[HN Gopher] Jolla on track to ship new phone with Sailfish OS, u...
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Jolla on track to ship new phone with Sailfish OS, user-replaceable
battery
Author : heresie-dabord
Score : 172 points
Date : 2026-03-09 16:41 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (liliputing.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (liliputing.com)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Previously:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47216037
| rzerowan wrote:
| This 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 wrote:
| Jolla does have an arrangement with Sony, so there are a few
| other device options:
| https://docs.sailfishos.org/Support/Supported_Devices/
| rzerowan wrote:
| As 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 wrote:
| they 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 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| What network connectivity does it have for US?
| embedding-shape wrote:
| Someone 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):
|
| > 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 wrote:
| > 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
| kevvok wrote:
| Also missing Band 13, which is Verizon's main band for
| coverage
| shmerl wrote:
| Why aren't modern SoC modems just support all bands? How
| hard is it?
| microtonal wrote:
| Just 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).
| BenjiWiebe wrote:
| Some carriers also require your phone to be on their
| whitelist - for example AT&T.
|
| And Verizon claims they don't do it that way, but we had a
| phone that worked on Verizon with an old SIM card until
| Verizon caught on, and then suddenly it wasn't compatible
| with their network and couldn't be used on Verizon.
| drnick1 wrote:
| They 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 wrote:
| Agreed. Also, the second I found out that their entire UI stack
| is proprietary I lost all interest in that platform.
| fsflover wrote:
| Don't the security hardware features of the GrapheneOS phones
| also rely on proprietary software/firmware?
| jasonvorhe wrote:
| To 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 wrote:
| You'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 wrote:
| > They should have collaborated with GrapheneOS like Motorola
|
| Well, Motorola is already doing that :)
|
| I for one is happy that there is at least someone out there not
| happy with the status quo and go with something completely
| different and homegrown instead of just going with customizing
| Android and calling it a day.
| distances wrote:
| They didn't start from scratch, the first Jolla phone was
| released in 2013. The Sailfish OS continues the Maemo/MeeGo
| lineage that Nokia abandoned.
| mpol wrote:
| Did GrapheneOS even exist in 2012? There is history at play
| here, they are still building forward from the Nokia Linux
| phones.
|
| Also, what's up with all the sour grapes from people who use or
| develop GrapheneOS? There seems to be a general force
| dismissing Sailfish as insecure, without ever explaning how.
| Can't we just be friends in a de-googled world? Are people from
| Graphene feeling insecure about Sailfish as competition? It
| feels to me like infighting in small churches. It turns me off
| from ever considering GrapheneOS before I even looked into it.
| NicuCalcea wrote:
| Their entire raison d'etre is to make Sailfish OS (non-Android
| Linux) phones. I'm happy they're doing it. Graphene OS is great
| but it's just another Android ROM and still dependent on
| Google.
| NewJazz wrote:
| They could have done both. GrapheneOS is as dependent on
| google as their android app compatibility layrr, if I had to
| guess.
| miohtama wrote:
| They cannot, because for some reason GrapheneOS is shitting on
| them
|
| https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/2029651838975328512
| NicuCalcea wrote:
| Graphene OS really like to shit on competing projects, it
| seems. Maybe they're right, but it seems a bit obsessive.
|
| /e/OS: https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1946269698498105813
|
| iodeOS: https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1892555359656534284
|
| CalyxOS: https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1953856218931376421
|
| Unplugged:
| https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1861593971685798351
|
| PinePhone:
| https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1964441930760409499
| fsflover wrote:
| More projects:
|
| Kicksecure: https://forums.kicksecure.com/t/grapheneos-
| attacks-kicksecur...
|
| Purism Librem 5 and Pinephone:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47260196
| gruez wrote:
| Seems fair given that it was in response to a tweet referring
| to the phone as "ULTRA secure!"
| miohtama wrote:
| Yes but that was not from Jolla, but some random Twitter
| user.
|
| They were also shitting on it earlier in December, so
| GrapheneOS is probably run by some teenagers going through
| problematic puberty
|
| https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/115685433938468549
| gruez wrote:
| >Yes but that was not from Jolla, but some random Twitter
| user.
