13 ms·

Finnish MeeGo Startup Jolla Reveals First Phone With Customisable Shells

110 points by Tsiolkovsky 13y ago

zokier 13y ago
I sure hope that the back-cover thingy is more than just splash of color. Well, maybe they are trying to score some nostalgia points from old 5110/3310 users :)
- twelvechairs 13y ago
  Is it that bad? People cover their shiny iphone with uglier cases. My nexus4 has a tacky shiny circle pattern that was deliberately put there by Google (or whoever). I honestly don't mind a simple colour rear cover.
  - zokier 13y ago
    It's not that bad, but the amount of emphasis such a mundane feature gets in the marketing seems bit worrying if there is nothing more in it.
    - russellsprouts 13y ago
      I think the plan is that the "Other Half" can actually contain hardware that augments the capabilities of the phone.
- Geee 13y ago
  There's some sort of NFC detection of the current cover and apparently you can hack some settings based on which cover you're currently using. See http://www.jolla.com http://www.jolla.com and scroll down.
  - easytiger 13y ago
    that is a painfully bad gimmick.
    - mst 13y ago
      That depends on how much it affects the display - if snapping a cover on and off is easy, I could see myself using a blue and an orange one as a sort of hardware f.lux switch.
fakeer 13y ago
Looks very good. Was the back cover added just for show to this sleek phone or it actually covers sth bulged?
- andor 13y ago
  It covers the removable battery. I don't like the sandwich look, it's a design trick to make the phone appear thinner. The front half by itself isn't bad, with clean lines and no silly "design elements" that don't add to usability.
dreen 13y ago
I was kind of hoping the cover would slide to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, it was one of the main reasons I got the N900 which I use to this day. Its getting pretty dated so it will probably be either Jolla or a FFOS phone, which is looking pretty good too. In fact, if there is anything low-endish on FFOS with a QWERTY ill probably just get that. Edit: I should probably say I'm also using a low-end Samsung with Android, and its a pretty shitty experience, although only half of that is due to Android OS (signing me out in weird moments, things unremovable from notifications, poor task management etc), granted Im probably stuck on some old version.
- ido 13y ago
  I've used firefox-os (the developer release phone) & I honestly don't see any significant improvement over ios or android. It mostly felt like a much slower version of android tbh. I would wager that your shitty experience is due to under-powered phone with old 2.x os. A high end device with up do date 4.x would be much more pleasurable to use.
  - phillc73 13y ago
    I have a Samsung GT-S5830i. I don't have a lot of additional apps installed - maybe two games and a Twitter profile manager. It, generally, feels sluggish when switching between applications, such as messaging to web browsing. My new Geeksphone Keon with FirefoxOS feels much more responsive than the Samsung with Android. And the Firefox browser works much better on the Keon! Unfortunately, a couple of functionality things with the Keon prevent me from migrating across - as far as I can see contacts can only be imported from Facebook or a SIM card. Also email only supports some webmail options (e.g. Gmail) and IMAP, no POP3 or Exchange server support. I'm not complaining though, as I know it's a developer release. I'm just hopeful someone with better skills than me will enhance the relevant applications. With respect to this Jolla article, I'm unimpressed the phone is priced so high. My initially gut feel when I saw the article was "damn, I just got this FirefoxOS phone." After reading that the price point for Jolla is EUR399, I'm pretty happy with my EUR125 Keon purchase.
    - 13y ago
networked 13y ago
>Jolla’s handset will cost €399 ($513) and is slated to ship at the end of the year. I find Sailfish an interesting product due to its technological heritage but that is rather a lot. I wonder what their marketing strategy is for this device. From a developer's perspective you can't help but compare that price to how much it would cost to get a Firefox OS development unit. FxOS also promises you access to a larger, if less affluent, audience. On the other hand, a higher price might prevent the kind of shortages we are currently seeing with Geeksphone Keon and Peak.
- shared4you 13y ago
  Yup, like one of the comments mentioned: a Chinese's salary is 600€/month so spending 400€ is exorbitant. Salaries in India and some eastern European countries are equally low. I would've bought it if it were 200 - 300€. FxOS looks promising on low-end market: my Peak is working very well so far :) I'll wait until Q4/2013 or Q1/2014 to see if they release a cheaper model. [edit: other EE countries -> some EE countries]
  - dreen 13y ago
    For the record, India is not in Eastern Europe and the wages and quality of life here are a HELL OF A LOT better than in India. edit: but yeah, jolla is too expensive.
    - adamors 13y ago
      In some Eastern European countries the average salary is below 450€/month.
      - cpursley 13y ago
        Which ones?
        networked 13y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_in_Europe_by_monthly_average_wage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_in_Europe_by... (sort by "net $")
Systemic33 13y ago
After reading i felt like their main selling point was the customisable shells, which indeed is a nice feature, but nothing that would make people switch in my opinion. Is this a special video just focused on the shell or is this really what their marketing wants to display?
dools 13y ago
God I wish one of these companies would release a decent candy bar qwerty. Am I really the only one??
- blub 13y ago
  What about Blackberry Q10, or the likely more affordable Q5?
- Zigurd 13y ago
  Nokia has announced an Asha with a qwerty keypad.
- GoodIntentions 13y ago
  nope. I use an N900 to this day, despite having to use a terrible service provider to get support for the phone's frequencies in my area. Hardware keyboard on a phone I can ssh from or I'm not upgrading.
Eeko 13y ago
What kind of connector in the Other Half? If it can be used for a battery extension and/or qwerty, count me in!
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
scrumper 13y ago
First smartphone maybe, but not first phone. It's appropriate that a team of ex-Nokia people have recycled the idea of Xpress-On covers.
Zigurd 13y ago
This will be interesting to see. Of all the new entrants with new mobile OSs, Jolla has the most experienced crew. They also chose Qt as an app runtime, so they do not rely on Web apps to become mature and efficient on mobile hardware. Since it does not rely on anything heavy-weight, the Sailfish OS should scale down to budget smartphone hardware at least as well as Android. The also have a lot of drive to prove Nokia wrong, much the same way Andy Rubin was driven to succeed after Danger failed to make headway with OEMs and carriers. There is a lot to be said for the power of smart pissed-off people.
msh 13y ago
The specs sound ok for the price, but then it will be available by end of year... It sounds like too weaks specs for the price compared to what you will be able to get at that time.
zokier 13y ago
So the main launch present is over now. They didn't tell anything new about anything. I hope the press can get something out of the Jolla guys, I felt bit disappointed. Not about the device (pretty much impossible to be disappointed about something I know nothing about), but about the event.
- nvrmor 13y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno
candl 13y ago
hands-on demo of the device: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno

