Android Users: Why You Should Join The Tribe
I’ve been a frustrated Android user on and off over the past few years and while I find the app selection has been more than adequate, there is always something which frustrates me in every day use.
For the record, my experience runs from using an HTC handset with Android Gingerbread and a 7′ tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich.
What really ends up being a deal breaker for me in daily use is the excessive strain Android seems to put on a systems resources, the messy nature of the UI which I really personally find most unattractive and the lagging which invariably occurs in Android when the system is – all too often – strained. Not to mention the need for higher-end quad-core processors to simply keep Android running ‘normally’ which invariably puts such a drain on the battery life that I find I’m constantly plugged in to a power supply merely to keep up with this excessive demand.
So why consider Sailfish I hear you contented Android users shout ?
Well for a start, the app story will be a walk down memory lane and so much more for you – you will still benefit from those great games or other apps you are used to using on your Android device which will run on a compatibility layer but more importantly, you will also benefit from some lovely homemade, ‘baked in’ native Sailfish apps that take full advantage of all that the Sailfish OS has to offer. With native apps, you’ll find you can do things you never dreamed of on your Android device – gesture based pulley menu integration as well as live covers where you can interact with the app in multitasking mode without ever going deep into the app, instead having the ability to carry out simple tasks from the Sailfish homescreen itself. Or being able to glance at your notifications with a simple side gesture while the video you are watching continues to play in the background.
Sailfish is also built on a very efficient Linux kernel that requires minimum specs for fluid running – the benefit of this (unlike with Android) being that battery life and overall fluidity (read: lag-less) will be greatly improved over what you are used to.
Another reason for you to seriously consider Sailfish is the UI design itself which is more than a million miles away from Android in terms of being beautifully simplistic out of the box without all the inherent ‘mess’ you get with a basic Android setup. Not only does Sailfish integrate many services out of the box (Facebook, Twitter etc) in the notifications centre all linked in with your contacts as one, but the overall design has been refreshingly thought out with the end user in mind. Add to that the powerful multitasking, gesture based operation and interactive live covers and in Sailfish, you have not only a very powerful upgrade to Android but one also that is optimised to run without the need for excessive, power hungry multi cores.
The Other Half: Future Potential Beyond The Ordinary
Finally, let’s talk about the hardware on the new Jolla phone. Android has been done and redone over and over to the point that there are now handsets available at all levels from dirt cheap, poor quality handsets coming directly from the Far East to Samsung and HTC flagships trying to make Android shine with the latest quad-core processors and power hungry screens verging on tablet territory. But what of the handset designs ? Well if you look around, you will find that aside from a minuscule minority, most Android handsets in the spectrum are built to a very boring, lacklustre, (lack of any redeeming features for that matter) spec, focussing less on uniqueness but rather on who’s got the fastest multi-core processor or who has the biggest screen. This strikes me as a little odd when considering the sheer volume of manufacturers putting out Android driven handsets – where are the differentiators ?
The Jolla phone however is built with the individual in mind, stands out from the crowd and offers the user endless possibilities to grow and adapt. ‘The other half’ is ingenious allowing you to take a standard touchscreen phone but with the option to later add something that would improve your overall user experience, tailored to you. Finer details of ‘the other half’ have yet to be clarified, but from our recent get together with Jolla, I sense that the possibilities are indeed only limited by the imagination and the take up of this great OS.
With Sailfish you get a fresh, new, intuitive system coupled with an adaptable handset which is only limited by your imagination holding endless future possibilities. With Android, you already know what you are getting, but don’t you crave for so much more ?
I rest my case…. and if you are still unsure, come and see for yourself: Be The Movement, Join The Tribe or check out some of the videos in our other articles showing Sailfish in its full glory.
Definitions:
Sailfish = represents the fastest fish in the sea, with style, individuality, grace and beautifully simple sophistication.
Android = represents the slowest herds of Brontosaurus roaming the Jurassic period; slow, lumbering moves with hunger and thirst that require constant feeding and attention.
Jolla = Be Unlike
Google = Be Like Everyone Else
The biggest differentiator for me (hopefully) will be the fact that I will be in control of my device, not some massive advertising behemoth or some maniacal PC software company . If not it will be a deal breaker (that and no potential for landscape QWERTY) and I’ll stick with good old functional Symbian.
