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43

User reports - Sailfish X

asked 2017-10-11 20:49:06 +0300

h.berd gravatar image

updated 2017-12-18 00:21:26 +0300

Please share your overall experience in this thread. I would love to hear how much you like or dislike Sailfish X.

For Example:

How is the performance in general. Is there a significant difference to Jolla C?

How is your experience with bluetooth connection still in beta?

How much time is needed to flash the phone?

Is the camera working fast? Can you post some pictures to let us see the quality ?

Many thanks in advance and all the best!

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Comments

6

Sample pictures from the camera would indeed be nice!

TomC ( 2017-10-11 21:32:23 +0300 )edit
11

...

How is the performance in general. Is there a significant difference to Jolla C?

Not very much to feel, but the scrolling is smoother

How is your experience with bluetooth connection still in beta?

BT seems fine

How much time is needed to flash the phone?

I needed about 30 min., but I think it is way too hard for many users. If nobody comes up with flashed phones, this will not get an successor. It is complicated, too much different steps...

Is the camera working fast? Can you post some pictures to let us see the quality ?

Is working, faster and the results are better than in Jolla1 or JollaC

poddl ( 2017-10-13 00:48:50 +0300 )edit
43

Something that nobody mentioned yet...

The colour notification LED is back!!!!

Giacomo Di Giacomo ( 2017-10-13 15:25:17 +0300 )edit
9

Yay! I love the colour notification LED :)

Beethoven ( 2017-10-13 16:30:22 +0300 )edit
11

Unbelievable, how simple things, like colour notification LED, can make people so happy. And how these simple things widely ignored in industry.

nlsn ( 2017-10-16 13:19:16 +0300 )edit

48 Answers

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4

answered 2018-01-01 17:06:42 +0300

Sakke gravatar image

I am also a one who moved to Sailfish X right after Jolla 1. I can confirm that the change has been massive; no big lags while in normal use, everything is running smoothly and better etc. And of course, I use Sailfish OS on a daily basis so it's my main phone.

Getting Sony Xperia X / Sailfish X

So I bought my Xperia X from Verkkokauppa.com and got the phone posted last Saturday. I was a bit concerned on the flashing process, but in my opinion the instructions were clear and well-written (could've been updated). Finally, when all the OTA updates had been downloaded, bootloader unlocked and img files downloaded, the flashing process itself was a quick one (like 5 minutes or less). I kept my thumbs up for rebooting to Sailfish X and it did :D. Then it was time for downloading apps and a little exploration of Sailfish X.

Overall performance

Firstly, I was amazed how smooth and good the performance of Sailfish X was. There were no major lags and the UI was very responsive. If I compare Sailfish X with JP1 the difference is huge. All the apps are working faster, rebooting is faster and so on. Overall the performance is just so much better than with the original JP1. I'm also very happy with the screen since it's much brighter and sharper. Battery life is of course much better than with JP1 and can't really complain about that either.

Camera and other functionalities

The camera was also pretty amazing since now you could even take pictures in low light. Even though performance of the camera on Sailfish X isn't at the same level as on stock Xperia X, I think Jolla has still made excellent job. The camera opens and takes pictures quite fast. I can't really complain about the camera quality or functions. I haven't tried recording a video yet, but I assume the quality is good.

Here's an example down below

image description

Well as for the other functionalities, NFC and fingerprint aren't working yet but the bluetooth is. I tried basic connect between two gadgets; can't really say how it works with car bluetooth connections etc. I hope Jolla adds the fingerprint support soon since it's a nice function and I'm eager to start using it.

Something to notice

Since last Saturday, I've noticed a little lag on system UI, but this was expected. I haven't faced up any major system lag that would cause the phone to reboot or shut down etc. After flashing there were some issues installing Android Support and predictive text, but after a reboot the installation completed without any problems. Yesterday I also faced up some kind of a memory overflow since my RAM was up to 62% as it'd normally be around 40%. Many of these bugs and issues can easily be solved by just rebooting the phone (and it won't take much of a time). Most of the time the phone is pretty stable and working okay.

Conclusion

Overall, I think there's a lots of potential in Sailfish X. I was actually very surprised by the performance and the smoothness of the UI since I had read that there would be some power loss and lags. Sure we can't say that Sailfish X is ready since it lacks some basic functionalities and it needs some optimizing. I will of course continue my journey with Sailfish X. Keeping thumbs up for good updates. And as always thanks to Jolla for bringing Sailfish to Sony Xperia X.

