As someone who cut their teeth on Maemo (the N800/N900 still live in my basement) and carried the first Jolla dev device, I like to pull out my SailfishOS phones every few months to see how things are progressing. Here’s where I’m at in September 2025.
↫ Nick Schmidt
I was one of the very first people to review the original Jolla Phone way back in 2014, and I also happen to own the quite rare Jolla Tablet, so I was definitely a serious backer and believer in the platform back when it first entered the market. Sadly, the pace of improvements was slow, and failed adventures and mismanagement eventually led to the platform almost dying out. It’s only in recent years that they’ve been back on track and Sailfish OS is a more serious option again, but reading through Nick Schmidt’s findings, it seems the same problems still haunt the platform.
And we all know what the main problem will be: application availability. In your day-to-day use, you’re going to be spending a lot of time using the Android compatibility layer, because native Sailfish applications simply don’t pull their weight. This leads to the age-old problem of any operating system that loses focus on native applications and opts to go all-in on compatibility layers or ports instead, and int he case of Sailfish that means: why run Sailfish to run Android applications poorly, when you can also just run Android? And why develop native applications, when your Android build can run using the compatibility layer? OS/2 (with Windows applications) and Haiku (with Qt/GTK applications) suffer from the same problem.
Apparently, the Jolla C2 phone is not exactly great either, and doesn’t showcase Sailfish properly, and Sailfish’s keyboard is still unpleasant to use, a problem I also had in my original review so many years ago. There are some bright spots, too; the swipe-based navigation is still great, and apparently Wi-Fi connectivity is much more stable now. Still, it seems like Sailfish is suffering from more or less exactly the kind of problems you’d expect a small platform to suffer from, and whether or not you can deal with those problems is a more a question of dedication than just altering some use patterns.
Android and iOS, though illegal practices, have sucked all the air out of the room, and I doubt we’re ever going to get any of it back.
If they want Sailfish to succeed they need to release a new phone at least each 12-18 months.
This was what spoiled an otherwise phenomenal experience I had with the Blackberry Passport. The hardware was absolutely perfect, and BBOS was amazing for what it was, but I simply had to use the Android app store to be able to use it as a daily driver. Ultimately, with the demise of BBOS I was forced to go back to boring slabs.
Morgan,
I prefer the physical keyboards too. In some ways technology has regressed. Data entry on glass slabs remains highly inefficient and misclicks can be annoying too. Still, glass slabs are more “futuristic” and cheaper to produce, so they won. The same could happen to cars – replace all tactile controls with touchscreens – if regulators don’t step in over safety concerns, It’s also happening to major appliances where interfaces are built into a slab of class rather than having discrete controls. My main gripe with these is that when they break, the whole thing may become garbage that isn’t worth fixing since repair parts & labor can cost as much as buying a new unit.
@Alfman
Even the “glass slabs” from Blackberry were far better than today. I had a Z30 and it was by far the best phone I ever owned and I still feel that Blackberry 10 OS was the best mobile operating system ever. Even in 2013 it had no physical buttons and so the OS was designed completely around gestures. Many of them have been adopted by Android and iOS since but neither has really caught up. And Blackberry Hub was light-years ahead of anything I have encountered since. Blackberry Messenger was way ahead of its time as well of course. I would say that we have surpassed it but that is certainly not true from a security standpoint. Even unlocking my Z30 felt cooler and more advanced than unlocking my iPhone.
Even Blackberry could not mimic Blackberry 10 on Android. The hub in particular just never got there.
There is a reason these things still command hundreds of dollars despite being stone age tech from a hardware perspective.
I would still buy a Passport today but I do not think it can even be activated in my country anymore. And certainly the app selection would just be too limited. I am not sure if the Android emulation would even function with the apps out now and, if it did, the device would be too slow for them.
That thing has a cult following. I mean, why? Apart from the incredible keyboard/touch pad combo allowing me to just swing around text making wilful edits all while scrolling my main text and so on. Hell, I could actually type on it while looking elsewhere. The screen “gestures” for app switch/”home” are common now but just worked (they had this in the PlayBook). The 7 color LED notifier so I could put my friends/lovers/family in, say, purple and boring stuff in green, super important is red. Or the real head phone jack, memory card and so on.
