In Jolla the hackers finally have a smartphone they can fiddle with
Arriving just before the holidays, I’ve finally had some time to sit down with the Jolla I ordered as part of the first batch of FInnish smartphones are write a proper preview of the handset. Given I can spend a decent amount of time with it, a full review is going to take another week or two, but here are my first thoughts:
Differentiating in hardware is not Jolla’s goal – it’s all about the software and specifically about Sailfish OS. Sailfish OS is based on the Mer project, which was built on the MeeGo project, which itself was a merger of the Mobiln and Maemo projects. In short, a lot of energy and time has been invested in an alternative Linux-based mobile operating system, and Sailfish OS has a lot of people emotionally involved with their success.
…Compared to the single home button of an iOS device (and Apple’s slide-out menus from the top and bottom of the screen), or the three-button back/home/search of Windows Phone, Sailfish OS has a lot of ‘default’ operators. Because they are not identical to those found on other smartphones, they will be labelled as unintuitive. It also takes more time to build up the muscle memory and the instinctiveness of six or seven controls as opposed to two or three, which leads to a steeper learning curve for a Jolla smartphone user. I’ll talk more about the impact this interface has when I do a full review of the handset, because I’m still having to think consciously about what swipe to do to perform an operation. I think the true value of the OS will start to show through once I no longer need to think about how to use the basic features of the user interface.
I read this all over the internet, that the controls takes some time to get used to… I can’t remember it taking me all too long to learn the N9, and I doubt the Jolla will be very different..
Now, when I have the possibility to talk to one of you who actually says the Jolla takes time getting used to; Have you ever used the N9 or are you all new to the swipe interface?