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3

answered 2017-10-15 22:31:59 +0300

rob_kouw gravatar image

First impression: great improvement from my Jolla 1. Speed is much, much better. First of all the browser performs so much faster. Bluetooth did couple nicely with my old Nokia headset, did not try music yet. Display has more light, the phone is usable in the sunshine! Some photos I took outdoor are good. A bit sharper, more vivid than Jolla 1.

Re-creation of accounts, calendars, contacts is all good from the backup. It is such a pity it does not take the entire list of installed apps as a wish list, or the settings of the apps. So I had to spend a lot of time getting up to speed again.

Things I noticed on the downside: - Interaction of the camera with CodeReader is not what it should be. I cannot scan a QR with it now, can't get a focus on close range. The same QR with the J1 scans immediately. - My Lenovo Windows 10 pc could always connect with the WLAN Hotspot of the J1, the Hotspot of the X is not even visible. - I could not download some Android apps from Google Play, even if they state Android 4.4 and up. The Alien Dalvik is supposed to be 4.4. - Browser crashes, even on a very simple home page consisting of nothing but a 4 by 10 table filled with plain text. Will load fast on second try.

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3

answered 2017-10-15 22:50:28 +0300

Bruce gravatar image

Some info for those in the UK: the refurbished Xperia X's being sold by Argos on eBay.co.uk work fine with Sailfish X. Plus you get a guarantee and the price is competitive. :-)

The over the air (actually over the wifi -- there is no need to insert a SIM) update brought it up to the latest version of Android and there was no need for downloading nor installing 'Emma' at all.

More generally... as others have said, the flashing instructions are poor - particularly if you are on Windows and don't have Java or Android SDK already installed. It would be simpler to produce a set of instructions for use with a USB-stick Linux image as that would save Windows users from having to install a bunch of SDK stuff they will never use again.

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1

When i understood correct, you do not need to install sdk on win because fastboot. Exe file is in jollas zip archive. finally i flashed my xx and now i know that it is easy and you dont need to install sdk

NuklearFart ( 2017-10-17 17:28:02 +0300 )edit
3

answered 2017-10-17 15:30:53 +0300

Freddo gravatar image

updated 2017-10-17 15:34:30 +0300

Sailfish X is my first experience with Sailfish, and I'm very pleased. The performance is great compared to the N9 I've used until now, which isn't really that surprising since the N9 is 6 years old.

No issues with bluetooth, I could connect it to my Streamer Pro just fine (which in turn send audio to my hearing aids).

Flashing the phone took quite a bit longer than I expected. Maybe 3 hours?

I'm very content with the camera, a noticeable step up from the N9!

My only complaint, really, is that the Android version of HERE WeGo won't work on it. Also didn't like any of the music players available for Jolla, so I'm using the Android version of foobar2000 mobile.

Oh yeah, I also had to format my new 128GB microSDXC card to FAT32 to get it to work. Neither the default exFAT or ext3 would work.

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I like the music pplayer 'Muuzik' Here we go is working here. I installed f-droid from their website, then the yalp store, then HereWeGo....

poddl ( 2017-10-17 17:08:27 +0300 )edit
1

Did you try QuasarMX?

Giacomo Di Giacomo ( 2017-10-17 17:10:41 +0300 )edit
1

I have Here WeGo working on Sailfish X. Have you tried to install Google Play Services and setting GPS on from settings (I mean not the battery saving version, I mean the High Precition mode) ?

lumen ( 2017-10-17 18:28:06 +0300 )edit
1

Thanks all, tried it again and now I got HERE WeGo. Not sure why it didn't work the first time.

Gonna try QuasarMX some more, but first impressions are good. Thanks for the suggestion!

Freddo ( 2017-10-18 08:05:48 +0300 )edit
3

answered 2017-10-19 08:49:15 +0300

revers gravatar image

How is the performance? I think its good. Everything goes smooth.

How is your experience with bluetooth connection still in beta? Not yet tested!