I had to let it go in the end. After a few years of software rot it became increasingly difficult to even visit websites without add root certs and the like and, well, that smack of effort – it is just a phone. I joined the Cult of Apple and I still curse this f’n touch keyboard daily.
As opposed to operating systems like BeOS and Windows Phone that had no compatibility layers to run apps intended for other OSes and were commercial successes because developers rushed to develop native apps for their single-digit market share installed base… oh, never mind, that never happened.
Especially when it came to Windows Phone, Microsoft shovelled a ton of money into the combustion chamber of that little train that couldn’t (paying developers like Gameloft to port games), and it still was an OS with a poor app ecosystem.
Meanwhile, I can point to at least two OSes that benefitted greatly from the ability to run apps intended for other OSes: Initial versions of MacOS X (capable of running Classic MacOS apps, which was a completely different OS despite the branding) and Steam OS.
The secret?
– The experience was/is reasonably polished
– The OS offered a genuine value proposition compared to the OS whose apps it runs.
Which brings me to Jolla: As an Android user, what is the value proposition for me? Jolla goes for the same “open-source with proprietary bits” arrangement that Android 2.2 had (my first Android version). I’ve been burned by this arrangement before, and I know I will be burned by this arrangement again in the oft chance Jolla becomes reasonably successful. They already had the nerve to charge a €25 yearly subscription despite charging you for the device and despite keeping the OS semi-proprietary, so I ask again: What is the value proposition for me?
Ubuntu Touch had it planned. Convergence. If someone does this reasonably well it can have a change.
Windows 10 Mobile also offered “convergence” aka desktop mode, and on a desktop people were actually familiar with. People were still not willing to give up the iOS and Android app ecosystems for such a rarely-used feature.
I had an N810, then an N9 as my first smartphone, then got a used Nexus 5 since it was one of the few devices that could run MeeGo. When it died I bought a Sony Xperia X since it was supported by Sailfish OS but I never got around to actually switching it off the Android install it came with. (I also had a Planet Computers Gemini PDA, but I don’t remember ever managing to get Sailfish to work on it and it was too big for me to use as my phone although it was a fun palmtop for a while… and then the battery expanded and replacing it wasn’t worth it for how little use I was getting out of it.)
As mentioned in the article, I do remember the gestures system feeling better than Android’s version. But the main thing I miss is the unified messaging. Since the default chat client used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepathy_(software) messaging people on different protocols was transparent. I could see a single chat history for a contact that blended SMS (… MMS support wasn’t great; hopefully that has been fixed), XMPP (Google Talk), and even AIM (uh, this was a long time ago). There was no concept of needing to install another app to chat with people using a different service; you install the client for the service and it seamlessly appears in the same UI. Google and Apple could have done the same, but they wanted to push their own chat protocols, which mainly actually ended up benefiting Meta, since it means a lot of people use FB Messenger and WhatsApp and for many users there’s a lot of resistance to installing yet another chat app.
(On my current Android phone, this is “solved” since I *mostly* use Signal, but I have some contacts still on SMS/MMS/RCS and also occasionally use Discord DMs.)
I think SailfishOS works quite well with self-hosted software and should continue down this path, alongside being a choice for data sovereignity, While in the consumer space it wouldn’t achieve non-geek market share, they could promote themselves as a serious solution for businesses that want security and no US Big Tech involvement.
This also means that they could focus on connecting to a few major APIs in this space instead of chasing apps for various random services that at some point will no longer work.
For example, my Xperia Plus (besides being a lovely phone with a huge 21:9 display) can connect perfectly to my self-hosted instances of Nextcloud & Jellyfin, has fine e-mail, podcast & ebook support and a Signal client, all without touching the Android layer.
