User reports - Sailfish X

answered 2017-10-17 16:59:52 +0300

elaurin
71 ●1 ●1 ●3

So far Sailfish X has been great! This is my first foray into Sailfish, coming from Android and BB10 before that. I love the smooth UI. Android apps work really well (better than they did on BB10). Startup boot is amazingly fast. The performance, in general is fantastic. It feels fast and fluid, more so than Android.

Flashing could have taken as little as 30 mins. It took me about an hour, but I missed two steps and had to repeat a few things. The dual instructions between Sony and Jolla get a little confusing. Overall, flashing was no harder than rooting Android and flashing custom ROM’s, but I think it would be too difficult for an average user, who is not comfortable with command line. The current setup process would probably deter every day users looking for a pick-up-and-go phone. I think that same crowd would otherwise really like Sailfish X.

Bluetooth works great. It is a bit slow to detect nearby devices (20-30 seconds – I’m impatient), but it pairs without a problem. There is an occasional hiccup (gap in playback) when playing music over Bluetooth to one of my devices, which gets annoying after a while. I haven’t determined if it’s the particular speaker/radio or the phone.

The camera works well. I love the easy access to manual controls! Fantastic! I haven’t used it much yet, but it felt fast and responsive. The Sony camera is really good (my experience from Android), so I’m expecting pictures from the Sailfish X will turn out really well.

So far my only issues are with the Media tracker (won’t detect all artist id3 tags) and MMS settings (resets every time the phone is turned off). It looks like there are solutions, but they require going into developer mode. That’s on my to-do list, but a few GUI settings or permanent fixes would be preferable. Despite these, everything does work.

Overall, I’m very happy with the switch to Jolla. Great job!

answered 2017-10-17 18:25:19 +0300

lumen
2991 ●39 ●52 ●59

updated 2017-10-18 18:08:46 +0300

I'll need to to say a few things about the camera. I remember reading from Jollas pages that the paid version of the camera software will be more advanced. Well, for now, it is not the case...

I used the Android version of the Xperia X for about 3 months and now comparing to Sailfish experience about the same device.

• Sharpness Somewhat there, but you need to have luck that the camera focuses correctly. It's not so sharp as Android version either. I read somewhere that Sailfish camera is not exploiting full resolution of the sensor. Here are my findings: Android - 3366x5984 px = 20Mpx, contrasty sharp pictures and video with quite good colour reproduction Sailfish - 2988x5312 px = ~16Mpx, less contrast, often blurry pictures and video, inconsistent colour results

• Focusing Errr.. what focusing... I wouldn't like to use word horrible, but I can't come up with something better either. Camera seems to focus erratically "just somewhere". Focusing into any darker areas is a no go. You can't focus to something well-lit either if there are even brighter objects anywhere in the scene, because i.e. a face becomes dark if there is sky somewhere behind. You can forget also macro photos which worked very well with Android version. Tapping on screen to focus doesn't yield good results. Eventhough I've tried it few times, it seems that I get blurry results anyway. If someone has better results with focusing, let me know.

• Colours A mixture of daylight and luminaires makes this camera go hay-wire. You get weird results of greenish and yellowish tones where you don't expect them. Android version controlled them well. When in even lighting conditions, it gives you decent results, I think. Atleast better than that Jolla 1 did.

• General usage of camera Oh.. sorry I haven't had time to see if GPS coordinates appear to photos. Atleast Android version did them. Here is one pretty annoying thing. When clicking to take a photo, the camera has quite a lag before photo is taken. People have time to move around before captured. This happens especially with Whatsapp. EDIT: Happens only with Whatsapp Feels that I need to have camera pointed for many seconds stabilized, because everything feels blurry, shaky and there is this annoying time of black screen and you don't know what you're gonna get...

• Video I haven't read it from anywhere, but I'm pretty sure Android version had image stabilization in the camera. If it was so, then with Sailfish that is gone. I'm not expecting Jolla to get that working anytime soon either...

• Editing Android version had quite nice adjustment tools which I miss a bit. Sailfish has only lightness and contrast, you don't really do much with them.