110 points by Tsiolkovsky 13y ago

I sure hope that the back-cover thingy is more than just splash of color. Well, maybe they are trying to score some nostalgia points from old 5110/3310 users :)

twelvechairs 13y ago
Is it that bad? People cover their shiny iphone with uglier cases. My nexus4 has a tacky shiny circle pattern that was deliberately put there by Google (or whoever). I honestly don't mind a simple colour rear cover.
- zokier 13y ago
  It's not that bad, but the amount of emphasis such a mundane feature gets in the marketing seems bit worrying if there is nothing more in it.
  - russellsprouts 13y ago
    I think the plan is that the "Other Half" can actually contain hardware that augments the capabilities of the phone.
Geee 13y ago
There's some sort of NFC detection of the current cover and apparently you can hack some settings based on which cover you're currently using. See http://www.jolla.com http://www.jolla.com and scroll down.
- easytiger 13y ago
  that is a painfully bad gimmick.
  - mst 13y ago
    That depends on how much it affects the display - if snapping a cover on and off is easy, I could see myself using a blue and an orange one as a sort of hardware f.lux switch.

fakeer 13y ago

Looks very good. Was the back cover added just for show to this sleek phone or it actually covers sth bulged?

andor 13y ago
It covers the removable battery. I don't like the sandwich look, it's a design trick to make the phone appear thinner. The front half by itself isn't bad, with clean lines and no silly "design elements" that don't add to usability.

dreen 13y ago

I was kind of hoping the cover would slide to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, it was one of the main reasons I got the N900 which I use to this day. Its getting pretty dated so it will probably be either Jolla or a FFOS phone, which is looking pretty good too. In fact, if there is anything low-endish on FFOS with a QWERTY ill probably just get that. Edit: I should probably say I'm also using a low-end Samsung with Android, and its a pretty shitty experience, although only half of that is due to Android OS (signing me out in weird moments, things unremovable from notifications, poor task management etc), granted Im probably stuck on some old version.