I can’t use it as my only phone due to the poor camera (something which is the case for all the officially supported Xperias & Jolla’s own offerings), all the native navigation options are terrible and one would have to check that their banking app is compatible with the Android support, but these are the only 3 showstoppers from my point of view. “Social media” is a shithole anyway (and the Android apps do work for that), but the fact that after all these years there is no polished OpenStreetMaps client on any platform is a real shame and the insistence on not using A-GPS for privacy reasons leads to a mid-90s geolocation experience, which I don’t think is tolerable. Camera-wise, they really need to offer a phone with working OIS, I can live without the post-processed “faux-tography” crap, but no OIS means you’re not taking any decent picture in anything other than perfect sunshine. The Nexus 5 had OIS eons ago, WTF.
The EU should heavily invest in Jolla so that they can expand their team, partner officially with a decent phone manufacturer like Fairphone and come out with a proper offering both hardware & software-wise. The level of investment required for this is pocket change for the EU, but would mean that, at least for work, citizens could use a non-Big Tech phone and couldn’t have their accounts disabled at the whim of the US. This and a major public cloud offering really need to be a priority for the EU tech-wise.
I’m not sure Jolla is a good fit for heavy investment by the EU — other member countries will cry foul even if Jolla opened offices in other countries. It would certainly be hard to get the EU Commission and Parliament to go along with this.
I think the least flawed option is to create something like a ‘functioning research mobile OS’ similar to the way CERN operates, with a dash of the ESA.
Ah yes, let’s force Jolla to open an office in every EU country, this will give them the speed they need to take on the Apples and Googles. And knowing how the EU works, this might actually happen if they decided to invest in Jolla.
Not that the EU really cares about “digital sovereignty”, there are government apps out there that are only available on iOS and Android, and the Android version requires Play Services. When discussing EU announcements, the first thing to do is to clarify whether we are talking about lip service (“digital sovereignty”) or whether they plan to do something about it.
Well, the digital sovereignity discussion only really started becoming a major thing since a certain US election in the past year, so it’s not like they’ve really had time to refactor all their apps to not require Play Services (and when talking about “government apps” there are not a lot of “EU” apps anyway, every country has to do this by themselves).
As for spreading the load so as not to favor one country, I’ve already mentioned 2 (Finland for Jolla, The Netherlands for Fairphone), it’s not like there’s a law that says ESA & co. have to use all 27 countries in order to exist, in time if expertise or manufacturing capability exists for a certain aspect in another country, it can be added to the project. There’s no reason to start from scratch…and the banking app availability can be resolved by regulating it, making it mandatory to have at least a non-Play Services version of EU banking apps.
> other member countries will cry foul
Why would they? Apart from the few hobbyist-size android flavours, they don’t have a single alternative.
You clearly don’t know how the EU works. It’s actually quite rare for the member states to align on anything — most of the time the countries are out looking out for themselves. This results in a lot of stalemates, compromises and quid pro quo. For example, countries like Greece and Romania would absolutely oppose heavy investment going to a private company in one of the EU’s top 10 economies.
And those countries would require a piece from the pork barrel to soothe their concerns, and that’s why governments (or the EU) shouldn’t pretend to be a business. See the SLS in the US for another such boondoggle: Committing to obsolete non-reusable rocket technology because governments can’t cancel work they’ve already parcelled out to subcontractors and Boeing having to spread work among 48 out of 50 states to placate senators.
The best the government can do is regulate, for example, mandating Jolla support in government and banking apps, but they won’t do even that, because all the talk in the EU about “digital sovereignty” is just lip service. Nobody in the EU thinks Europe can compete with the Googles and Apples and Microsofts in the OS and API ecosystem game. Or that Jolla has a chance in the market for example.
Most phones today have “software OIS” by reading data from the accelerometer and adjusting the picture (the picture is a little bit “zoomed in” all the time, which means they can afford to move the frame around to compensate for shakiness using accelerometer data).
But if all that is in the Android ROM level (Sony’s Android ROM) or if it’s in firmware but requires special tricks to activate, Jolla won’t have access to it, I guess.