Yes I forgot to touch on that in the article – good point. Jolla are huge adversaries of the anti-lock-in approach. For anyone unsure of what that means, unlike Apple, Google, if you go with Jolla you will not be locked into exclusively using eg, itunes/google play.
This ‘Walled Garden’ approach is a way which these companies can monopolise their services to the point that you become so reliant on eg. DRM songs you paid for only playable on Iphone that people find it hard to justify leaving.
Jolla are anti this approach and are open in keeping with the Linux way.
holy words
“adversaries of the anti-lock-in approach” is one negative too many, if I read you correctly
Whoops yes I mean’t to remove ‘anti’ so adversaries of the lock-in approach… well spotted!
LOL, slightly over the top with the sales speech but I fins it to be so (from what I’ve seen and know of Sailfish and that Jolla). I have a Nexus quad core tablet myself and I’m utterly unimpressed by it’s performance. As you said it stutters, no multitasking (a freezed image of an app does not count), a mess and the bloody ads everywhere. Not to mention, big brother Google collecting data of me on every turn.
Yeah, Jolla can’t come soon enough!
Google knows everything!
Thanks for the comment Peter and for the record, if it sounded like a ‘sales speech’, I’m sorry but I don’t get paid to write this so therefore I can say wholeheartedly that I believe everything that has been written without the guilt of salesman who knows deep down the product he’s selling is actually a steaming pile of horse manure.
I also do feel I am not a blind follower and will equally be critical if that is what I believe.
Think of it a bit more like I’m on a soap box trying to mobilise people for the next (mobile) revolution, putting my neck on the line without any personal motive (unless you count wanting to own a Jolla handset for myself lol)… as long as people are listening and interested, I’ll continue to wax lyrical.
Hey, I feel the same way and I’m waiting for my exclusive Jolla. Sales speech or not, I like what you do and these articles are fun to read
amen, you mobile prophet! fancy soap box you got there! ;-D
Beats standing out in the rain…
No multitasking? What have you done to your Nexus tablet? Mine multitasks ok. Unlike an iPad, it’ll quite happily keep a terminal session open where you only get 10 minutes max on an iPad.
It’ll kill off apps in a fairly random way still but as long as you’ve RAM free, it does ok IME.
It could be way, way better of course.
That’s the thing about Android’s approach to multitasking: it wants to decide for you what it keeps running and what’s going down, which is exactly what I dislike about it.
My OS should put ME, the user, in control of that – out of the box, that is, and not just after installing a non-native third party app that may or may not keep freezing my system.
So long as you live in one of the 6 or so places you can preorder it from I agree its a good phone but people in many countries only have android ios and windows phone and bb10 to choose from you need that disclaimer in the article get people excited to buy only to find out they can’t but I’m a fan and hope it makes it to the United States someday but for now my phone choices are boring
I know and have already preordered hers in the USA but all that does is gauge interest not guarantee us a phone anytime soon love your blog a lot I run the @jollausa twitter community page trying to get support for jolla here so I too can someday own the device but I have to think of what I will buy if my n9 ever dies and the jolla phone isn’t available yet here currently LESS than 1% of the world population live in a place that can preorder and get it on day one
Nice of you to pop by James and yes the pre-order is slightly limited by country at the moment but if there is enough demand in other regions from what I hear, a plan will be made. So keep doing what you are doing, encourage people in these other regions to register their interest with the 0 euro option and in time and with a good interest, additional countries will no doubt start appearing on the map.
you’ve probably seen this post already, don’t know if it changes anything for you in the US but all hope is not lost: /2013/05/28/limited-edition-pre-order-now-open-to-all-eu-countries/
I think I love Jolla just as much as you do, but I do have something to say about the battery life part. I’m not sure yet the battery life will be better than it is on other phones now. Maybe they will put a very bad battery in the phone and third party batteries are not very user friendly in my opinion (except for the other half). The other half is another thing. We don’t know yet what this other half will mean for the battery life. Maybe the other halves will drain more power than the phone itself, we just don’t know.
I think Jolla should put a very good battery in their phone. It should be a battery that’s even too good for the phone, so it can anticipate on the other halves that will be connected physically to the phone. This connection should definitely be possible in order to make the other halves a succes in my opinion.
if Jolla don’t at least opt for an industry standard with the battery life, they/we know that this will fail, and failure is not an option AFAIK.
