First look at the new Jolla smartphone (video)

11 Mar 2015

Jolla is the Finnish smartphone and tablet maker to watch and the feisty young start-up wants to make its Sailfish OS the world’s third biggest OS after Android and iOS.

We got a glimpse of its new smartphone as well as its tablet computer at last week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Jolla was started in 2011 by a group of Nokia workers who weren’t pleased that Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system was to become Nokia’s de facto OS.

Focusing on open-source principles, the new Sailfish 2.0 OS caused quite a stir at Mobile World Congress, and co-founder and COO Marc Dillon said the company is targeting “double digit” percentage market share in the coming years.

At the show we saw the Other Half range of devices that come in a variety of colours, including Keira Black, Aloe, Poppy Red and Nadeshiko Pink.

The smartphones come with a 4.5-inch display, an 8-megapixel camera, 16GB of storage, 1GB of RAM and talktime of around 10 hours.

Interestingly, Sailfish OS is compatible with Android apps.

The smartphone weighs 141 grams and is 68mm thick.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com