Dunno how well that’s supposed to work, but every phone I’ve seen without hardware OIS took crap indoor & evening pictures…even Google, who had by far the best EIS, realized that it was a bad idea after a couple of generations and went back to OIS – look at the evening pics in this review of the initial Pixel, even with HDR+: https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_xl-review-1513p8.php and then just one generation (and OIS back on) later: https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_2_xl-review-1676p9.php
kurkosdr,
I don’t think the accelerometer would help that much because it’s not algorithmically difficult to find the image offsets that generates the least blur, which is likely even more accurate than the phone’s own acceleration data, especially with a sub-pixel algorithm. I think the bigger problem is that using the camera to track motion using image frames looses effectiveness at low shutter speeds, which is a problem in the dark when we need image stabilization the most.
A gyroscope/accelerometer can get us samples in the dark, to output a directionality de-blur,red image, but once again it’s algorithmically feasible to extract this data using convolutions too. I don’t see why using an accelerometer would work any better than a convolution algorithm that minimizes blur through the process of elimination. The accelerometer probably saves on CPU load & battery power by allowing the phone to skip a more exhaustive search, but I don’t think it will improve on quality over what can be done using image algorithms.
Optical image stabilization doesn’t suffer from any of this because the motion blur can be eliminated at the source even before it’s digitalized. The optics ensure every photon is already focused onto to the right pixel at the moment it arrives. If the raw data had sufficient shutter speed we could approximate this in software, but at 1/60 FPS or even less we’re forced to deal with data that’s already been smudged across time.
I don’t have much doubt that using modern AI techniques we can generate images that look better than what was captured, making all photos look like Hollywood quality, but ironically be even less real. Weird times!
To be honest the swipe navigation was the thing that drove me nuts and actually prevented me from using it as a daily driver..
and I loath that apple and google are adopting it more and more… ♂️
I remember asking myself: “why do they create an app for that?” each time I saw anything related to first Android or iOS releases. Ridiculous amount of apps in those ecosystems are just containerized web pages. Would be much better for Sailfish to create hosted/self-hosted package of such pages that you can access with that phone. Lost your phone? no problem, your data is safe and sound. This is how I personally imagined smartphones, but for some idiotic reasons (of course it’s about earning money from each “app”) we went into very weird direction that made us tied to specific platforms (read: vendor lock-in).
Just go with PWA, for fuck’s sake, and we’re all good to go. Aaaand portable.
Add Linux, every BSD, and macOS to the list. Why develop a native application when a web browser works. =)
Basically everything outside of Android, iOS/iPadOS, and Windows needs a compatibility layer to survive.
Flatland_Spider,
no, macOS doesn’t need to be on the list. It has many (paid) apps that are unique to the macOS ecosystem or have better versions than those for Windows.
There is only one place where Windows is still better – gaming. Usually, macOS users simply have a gaming console 🙂
For mobile devices, you can replace many apps with PWAs. You can have a separate icon on your phone, a touch ID to enter the app, and push notifications, all within the PWA.
You can have a compatibility layer for games and PWAs for everything else, including banking.
I propose that the EU and others make PWAs mandatory for banks, taxi companies, and food delivery services. This would solve most problems with platforms compatibility.
You just need to port Chromium to the new platform and have all those apps at once.
As a long time Sailfish OS user (and full-disclosure: ex-Jolla employee) I agree with most of the points Nick makes in the linked article. In particular, that it’s not fully non-geek friendly. But I don’t agree with all of it. For example Whisperfish is a superb native Signal client and Hydrogen works well for Matrix; for my needs at least.
And while I’d personally prefer Jolla’s reference hardware to be flagship-level, that’s not what the community is asking for: https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/next-gen-jolla-phone/23882
It’s exciting to see Ubuntu Touch and Phosh progressing so well, and I’ve tried both, but end up returning to Sailfish OS as my GNU/Linux mobile platform of choice. Checking the apps I have installed, my use of Android App Support is restricted to banking and games. So my overall experience seems to be closer to that of johnflorin.