ido 13y ago
I've used firefox-os (the developer release phone) & I honestly don't see any significant improvement over ios or android. It mostly felt like a much slower version of android tbh. I would wager that your shitty experience is due to under-powered phone with old 2.x os. A high end device with up do date 4.x would be much more pleasurable to use.
- phillc73 13y ago
  I have a Samsung GT-S5830i. I don't have a lot of additional apps installed - maybe two games and a Twitter profile manager. It, generally, feels sluggish when switching between applications, such as messaging to web browsing. My new Geeksphone Keon with FirefoxOS feels much more responsive than the Samsung with Android. And the Firefox browser works much better on the Keon! Unfortunately, a couple of functionality things with the Keon prevent me from migrating across - as far as I can see contacts can only be imported from Facebook or a SIM card. Also email only supports some webmail options (e.g. Gmail) and IMAP, no POP3 or Exchange server support. I'm not complaining though, as I know it's a developer release. I'm just hopeful someone with better skills than me will enhance the relevant applications. With respect to this Jolla article, I'm unimpressed the phone is priced so high. My initially gut feel when I saw the article was "damn, I just got this FirefoxOS phone." After reading that the price point for Jolla is EUR399, I'm pretty happy with my EUR125 Keon purchase.
  - 13y ago

networked 13y ago

>Jolla’s handset will cost €399 ($513) and is slated to ship at the end of the year. I find Sailfish an interesting product due to its technological heritage but that is rather a lot. I wonder what their marketing strategy is for this device. From a developer's perspective you can't help but compare that price to how much it would cost to get a Firefox OS development unit. FxOS also promises you access to a larger, if less affluent, audience. On the other hand, a higher price might prevent the kind of shortages we are currently seeing with Geeksphone Keon and Peak.

shared4you 13y ago
Yup, like one of the comments mentioned: a Chinese's salary is 600€/month so spending 400€ is exorbitant. Salaries in India and some eastern European countries are equally low. I would've bought it if it were 200 - 300€. FxOS looks promising on low-end market: my Peak is working very well so far :) I'll wait until Q4/2013 or Q1/2014 to see if they release a cheaper model. [edit: other EE countries -> some EE countries]
- dreen 13y ago
  For the record, India is not in Eastern Europe and the wages and quality of life here are a HELL OF A LOT better than in India. edit: but yeah, jolla is too expensive.
  - adamors 13y ago
    In some Eastern European countries the average salary is below 450€/month.
    - cpursley 13y ago
      Which ones?
      - networked 13y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_in_Europe_by_monthly_average_wage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_in_Europe_by... (sort by "net $")

Systemic33 13y ago

After reading i felt like their main selling point was the customisable shells, which indeed is a nice feature, but nothing that would make people switch in my opinion. Is this a special video just focused on the shell or is this really what their marketing wants to display?

dools 13y ago

God I wish one of these companies would release a decent candy bar qwerty. Am I really the only one??

blub 13y ago
What about Blackberry Q10, or the likely more affordable Q5?
Zigurd 13y ago
Nokia has announced an Asha with a qwerty keypad.
GoodIntentions 13y ago
nope. I use an N900 to this day, despite having to use a terrible service provider to get support for the phone's frequencies in my area. Hardware keyboard on a phone I can ssh from or I'm not upgrading.

Eeko 13y ago

What kind of connector in the Other Half? If it can be used for a battery extension and/or qwerty, count me in!

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

scrumper 13y ago

First smartphone maybe, but not first phone. It's appropriate that a team of ex-Nokia people have recycled the idea of Xpress-On covers.

Zigurd 13y ago

This will be interesting to see. Of all the new entrants with new mobile OSs, Jolla has the most experienced crew. They also chose Qt as an app runtime, so they do not rely on Web apps to become mature and efficient on mobile hardware. Since it does not rely on anything heavy-weight, the Sailfish OS should scale down to budget smartphone hardware at least as well as Android. The also have a lot of drive to prove Nokia wrong, much the same way Andy Rubin was driven to succeed after Danger failed to make headway with OEMs and carriers. There is a lot to be said for the power of smart pissed-off people.

msh 13y ago

The specs sound ok for the price, but then it will be available by end of year... It sounds like too weaks specs for the price compared to what you will be able to get at that time.

zokier 13y ago

So the main launch present is over now. They didn't tell anything new about anything. I hope the press can get something out of the Jolla guys, I felt bit disappointed. Not about the device (pretty much impossible to be disappointed about something I know nothing about), but about the event.

nvrmor 13y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno

candl 13y ago

hands-on demo of the device: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxv7iXwIgno