|
| So if a random auto blog was saying how Tesla FSD was
| "ULTRA reliable", it wouldn't be fair for Waymo (or
| anyone else) to reply back and point that out?
| drnick1 wrote:
| Is there anything inaccurate in that post by the Graphene
| devs however?
| heavyset_go wrote:
| This is part of the (spiritual) lineage of Meego/Maemo, it's
| much older than GrapheneOS and the latter is older than Android
| itself
|
| Anyway, it's as secure as any Linux distro as it uses the same
| standard stack as servers and desktops and does sandboxing[1],
| which is also really nice from a development perspective. You
| can harden it like you would a Linux box using standard Linux
| tools + kernel features.
|
| [1]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailfish_OS#Software_architect...
| poisonborz wrote:
| Jolla / 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 wrote:
| > 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 wrote:
| True, 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 wrote:
| Which is?
| poisonborz wrote:
| See my reply above
| tpoacher wrote:
| on 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.
| dijit wrote:
| > Jolla / Sailfish is a 13 year old project
|
| Realistically building a production quality database takes 10
| years. Building a production quality game engine takes 10
| years.
|
| They're building a mobile operating system _and_ the hardware
| it runs on; that 's harder and a moving target.
|
| How long do you think it takes to build a supply chain of
| hardware that doesn't suck (if it takes 2 years to get moving:
| you need to start with hardware specs for 2 years from now)
| _and_ an operating system that doesn 't suck when you're also
| trying to catch up to a major duopoly cranking out devices at
| an unfathomable volume, with more money than most nation
| states?
|
| Your standard is "succeed against Google and Apple within 13
| years on a shoestring budget with no volume discounts." How can
| any project clear that bar?
|
| What would you do?
| poisonborz wrote:
| > Your standard is "succeed against Google and Apple within
| 13 years..."
|
| Absolutely not. My standard is the many other AOSP-based ROMs
| communities and companies that were founded around them,
| having success within a few years - yes, they could lean on
| the ecosystem compatibility and didn't produce their own
| hardware, but maybe that's a more viable way to start?
|
| "shoestring budget with no volume discounts" does not explain
| the points of criticism above.
| dijit wrote:
| AOSP is just a totally different destination, it's not a
| faster route to the same one.
|
| Sailfish is spiritually MeeGo: actual Linux on the phone,
| not a custom skin on Google's foundations. Obviously it's
| faster to build a kit-car than a car factory, I don't see
| how that's a rebuttal, it's an entirely different
| conversation.
|
| An AOSP fork on Qualcomm hardware isn't independence. Jolla
| are actually trying to build the factory.
|
| The $50 fee and tablet scandal are fair hits- but fuck-ups
| don't make you a grifter, and we've forgiven larger players
| far worse.
|
| You still haven't said what you'd actually do.
| poisonborz wrote:
| Why is AOSP a wrong path? Why would it be "tainted"? Any
| large enough entity can fork. Hundreds already did,
| successfully. Even China couldn't do otherwise - via
| Huawei they mutated it to HarmonyOS (becoming much
| different from its roots, and incompatible to it,
| structurally becoming superior in many ways). Why throw
| away 20 years of development and a sea of dev experience?
|
| But even if you insist on a non-AOSP way: Supporting any
| other, more well regarded projects and initiatives?
| Random top of my head idea: motivate Fairphone (Denmark)
| to adopt some non-android OS like Ubuntu Touch?
| fsflover wrote:
| > Why is AOSP a wrong path?
|
| Because its existence relies on a good will of Google.
| See:
|
| Google will allow only apps from verified developers to
| be installed on Android (9to5google.com)
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45017028
|
| and
|
| GrapheneOS accessed Android security patches but not
| allowed to publish sources (grapheneos.social)
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45208925
|
| > Any large enough entity can fork.
|
| Only megacorps will likely be able to support a hard fork
| for such a large codebase.
|
| > Hundreds already did, successfully.
