When Jolla — a company consisting of former Nokia employees — announced its own smartphones based on their former employer’s abandoned MeeGo operating system, they promised it will be delivered before 2013 ends. And here it is.
The Jolla smartphone (pronounced YOHL-lah) slowly rolls out in Europe, having partnered with a Finnish carrier and hopes to strike a similar deal with a UK wireless operator.
The company only offered 450 Jolla phones during its launch last Wednesday, most of which going to the special few who pre-ordered the gadget. Do not worry about running out, though, as Jolla plans to ramp up manufacturing.
In an interview with BBC, co-founder Marc Dillon said the Jolla smartphone has a more “open” approach on how consumers used their devices, compared to the relatively closed systems on iPhone. For instance, he said users will be able to get apps “from different places, different stores”.
The Jolla smartphone runs on the Nokia-developed MeeGo platform, now called Sailfish. Users can download the latest Android apps apart from the native Sailfish OS apps. It has no front-facing buttons, as its interface is navigated through gestures.
Other specs include a 4.5-inch IPS qHD multi-touch display, Gorilla Glass, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with auto-focus and LED flash, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 16GB storage (with a microSD card slot), 1GB RAM, and can last for up to 10 hours in a single charge.
Source: BBC