How much time is needed to flash the phone? For me it took about 10 hours. I had to watch some youtube vids because the explanation provided from Jolla and Sony is rather poor. Unlocking the bootloader was tricky and took me quite some time to understand. The flashing part was rather quick.

Is the camera working fast? Can you post some pictures to let us see the quality ? Not yet tested.

I have still some other problems: I cant make the SD card to be mounted or recognized. I cant even format it with my Experia. The card itself seems ok. I put it into the computer and works fine.

Any ideas?

The other thing bothering me is the hint when i start the phone because of unlocking the bootloader.

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1

Try formatting the SD card to FAT32 on your computer. Worked for my 64GB SanDisk card. There are some more questions on TJC about other SD issues too.

Kao ( 2017-10-19 08:56:48 +0300 )edit

Unfortuntely it doesnt work. Maybe the SD -Card is broken. Have to try another card.

revers ( 2017-10-20 18:40:17 +0300 )edit

You can try ext4 before. See my experiance.

Filip K. ( 2017-10-22 17:13:19 +0300 )edit

@Filip Thx for the info. may try it next time. i used a sd card from an android tablet and it worked. restored the files from my Jolla 1 o Sony. Worked fine!

revers ( 2017-10-23 08:44:42 +0300 )edit
3

answered 2017-10-20 15:32:19 +0300

jabgoe gravatar image

updated 2017-10-20 16:52:42 +0300

i wish i had read the instructions about backing up the dpm keys before unlocking the boot loader ... :(

flashing with linux was a little difficult since updating my xperia's android didn't succeed in reaching the necessary version. as a result the flash script failed to complete. i managed to find a workaround with infos from the previous instruction of the community version (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=1536613#post1536613). so the process of flashing took about 3 hours.

restoring the backup (from my old jolla 1) was a litte disappointing. messages, accounts and such were restored ok but i would have expected a backup-restore procedure also to backup and restore my applications. this didn't happen.

i cursed the bluetooth implementation of sailfishX until i remembered the concept of pairing my headset first ... now it works.

google maps from the android store is a sufficient substitute for the here maps.

i'm missing a (functioning) native telegram client.

after about one week i can say that everything works great. the screen is fast, connectivity (phone, net) is good. i'm missing the double tap. battery life is astonishingly good. didn't test tethering and other bluetooth devices than my headset, though.

for my personal use case everything is very well and a great improvement from my jolla 1.

it would be better, still, with fm-radio ... :)

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I didn't save Android DRM keys before flashing, as I have no DRM-protected content and do not use Google Play Store (just Yalp Store for a small number of apps, like online banking). I assumed SailfishX would come with its own keys if required.

Anyway, apparently to save DRM keys you need to be root, to be root you need to unlock the bootloader, to unlock it you need to save TA partition, to save it you need to be root...

Did I miss something?

objectifnul ( 2017-10-20 21:31:46 +0300 )edit
1

@jabgoe if you will need backup your openrepos apps in the future use storeman https://openrepos.net/content/osetr/storeman

atlochowski ( 2017-10-21 11:58:36 +0300 )edit
1

@objectifnul: Yes!

"DRM keys" is a misnomer, they are really "Secure Boot certificates for TEE applications". And these applications for Sony's TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) are residing together with the "DRM keys" on the "TA (Trusted Applications) partitions".

The TA-partitions are erased, while unlocking a modern Sony Android smartphone.

Without them, Sony will not provide warranty.

So creating a backup of the TA-partitions is only good for enabling one to restore a Sony phone to a state, where warranty is applicable (in case you need that)!

How to achieve that is described here: https://together.jolla.com/question/168711/xperia-x-backup-ta-partition-before-unlocking-bootloader/

olf ( 2017-10-26 00:49:41 +0300 )edit
3

answered 2017-10-20 16:26:50 +0300

objectifnul gravatar image

Why did SailfishX drop the BTRFS file system? Technical or legal reasons?