|
| Which of them are hard forks? China will not be a
| benevolent dictator of AOSP
|
| > Fairphone
|
| It's Android again.
|
| There are indeed non-Android alternatives, but not in
| Europe. I use Librem 5 btw.
| charcircuit wrote:
| >Because its existence relies on a good will of Google
|
| AOSP is open source. Anyone can fork it.
|
| >Google will allow only apps from verified developers
|
| This is done by Play Services which is not included in
| AOSP even.
|
| >Only megacorps will likely be able to support a hard
| fork for such a large codebase.
|
| The same can be said about any operating system. The
| scope of an operating system is huge.
| fsflover wrote:
| > The same can be said about any operating system.
|
| GNU/Linux is already supported without a (single)
| megacorp. So not all OSes have this problem.
| charcircuit wrote:
| Most of Linux is written by corporations and that's just
| a kernel, not a full operating system like ChromeOS which
| took Google to be able to build.
| fsflover wrote:
| I updated my comment to indicate GNU/Linux.
| mpol wrote:
| @charcircuit
|
| Sailfish is more like GNU/Linux, that is the OS in this
| context. For Jolla that is less code to maintain
| themselves then what Google maintains in Android/Linux.
| Hard forking Android/Linux looks to be quite a big bite
| to chew on.
| charcircuit wrote:
| Jolla doesn't need to hard fork AOSP. They can continue
| to benefit from the billions of dollars Google infests
| into AOSP and Android.
| dijit wrote:
| infests is a nice freudian slip.
|
| When millions of dollars support a feature, that feature
| beats others- even technically superior ones, on the
| basis of support and polish.
|
| We're all playing to the tune of what Google wants
| because Google has the power.
|
| Imagine a world where theres no Linux because MacOS and
| Windows paid lip service to people using partially
| functional derivatives of their OS's, they'd still push
| things like liquid ass and windows recall, and those
| features would be spidered in.
|
| Then people would be saying "don't use linux, you can
| just use WinCore" Even though using Wincore is aiding
| Windows commercial interests over those of the industry
| as a whole.
| microtonal wrote:
| I don't see the issue of using AOSP. You get to skip the
| many years that Sailfish OS will still need in user
| testing. You get to skip all the possible
| incompatibilities with Android apps through the
| compatibility layer. AOSP is also Linux on the phone. I
| guess you mean GNU/Linux on the phone, but AOSP now also
| has official support for a Linux VM (you want a VM
| because traditional desktop Linux security is not great).
| They are even adding support for running Wayland apps.
| With the recently-added desktop support, you can plug a
| phone into an external screen and you'll have a desktop
| with Android apps and Linux desktop apps.
|
| I think the chance of Google completely closing AOSP is
| pretty small, AOSP being open maintains a power
| equilibrium between Google and other OEMs. Closing up
| AOSP carries the huge risk that Samsung and some other
| big OEMs will fork it and Google has essentially lost the
| whole market overnight. I am pretty sure this is why
| Samsung phones also have the Galaxy Store with a bunch of
| apps like Netflix in it. The Galaxy Store is Samsung's
| subtle message to Google saying: don't try to rein us in,
| we can cut you out.
|
| That said, even if Google closes AOSP, forking it and
| maintaining it as an open project is going to be _far
| less_ work than brining Sailfish OS to the level of
| polish, security, etc. of AOSP.
| toast0 wrote:
| > Jolla / 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.
|
| Sure, but somehow RCS is viable in 2026. Old projects can come
| back!
| badgersnake wrote:
| I got burned with the tablet too. Still have the phone and the
| first one t-shirt that went with it, as well as a Nokia N9.
|
| And I agree, it's turned into a bandwagon grift. They're also
| selling AI boxes that do who knows what.
| furryrain wrote:
| "- buggy Android compatibility and near zero native devs, all
| jumped ship"
|
| I'm a bit confused by this. Are you saying that the developers
| who once wrote native Sailfish OS apps are no longer writing
| those native apps?
|
| Is there any hope for using the responsive libadwaita programs
| from the Mobile Linux space? I realise this isn't particularly
| large, but it is active.
