different approach it would be an interesting option for me as well.
- jzkdroid 8mo agoCan you use teams/outlook on your jelly star? I've been wondering how bad the ux could be in real world use.
- jcgl 8mo agoI had no idea that you could run Lineage on the Jelly Star! That sounds phenomenal. My dream phone is a Star running Graphene. But short of that, Lineage would be great. Any notes on your experience?
- bluebarbet 8mo agoDid not know about Lineage either, now I'm interested too. For the last 2 years I've been using a similar device from Unihertz's competitor, Cubot. Namely the King Kong Mini 3. No issues, very solid. Given how tiny it is, it gets lots of attention and marks me out as an eccentric (no objections). But stock Android, of course.
- igorramazanov 8mo agoNot an author, but I've been using Jelly Star with a stock Android for 2 years. Actually, typing this comment right now with this phone. 1. Keyboard: MessagEase or ThumbKey + Jelly Star is a perfect match. 2. Bitwarden passkeys + Firefox doesn't work. As I've researched, same with LineageOS. Didn't check Chrome, though. 3. All apps work without issues. Banking, Google Wallet, taxi, etc. It's a regular Android. 4. Battery isn't great, but charges fast and enough to carry on through the most of the day. 5. It's perfect for running or other outdoor activities. 6. 4G only, I sometimes also use it as an external modem for the laptop, and definitely would appreciate 5G. 7. Android 13 and no updates:/ All in all, I'm happy, but if I could foresee it advance, then I'd go with Jelly Max instead, because freshier Android version, Bitwarden + Firefox passkeys and 5G support. Unfortunately, Jelly Max a bit bigger than Jelly Star, but still much smaller than other regular smartphones.
- fractallyte 8mo agoRegarding the issues of banking apps: if the EU is serious about tech sovereignty, it's up to members to mandate that banks allow their apps to run on Sailfish, or other alternative operating systems. It really is as simple as that. (But whether any EU member is capable of rising to this (very shallow) challenge... well, I'm justifiably cynical.)
- written-beyond 8mo agoMan I really loved MeeGo, I was in my early teens when I got the N9 specifically because it was such a beautiful experiment from Nokia. Amoled display, MeeGo os and the polycarbonate shell. The phone was hot garbage technically, would over heat had 0 apps and had idle battery times worse than a cup of tea left out on a cold day. However the phone was such a work of art I could accept just about any flaw. Right after that I got a Blackberry Z10 and there's just something about the multitasking UI in both of these OSs' that just felt like it was the right way of doing it. Blackberry OS 10 and MeeGo where so wonderful, I truly had a rich experience of mobile phone OSs' growing up. I'm not sure about Jolla as much though. Like I enjoy having this additional option but I wished they digged deeper into features other than enhanced privacy. Not that I'm complaining, I enjoy having enhanced privacy but if they added more productivity features like the Blackberry Hub.
- carlosjobim 8mo agoNokia N9 still has the most modern and refined user interface, 15 years after being discontinued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFNXhiFnKY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFNXhiFnKY
- written-beyond 8mo agoBut it really was a once in a lifetime experimental device. The aesthetics were a little whack, in an endearing sort of way.
- Maken 8mo agoAnd they dropped this for that unfinished mess that was Windows Phone. I still don't understand what they were thinking at Nokia.
- butz 8mo agoThat camera bump, though. Maybe they could've shuffled components in such way, that phone would be overall smaller, but as deep as camera bump, to make whole back flat?
- _ZeD_ 8mo agoAm I the only one who use plastic covers? who cares about anything on the back of the phone?
- leke 8mo agoLooks like the Google news has peaked some interest. I'm currently waiting for my Xiaomi account to activate so I can unlock the bootloader and install Ubuntu touch on a Redmi 9.
- vrinsd 8mo agoI used Sailfish OS and so did several of my family members for many years. The "vanilla" Linux OS aspect (besides using rpm) makes it trivial to set up things like dnsmasq-adblocking, firewall rules, etc. Unfortunately, the Sailfish UI itself feels "different for the sake of different" and not because it's functionally more useful. I think the UI is pretty ugly and difficult to navigate. Anyone who "loved" Win8 tiles and/or Windows Mobile flat monochrome UI always praises the SailfishOS UI but outside of that small group I don't think the UI is that functional. It's definitely eschewed it's MeeGo / Nokia N9 UI heritage. What always surprised me about SFOS is despite running on some pretty decent hardware, the UI always felt sluggish, especially given it's kind of reversed-big-text UI paradigm which shouldn't take much work to render. I'm glad there's an alternative, but sad it's hasn't seen a reasonable set of UI improvements despite its age.
- usr1106 8mo agoI still use Sailfish daily. I have no problem with the UI, but their Firefox is seriously outdated and predictive text for the keyboard is no longer available.
- r-w 8mo agoAI slop article with telltale signs of poor writing that no one bothered editing. Better one from El Reg here dating back to last December: https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/jolla_sailfish_5_hands_on/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/jolla_sailfish_5_hand... Not sure why this is back in the news again now after almost 3 months, but Wired also has a more recent article here: https://www.wired.com/story/jolla-phone-2026/ https://www.wired.com/story/jolla-phone-2026/
- Sarkie 8mo agoWhat GPU?
- usr1106 8mo agoOn track? Jolla has a track record of shipping late (or not at all in an unfortunate case). So if they kept their promises this time I would be more than surprised. Still, I do hope and wish them that they can ship at some point in time without any major disaster. (Typed on SailfishOS)
- frogperson 7mo agoWill this include the idiotic age verification at the OS level that Meta has been lobbying for?