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bad experience from J1 I guess

pmelas ( 2017-10-20 23:07:26 +0300 )edit

@pmelas Well maybe BTRFS raised some issues with J1. However, I experienced some issues with SailfishX' current file system too: try to open any file explorer (filebrowser, filetug, cargodock, filecase) in 'root' mode using Schturman's hacks (in openrepos), and you'll probably see that in most cases you can't access /root unless you wait for 'some' time (not too short, not too long) before re-opening your favorite explorer in root mode after you've closed failed instance(s). The 'new' file system has an unpredictable behavior in some circumstances.

objectifnul ( 2017-10-21 01:41:17 +0300 )edit
3

answered 2017-11-04 16:24:35 +0300

micha77 gravatar image

updated 2017-11-04 18:10:52 +0300

First: For me Sailfish OS is new, and i like it, it is great and it is worth to be supported. Some thouhgts: I come from the Lumia 950, which btw has a great camera/camera app. The camera performance of the Xperia now can't be the last word. In my experience the front camera is better than the main camera. It is not possible to get a sharp foto with the main camera now, in low light you can forget everything (without camera lightning). Imo Jolla should put the improvement of the camera/camera app on top of the list and invest right here to be competitive.

The provided hardware should function without exception. This is a must. The physical camera button doesn't function, same like the fingerprint sensor.

The native gallery app is a bit difficult to use. I have to scroll through all the fotos to find something, and the scrolling is very stuttering. Please make it possible to show the pictures in folders, so that the user has the choice to show just the content of one folder or the whole collection.

If i draw up the view of the apps, the view appears like cards as a full screen jumping from one card to another. Imo it would be better to scroll through the apps slowly and smoothly and stop the app-drawer at every point i like to choose an app, same as if i choose an ambience for example.

And what about the RAM? It runs full for nothing, so i am forced to restart the device again and again. Here Jolla should implement an automatical clean up into the OS like Sony did.

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Hi, not sure what you mean with RAM. In linux RAM full does not mean that it is not freed on demand. It is freed whenever there is need to do it. This is normal linux behavior. I suspect you do not have OOM (out of memory) exceptions. The rest of the statements I do support, however it was mentioned here and there many times, so I am sure Jolla has taken notice and has put it on there todo list.

deloptes ( 2017-11-04 19:16:52 +0300 )edit

I took some pictures outside and they were just fine and sharp - not as good as it was with that crappy droid installed but pretty ok. Could compare the same picture of my Xperia X with the z1 compact of my wife, my pictures had more natural colours and more details but the XX pic was darker. Inside photos are just bad, with enough light they can be ok but chances are pretty low.

NuklearFart ( 2017-11-05 00:43:00 +0300 )edit
2

answered 2017-10-15 23:52:43 +0300

chris_bavaria gravatar image

I installed it on F5122 DualSim. All ok..... But I wait for upgrad some patches from patchmanager and clear new bugs in 2.1.3.5 version. My Jolla C works with 2.1.2.3, this version I wished for my Xperia. But downgread will breaking the system. Also waiting for some updates .... Xperia and Sailfish X is worth to use and the money is a good investment for me.

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1

Oh cool. I was pretty sure they were same sort of hardware. I am not sure if there is some special drivers needed for a dual sim but are you able to try 2 sims and see if they connect. It might not show up on the display but you can check the journal to see if both sim were detected.

veritanuda ( 2017-10-16 00:05:16 +0300 )edit
1

Yes, look any-success-installing-sfos-on-f5122 But its not official support.

chris_bavaria ( 2017-10-16 00:37:00 +0300 )edit
2

answered 2017-10-19 09:51:54 +0300

Hedexed gravatar image

updated 2017-10-21 11:40:12 +0300

The letter 'æ' is missing from the keyboard; will be an issue for Norwegian users. The other special characters used in Norway are present though ('ø', 'å')

Edit: 'æ' is available if selecting Norsk keyboard layout; thanks silta for the tip

Android-integration: Spotify - 'pause' and 'next song' -buttons are missing on lock screen; only song name and 'previous song' -button is displayed.

The phone is much cooler (as in temperature) than when running with the stock Android OS :)

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Oh, was just about to purchase today, but living without æ is currently a deal breaker for me. Any hopes that this can be fixed soon? :)

StorOddnoga ( 2017-10-19 13:26:19 +0300 )edit
4

Go to settings > Text input > Keyboards, check Norsk, go back to Text input, tap Active keyboard on the top, choose Norsk, tap Active layout on bottom, choose Norsk, done.

You can find æ in the second row on the right side.

silta ( 2017-10-19 17:58:47 +0300 )edit
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Asked: 2017-10-11 20:49:06 +0300

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Last updated: Jan 08 '18