| mpol wrote:
| > Is there any hope for using the responsive libadwaita
| programs from the Mobile Linux space?
|
| Currently not, if I understand correctly. There are plans to
| update or rewrite the Wayland compositor. If all goes well it
| should support GTK programs and I assume libadwaita too.
| _imnothere wrote:
| So many years and they can't(or refuse to?) ship to Asia,
| ridiculous.
| muhehe wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| I won't dispute you. Maybe it evolved into more usable state,
| but the beginings had many problems and rough edges.
| Matl wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Americans/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 wrote:
| _> 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.
| chrononaut wrote:
| > The devices will not carry the band support needed for these
| markets.
|
| Their technical specifications state:
|
| > Cellular: 4G + 5G with dual nano-SIM and global roaming modem
| configuration[0]
|
| Is that implying "global" is actually not global?
|
| [0] https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorder
| nottorp wrote:
| Are 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...
| poulpy123 wrote:
| Afaik there is an android compatibility layer but I don't know
| if it allows banking apps to works
| HNisCIS wrote:
| Maybe 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 wrote:
| For quite many banks a mobile phone is now the only 2FA
| they support.
| nottorp wrote:
| Or 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 wrote:
| So switch the bank? Worked for me.
| nottorp wrote:
| I'm doing the research ofc. Have other things to look for
| besides not being dependent on a phone so it will take a
| bit.
| NewJazz wrote:
| So glad my brokerage supports good old totp.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Paying for things? Transferring money? What else do you do
| with a bank account?
| bluebarbet wrote:
| If we were rational creatures we might choose to do such
| things while seated at home in front of a comfortably
| sized screen, rather than squinting at a pocket gadget on
| a street corner.
| Tade0 wrote:
| MFA largely, some banks also provide wallets for
| contactless payments.
|
| I refuse to have my browser fingerprinted as a "trusted
| device" because part my bank is just bad at it.
| lukeasch21 wrote:
| It would not in principle, those rely on hardware backed keys
| with Google's latest iteration of Google Play Integrity. The
| only success people have had is by using leaked vendor keys
| and spoofing device fingerprints for old A11-era devices
| which did not have the hardware baked in. In time even this
| avenue will no longer work. People have been trying to get
| around it for a while [1] but afaik the concept is
| cryptographically airtight.
|
| [1] https://xdaforums.com/t/discussion-the-root-and-mod-
| hiding-f...
| jeroenhd wrote:
| My banking app works fine on a rooted phone that I don't
| bother faking a proper Play Integrity signature for. Except
| for a warning about the phone being rooted when setting it
| up, of course. I'm not 100% sure what happens when you have
| integrity and lose it by rooting your phone, but I imagine
| the bank app will log you out.
|
| Bank apps only stop working because banks decided they know
| better than you.
|
| Unfortunately my bank also switched to Google Pay which
| does require Play Integrity, so contactless payments are
| out of the question on that phone now. Maybe if Wero
| compatible terminals extend support for QR payments I could
| use my bank app again on that phone.
| BoredPositron wrote:
| If you use it without compatibility layer it's probably on the
| same level as a kaios phone. There is a lot of slop on the
| sailfish store.
| rolandog wrote:
| They will be able to do banking at least once the legislators
| tear down the walled gardens in a sensible way. Are the
| security benefits from the Appstore/Playstore real or security
| theatre?
|
| I'm pretty sure that, if there are security benefits, they have
| been artificially tied to the use of the company's distribution
| method, that coincidentally really needs to be sending usage
| statistics, monitoring, etc. Surely there exist no conflicts of
| interest to be found.
| Cpoll wrote:
| Would you bet _your_ company on that happening soon? :)
| ece wrote:
| A similar question could be asked of the banks too.
| rolandog wrote:
| Ha! Well, not right _now_! Previous to the last year or so,
| this wouldn 't have escalated to the current situation
| where we're actively having to be wary of fending off Big
| Brother or blatant power grabs.
