Not long ago,
we told you about the Jolla phone, made by a company out of Finland run by ex-Nokia employees, who took over the abandoned Meego platform of the company.
Now, after months of wait, the phone is finally being put up for sale
for about $550. That’s around 60,000 in Pakistani rupees which is
understandably a lot.
The team, however, says that it has been overwhelmed by the reaction
which the product has been getting up till now. According to them,
they’ve secured orders from more than 130 countries so that alone says a
lot regarding the kind of support and following Meego still garners.
Of course, Meego is dead, but from its ashes the Sailfish OS running
on the Jolla phone has risen. The Android-compatible mobile operating
system – meaning that it can run Android apps — is based on Linux and
takes a lot of inspiration from its former self.
It is gesture-based, to begin with, and there are no physical keys on
the front of the phone, just like on the N9. Swiping from the bottom
opens up the notifications, swiping from the top closes apps (or locks
from the homescreen) while doing the same thing from the sides takes you
to the homescreen.
The center-point of all this will be the ‘other half’. The back cover
of the Jolla, expands from providing just protection and cover to
having much wider reach and impact.
It customizes software to an incredible extent. The average covers
change just the color schemes but much more will be coming as the
community expands. Artists will come out with their own back covers
which will provide customization to the OS, there might even be covers
with a larger LED Flash, batteries and even a physical QWERTY keyboard!
Apart from that, the phone comes with rather subpar specs: A 4.5 inch
‘Estrada’ qHD display, a 1.4Ghz dual-core SnapDragon 400 processor, 8
megapixel camera on the back and 1 GB RAM.
The ‘Estrada’ is the name given to the vertical experience which the
Jolla provides. You get the application store, pre-installed apps and
lockscreen all linearly from the lockscreen, considerably cutting down
time.
Of course, no one can recommend to jump the boat and dump your
current phone just yet but if the community gets the momentum going, who
knows, the race to the top may be a 4-horse affair.