Hands On With a Sony Xperia XA2 Running Sailfish

BARCELONA—Jolla has announced the 3rd version of Sailfish Bone, touted hither at Mobile Earth Congress every bit "the world's simply culling mobile operating arrangement." It's not due to land until Q3, but we got some facetime with the current build of Sailfish on a Sony Xperia XA2, to give u.s. an idea of what's in store.

The Xperia XA2, announced at CES, boasts much better specs that the Xperia Ten, which nosotros saw running Sailfish last yr. The XA2 experience was more enjoyable and the gesture-based interface—which does away with Android's three buttons entirely—felt a lot more natural on this phone.

As well as representing Jolla'southward commitment to getting Sailfish on more than devices, this also demonstrates how quickly the team can move with the back up of Sony.

"The good matter is, as we are working with the Sony Open Devices program, we got admission to the hardware very quickly," Sami Pienimäki, CEO of Jolla, told PCMag. "This device was only announced only a few weeks dorsum, at CES, it's brand new hardware. Information technology'southward not widely available withal, but we've already got Sailfish running on information technology, because nosotros've been working very closely with the guys at Sony'south program and they've been very helpful."

Jolla estimates that Sailfish OS volition exist ready to be flashed on the Xperia XA2 by the summer. If that seems similar a long look, remember that we saw Sailfish running on an Xperia Ten in February 2022, but it wasn't bachelor to flash until October.

This latest version of Sailfish promises better support for business organisation and government users also as improved security features for all.

For anyone who isn't a B2B or B2G client, the chief entreatment of Sailfish lies in the fact that while you can sideload .apks, it'due south definitely not Android. Dissimilar Google, Jolla doesn't brand money by selling ad space, instead preferring to charge users a licensing fee, which guarantees yous a years' worth of updates, and piece of work with regional partners.

Following a partnership with Russian federation-based Open up Mobile Platform Ltd, whose customers are mainly in the B2G sector, Jolla is now preparing to launch a betoken of sale device for Pochta Rossii (Russia's national postal operator) workers. Separately, the company is gearing upwardly to launch its first commercial products in China by the terminate of the year.

Pienimäki joked that the Russian and Chinese markets combined will bring in more plenty turn a profit for the company, only he's not planning on stopping there.

"We of course want to keep on investing in and expanding to other regions. We are getting a lot of interest from countries in the Eye East and Latin American countries are also increasingly interested in an contained option."

Also every bit smartphones, Jolla'due south also adult a version of Sailfish designed to run on 4G characteristic phones. Perhaps taking cues from the Android Get ethos, the thinking here is to give users a gustation of the smartphone experience via apps. The WhatsApp .apk, for case, had been loaded onto the unnamed reference phone pictured above. This means that feature phone users can stay in touch on with friends and family on more advanced devices and not feel left out.

Exactly when yous'll see the Sailfish equivalent of the Nokia 8110 4G on the shelves, at to the lowest degree in Western countries, is unclear.

In terms of getting Sailfish on a Sony device yourself, Sailfish licenses are available in EU territories plus Norway and Switzerland, at present. Usa and Canadian availability is nevertheless not officially supported and the jury's out on when this might change. With Jolla's gaze fixed mainly on the Due east for at present, information technology seems like they've got other fish to fry.