|
| However, given that we're talking about a European phone,
| I'm willing to bet that this type of effort goes hand in
| hand with decoupling from American-backed services (at
| least for those who've seen the writing on the wall and
| understand the risk to their sovereignty if they put all
| their eggs on an American basket).
| gbrindisi wrote:
| fifteen years ago I use to do mobile pentests for banks and
| when we could not find anything significant for the reports
| we could've always count on "lack of rooting detection" and
| pin the risk on some vague mobile banking malware threat
| pushed by marketing. I am sorry I contributed to this
| nonsense.
|
| 100% security theater, and here we are.
| rolandog wrote:
| It's understandable; I would maybe expect to undergo an
| extra step in verification for a sensitive app like, "we
| noticed this is the first time you are using this system
| that is not locked down; please type in the token we have
| mailed you".
|
| But locking users out (which may not directly be the bank's
| fault for relying on OS's security APIs) seems anti-
| competitive.
| amarant wrote:
| Looks like the Swedish bankid at the very least actually does
| work on sailfish[1]!
|
| Not sure about equivalent apps for other regions, but I don't
| see why they shouldn't work.
|
| [1] https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/swedish-bank-id-
| swish/11781/3
| carlosjobim wrote:
| You are allowed to have more than one cell phone.
| logicchains wrote:
| The vast majority of people on this site can afford a couple
| hundred dollars for a basic Android phone that's used only for
| tasks like that, and as a bonus it's safer than having banking
| apps on your main phone. Anyone who isn't willing to spend a
| couple hundred bucks on the freedom to run whatever software
| they want on their phone probably doesn't consider software
| freedom a priority anyway.
| moobsen wrote:
| I just switched to a Fairphone 5 with e/OS, which is a de-
| googled Android (it uses microG), and am pleasantly surprised
| how well everything works. My banking apps work, contacts and
| calendar lived on nextcloud already, the learning apps I use
| work. The two things I have to get used to is not having google
| maps, but the map app on there has also worked fine for me so
| far. And casting to a Chromecast doesn't really work for me,
| but I can live without that.
| Fnoord wrote:
| If you want, we can ritually bury your Chromecast? I'll bring
| the marshmallows, spiders, and the Necronomicon. Oh, and two
| of my old Chromecasts, rotting in a drawer.
| Fnoord wrote:
| If you don't expect Google Pay / Apple Pay to work? Yes.
| There's a thread on the SFOS forums dedicated to this [1].
|
| [1] https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/banking-apps-on-sailfish-
| os/1...
| iamnothere wrote:
| They are European, certainly the Euros could come up with some
| regulation to force banks etc to support a Euro phone. I'd
| actually welcome this as more competition is better and we
| can't seem to kill the duopoly here in the US.
| kombine wrote:
| The 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 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Yeah 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 wrote:
| In 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 wrote:
| If 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 wrote:
| Would highly recommend not taking your actual phone to the US
| anyways
| notorandit wrote:
| I would like it to have also hardware video output.
|
| Then I could become a PC in our pocket.
| fsflover wrote:
| Librem 5 already exists: https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-
| of-librem-5-convergence/
| curt15 wrote:
| How 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.
| fsflover wrote:
| I wrote a bit here
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45276516 and here
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39461180.
| teddyh wrote:
| I think your information is very out of date.
| elseleigh wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Which 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 wrote:
| Can you use teams/outlook on your jelly star? I've been
| wondering how bad the ux could be in real world use.
| jcgl wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Did 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 wrote:
| Not 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.
| owaislone wrote:
| I had a Nokia N9 or was it N7 that ran the predecessor OS to
| Sailfish. It was so good back then. The UX left android and iOS
| in dust. Both ended up adopting a lot of patterns from it
| later. Loved that phone.
| fractallyte wrote:
| Regarding 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 wrote:
| Man 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 wrote:
| Nokia N9 still has the most modern and refined user interface,
| 15 years after being discontinued:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFNXhiFnKY
| written-beyond wrote:
| But it really was a once in a lifetime experimental device.
| The aesthetics were a little whack, in an endearing sort of
| way.
| butz wrote:
| That 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?
| leke wrote:
| Looks 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.
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