Hopefully the project will be fully open source including all features like camera, and other sensors etc. and in particular the GSM/4G radio system.
Any info on support for 802.11a n variant WLAN?
Richard
We discussed about the openness with them at the Q&A, and this is something that will be opened up more once Sailfish is out in the markets.
Sorry I’m not sure about the finer details of WLAN but again, expect at the very least industry standard at time of manufacture.
buauuauahahahahaaah right definition of Android system!!
Hi,
Firstly, thank you for this site- as an ex-n900, now HTC oneX owner I’m extremely encouraged by the UI design & possibility of a Meego-like device running Android apps. This certainly looks like the evolutionary route that Nokia SHOULD have adopted. However I’m also keen to maintain a sense of perspective based on the following:
a. As far as I can tell, the Jolla screen is still large & that will be the biggest battery drain. Do we have any evidence that Sailfish will be more resource-efficient than Android ? Has this been demonstrated anywhere? i.e. Benchtests ? Do we even know the definitive CPU spec ?
b. Have we got confirmation that ALL Android apps will run in the Sailfish compatibilty layer? Surely that will depend on the hardware requirements ? This could be a deal-breaker. i.e. Would I be able to export my google play app profile from Android to Sailfish ? Have Google actually agreed this technically ?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m also excited by the potential in this OS design, but we need to keep cool here, and encourage Jolla to provide more demos & specifications. Your observations on Android are accurate, but as yet there is no Jolla device available with which to make a direct factual comparison. As you say, there needs to be a differential….otherwise this could be the N900 all over again.
Regards,
Sam
He/she is right & I meant to include that in my comment. The claim is that sailfish is better on the battery than android but as had been stated, the display is a big battery user, so the bigger the screen the worse the battery life. My phone is a droid RAZR maxx with a 3300mhz battery & a 4.3 inch screen (most phones have an 1800mhz) & I still rarely get more than 5/6hrs on a charge with mixed use & brightness set very low. The display is always 60-70% of the battery usage. Is there any proof sailfish will be different?
There are several promising open platforms expected to enter the market at more or less the same time later this year or beginning of the next: Jolla with Sailfish, Canonical with Ubuntu Phone, Mozilla with Firefox OS and Samsung with Tizen. None of these focus on Google’s Java platform for application development but instead they seem to be betting on high level scripting languages such as Javascript, QML or HTML5 for the UI layer coupled with C and C++ to do the heavy lifting when needed. Blackberry is more or less taking the same route, although it is a closed platform.
How do they compete over customers, community enthusiasts and developers? How do these platform benefit from each other?
For instance, while I think Jolla and Sailfish are cool, I think Canonical’s approach to open development has been more interesting so far: take Android’s Linux kernel and drivers and build a new OS on top of it, essentially creating a Linux distribution that can already be flashed on many phones to replace Google’s Android UX. This basically puts the phone in the same spot as a PC. Don’t like the OS? Has vendor support stagnated? Install a different one! I think that will attract many enthusiasts and developers.
In contrast, Jolla has made no effort in supporting available handsets such as the Nokia N9 to kickstart a user community, nor is the Swipe UI open source and perhaps never will be.
I think it would be great if you at JollaTides could write a few pieces comparing the above platforms based on their technical merits and market potential.
plus 1 to the above.
I think a key aspect of Android’s success is that all the smartphone manufacturers where able to use it royalty-free and adapt it to their liking to suit their handsets, while Google has been having their back with the bulk of development to push the platform further (and fast! with new releases every 6 months).
You’re an OEM, you want to sell big, shiny, high-end smartphones? All you need to worry about is to design your hardware, slap the latest Android on it and you’re good to go. If you’re big enough and want to spoil you users, you can use your own fancy UI and support the device through later versions of Android, again royalty-free.
Google were in the position to launch this “gift” to the market, because they’re big enough and their main source of revenue lies elsewhere. Nokia could well have rivalled them with Maemo and successors had they not been so damn lame (as in slow) about it, instead of giving it everything they got with the software development, and opened up their platform, a strategy which has helped Google take it all.
That is not gonna be as easy for Jolla, because their life depends on it, and it’s not like they can burn millions for experimenting with new branches – without even wincing if one or the other comes crashing down.
