Jolla preview: First look

Introduction

Jolla may be a completely new name in the smartphone game, but the people in charge are no rookies. Founded by former Nokia employees, the Finnish company is looking to give the MeeGo platform a new lease of life. Established in 2011, it took Jolla two years to unveil its first product.

Their first handset is called just like company itself - Jolla, but while the naming wasn't particularly innovative the Sailfish-based smartphone certainly is. It's pretty clear that plenty of fresh new ideas went into its development and the result is quite different from anything else you can get in the market

The Jolla smartphone runs Sailfish OS - a successor of the MeeGo open platform, which Jolla took and developed further. In a way, it could be viewed as MeeGo 2.0 However, Jolla would like to start fresh and not carry the burden of its neighbor, who abandoned the project that many truly loved.

We are yet to see if the new Finnish kid on the block will feature the same sort of magic as the Nokia N9, which made so many mourn the end of MeeGo. For starters here are the key Jolla specs.

Jolla at a glance

• Dimensions: 131 x 68.0 x 9.9mm, 143g
• Display: 4.5" IPS LCD display of 960 x 540 pixels resolution, Gorilla Glass 2, 245ppi pixel density
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400; dual-core Krait 200 at 1.4GHz, Adreno 305 GPU, 1GB RAM
• OS: Sailfish OS
• Camera: 8MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
• Video camera: 1080p @ 30fps video capture with main camera
• Storage: 16GB built-in, microSD card slot with support of up to 64GB
• Connectivity: NFC, A-GPS+GLONASS, WLAN (2.4) a/b/g/n, microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0 LE
• Battery: 2,100mAh Li-Ion
• Misc: Android app compatibility via the Yandex.Store and Amazon Appstore

Given the price tag, the mid-range specifications came as somewhat of a nasty surprise when Jolla unveiled its smartphone. However history has shown that a smartphone can be much more than a sum of its parts and we shouldn't write off any device before giving it a proper test.

And while the screen resolution could have certainly been higher, you can't blame this one for skimping on innovation. The Jolla phone is made out of a unique combination of aluminum and premium plastic and sports a replaceable back panel dubbed "the Other Half", which allows you to automatically change profiles with covers. The smartphone is meant to Given the unique situation that the newly born company faces, that seems to be the only logical step to take - building a very close relationship with its first customers. These are the people who are ready to invest their hard-earned cash into the unknown and they should be treated deserve something beyond mere specifications.

Follow us after the break as we take a look at the hardware of the first Jolla smartphone.

Retail package ticks the nerdy checkbox

Making a great first impression is crucial for every smartphone manufacturer. Jolla is aware of this and has turned special attention to the starting point of every smartphone ownership - the retail box. It's very well designed and unlike any retail box we've seen - it actually displays part of the code of the Sailfish OS fading away into a white background.

Pushing the inner box from a special cuthole reveals a special The Other Half back cover (more on that in a second) painted in bright orange that proudly says "The first one". The rest of the accessories include a standard microUSB cable and an AC adaptor that outputs 1A current. Jolla has also included a couple of black and white stickers that make the whole experience a tad more special.

Headphones were noticeably missing from the package, which was a bit disappointing. With the sort of price tag Jolla chargers, we certainly should have get a headset and probably a microSD card too.

Design and built quality

The Jolla has a very intriguing design that's definitely appealing. Since the junior phonemaker is made entirely out of Nokia renegades that keep the MeeGo spirit in their hearts, the Jolla ought to be a worthy successor to the Nokia N9, which calls out for a solid built quality and cool, innovative design.

We are happy to report that the Jolla delivers. The phone sports the so-called two-half design - Jolla frequently refers to each of the halfs as "pillow". The front half, which holds the phone's internals, is made out of aluminum. The second half is actually the back cover and is made out of plastic. Thankfully, it's of the premium kind and complements the aluminum well.

As we mentioned earlier, this is the "Other Half" - each Jolla back cover is equipped with an NFC chip. Once snapped into place, the chip communicates with the phone, and the phone can apply a major user interface overhaul every time a new back cover is snapped. Our only gripe with it is that it's a bit hard to remove and makes an unpleasant cracking noise when you peel it off the back.

Anyway, the difference in the choice of materials used for each half makes for an interesting design. The unfortunate downside to this design is that it makes the Jolla a bit thick. It's not necessarily a deal-breaker, but it might turn some people off.

The front of the Jolla is particularly beautiful, as the glass of the display wraps around the sides of the aluminum. It's not just a design treat, as this makes swiping sideways gestures more comfortable.

The edges of the Jolla are sharp and the phone looks quite boxy from the front. It's not too bad though, as the chamfered sides break from the boxy-ness that the Jolla exudes.

Handling

Thanks to the aluminum construction, it's as sturdy as a phone can get and nothing squeaks or twists. Due to the significant gap where the halves meet, the Jolla is very comfortable to hold. Your fingers naturally rest there, which greatly improves handling.

The back, as we mentioned, is made out of premium plastic, which is nicely resistant to fingerprints. In fact, after prolonged periods of use, we didn't even have to wipe the back. The front, on the other hand, is quite easy to turn into a greasy mess.

First impressions

While the leading OSes of the day use button-based navigation to various degrees, the Nokia N9 pioneered the gesture-based interface. Sadly, the N9 fell victim to Nokia's Windows Phone transition, but a team of ex-employees kept the Maemo/MeeGo dreams alive by establishing Jolla.

Jolla created its own fork of the Linux-based mobile OS. Tizen is another fork, but that's just vaporware for now, despite support from tech giants Samsung and Intel.

And we like what Jolla has done with the software - the gestures do take some getting used to (perhaps because the iOS and Android way of thinking is so ingrained in us) but once you do, they are simpler to use than BlackBerry OS 10's gestures. It doesn't feel like quite the finished product as there are some areas where the gestures are still lacking.

Using the Yandex and Amazon Android app stores is a quick way to bootstrap the app ecosystem as the native Jolla store is quite barren at the moment.

Unfortunately, even our quick encounter with the Jolla is enough to tell that the software isn't done. Some features are either buggy (e.g. the camera) or don't work as advertised (the Other Half still doesn't do all we were promised). Yes, Jolla doesn't hide that Sailfish is in beta, but charging people €400 for a product and then using them as beta testers is no way to gain widespread appeal.

In terms of hardware, we suppose, the Jolla phone is good enough (we were hoping to see the Other Half concept expanded on). It has the specs of an Android or Windows Phone device half its price, but, it's a unique piece of tech that offers what no one else does - a Linux-powered phone.

Linux may be the unseen core of Android, but a proper Linux phone does not - or rather did not - exist and some people have been waiting for ages.

So, never mind the chipset, the screen resolution, the camera, never mind that the Jolla phone in its current state is practically a prototype. This is a story of an underdog bringing us what we wanted, what the Nokia giant promised but didn't deliver. It's also a promise of a truly open platform - sure, Android is open sourced but Google is continuously tightening its iron grip and letting its Big Corp interests show.

Both Mozilla and Canonical are making much of the same promises though and at least Mozilla had the sense to start its Firefox OS at bargain basement prices. A €400 phone with these specs and this software is an impossible sell to non-geeks. But with an ever-expanding geek market, securing it might be all Jolla needs to succeed.