But if Jolla were able to present OEMs with an equally (or more) powerful alternative, they’re sure to find happy buyers who’d like to not have their complete smartphone business depending on the big contender that Google has become now, by simply buying their own phone manufacturer.
I live in the US, but luckily have relatives in the UK, so my 100 euros is already paid up and all I have to do is wait now. And of course I”ll have to pay the extra postage to have it shipped from the UK to the US!
Having read a lot of the reviews and posts, I have to say that there are 3 particular concerns that I have about the phone.
First, there doesn’t seem to be any info about the camera. OK, it has 8MP, but that might not be industry standard by the end of the year – I would encourage Jolla to up that if they can to differentiate the phone. Secondly, I am assuming that there is no front-facing camera, as this wasn’t mentioned and doesn’t appear on the phone pictures I have seen. This is not a drawback for me, but I know that some people might find that a drawback. More to the point though, where is the lens optics coming from? Carl Zeiss?
Second, the apps are a major concern, and as yet there hasn’t been any videos that I have seen that have demonstrated the downloading or usage of Android apps. I think that just seeing how this works would put a lot of people’s concerns to rest.
Third, I think Jolla need to get a warranty policy put in place. The further away from FInland you are, the more likely it is that you’ll be concerned about this particular issue. Will Jolla have a 2 year warranty on the phone? If something goes wrong, can you ship it back to Finland for repair? These might seem like small issues now, but when I showed the Jolla website to a friend, that was his first question.
To end on a positive note though, I am SO happy to see you guys continue on from the success of the N9 with this new venture. Keep up the great work guys!!
the front facing camera was pointed out in one of the videos by Marc Dillon, I’m sure you can find it here on the site.
Sailfish looks fancy, yes & being able to run android apps will entice some, but there’s another reason people choose android that hasn’t been mentioned here. From the videos I’ve seen about sailfish the level of customization seems limited to changing the wallpaper & with it the color scheme. That’s fancy but android supports installing a totally different launcher, dialer, contacts, messaging app, etc; most of which support themes. Of course with root you can do even more. What sailfish calls “live covers” android calls widgets. I can also pull down notifications while playing a video using an app that creates a hotspot along the top or bottom of the screen to swipe & show the notification bar. It allows me to set a custom time period before hiding or to hide by swiping again. I realize it requires an app, but it’s still possible. Along with that there are Apps like tasker which I use often that give quite a bit of control over the system settings. The one advantage sailfish might have is better battery consumption, but I change my phone layout/theme often so if sailfish doesn’t allow for the customization I mentioned unfortunately it’s not for me.
By the way, you’re not locked into Google play when you use android. There are plenty of other “app stores” that work fine on android. The amazon appstore, & slideme are a couple examples. Not to mention you can download an android app from any website, either through the device itself or from a computer & transfer it to the device & install it. It’s called side-loading.
Is there a way to protect developpers from being hacked in a simple (like false download and spred the app to others or in a web site) and to buy trustworthy apps for Sailfish in a simple way. Is there a Jolla store where we can buy things that will work ?
One word of advice. If you want to entice people who are used to another platform away to your platform, it doesn’t help if you start bashing the other platform. It shows your side in a bad light, as if you can only show your product positively by making negative comments about a competitor.
If you want to sell your platform, start touting what your platform does well, and not what another platform does wrong. Comparisons are fine, but no bashing, as it detracts from any of the points you raise. Also, if you make a comparison, it’d do well to know get all the facts straight.
On the subject of the other half. So far, specifics for that have been pretty scarce, I hear a lot of maybes, perhaps’, mights and shoulds. But no definites. If it’s just a fancy way for ‘artists’ to ‘share’ (sell) their works on a handset, or a backend that changes the colourscheme of the screen, I don’t think it’ll be a very compelling feature.
That said, I did buy the 100 euro pre-order package, I just hope it won’t be an Openmoko 2.0.
1st point: I’m not trying to sell anything personally – I don’t work for Jolla and have no invested interests – these are only my opinions and scribblings from personal first hand experience
2nd point: Some of what I write is a bit tongue in cheek granted, but otherwise these are the views of an open objective observer and you are free to interpret them as you will
3rd point: What can I say, I’ve got 2 android devices and don’t love them – sorry for speaking my mind
4th point: Congrats on getting in on the pre-order – I’m sure you will love it