Hope this helps somebody to decide whether to convert to Sailfish or not. I have to say that I was hopeful to get a little bit better performance now that there's new imaging chip made by the market leader... Jolla, please put some effort to this. The camera is under-performing in a huge way.

answered 2017-10-13 17:38:08 +0300

XFish
661 ●16 ●26 ●31

updated 2017-10-20 05:39:50 +0300

My Experience so Far, some of it might be SFOS limitations some Sailfish X bugs hard to say:

1. The GOOD very responsive, delays existing in Aquafish UI elliminated, no more waiting for anything!
   
2. Seems to find networks better, has better reception then the aquafish with same SIM same location same mobile provider;
   
3. No issues with making call experienced, no weird noises etc;
   
4. Was able to bump root to 5GB using telnet shell!
   
5. Gorgeous Sailfish X website and the jolla Shop worked flawlessly on mobile and desktop;
   
   
6. The BAD, APN settings VPN settings are not restored when restoring from SFOS backup!
   
7. VPN on Sailfish X seems to have issues automatically reconnecting, when restarting network layer it simoly stays off;
   
8. Had to use command line to get double tap screen to wakeup, APN settings to save after reboot;
   
9. When trying to restore Storeman backup, no repositories restored that i had previously backed up on my Aquafish :-/ ;
   
10. When selecting save photos, screenshots on external memory card it actually still saves them in Pictures NEMO folder not on the external Memory Card;
    
11. Even though i selected text large in settings email text is tiny weeny in EMAIL app:
    
12. In email app when opening an email and selecting Display Image (otherwise its blank) and then trying to select any textual hyperlinks is difficult. Often i have to press a link about 4 times before it detects it so the webview hyperlinks srent easily recognized for click input somehow;
    
13. GPS i havent gotten to work in any mode (SFOS apps);
    
14. Bluetooth to Kinovo device, (pairing does not show Kinovo bluetooth receiver when the receiver is set to pairing mode);
    
15. WIFI to Mobile Data handoff issues with SFOS VPN active, still need to perform network layer restart every time leaving a WIFI network and when mobile data 4G network is slow, it will not connect otherwise flush, reset and restart 4G and VPN connection;
    
16. Utilities Refresh Media Database function does not work, user popup messages saying failed, when manually tracker daemon start, stop command through terminal and reset command it works.
    
17. Going back to the SFOS VPN functionality under poor 3G mobile connectivity VPN is essentially useless and cant connect reliably, when i turn it off the phone connects judt fine with 46dB wireless 3G signal (about half of a strong network signal);

To be continued......

answered 2017-10-14 17:36:31 +0300

woodenmo
231 ●4 ●6 ●8

I am quite satisfied with the official SailfishX on my Xperia. I flashed it with the official build after it had run my own. The procedure was quick and took only a few minutes. I did not face any errors.

• Native apps work very well, perhaps with an exception of the e-mail app. The rendering of messages is weird, font is very small in HTML messages, so that I have to magnify every single message when reading. I would appreciate a double tap to magnify to the screen size. When returning to the message list, it takes a lot of time.
• Bluetooth works in some way. Initiating a file transfer by Xperia to another device works, it does not the other way around, at least with that device I tested, the transfer gets interrupted.
• Import of contacts from a file went ok.
• E-mail and CalDav accounts are working fine, I have none other.
• Android runtime seems also fine, I am actually surprised how well those few apps run. I could not find a way to enable LED/sound notifications for Android apps, though, and installed android-chatmail-notification from OpenRepos, working afterwards.
• I have just inserted a SIM card, cellular network works (4G), still have to test voice.
• I still have to see how the battery life goes but was quite good with the community build.
• File system layout and sizes puzzle me, the root file system has just 880M free right now (of 2.4G). That seems too little to me. /fimage is 100% full but this is probably harmless.
• sdcard 64G is working.
• ssu status reads "device not registered". The device is recorded in my Jolla account together with my Jolla 1, I probably miss something then.
• Double tap screen wakeup works after a tweak.
• The Jolla store works fine for native apps. Apart from a market app, no Android apps are visible in there from my device.
• I find the device's display brilliant, indeed, and pleasure to read on.
• I added Coderus' power save app to activate auto power saving mode.

Thank you folks for your valuable questions and answers at TJC. Cheers!

answered 2017-10-15 04:30:49 +0300

liqquid
1327 ●25 ●35 ●39

Bought Yesterday. Nice job, but not could be much better! After a day testing, my firs thoughts:

positive:

the os nice on this screen, and good sized icons, browser faster (but the app is still the same unfortunately), os faster/smoother a little bit, battery still on 54% after 1 day active using what is really good, good to use it again after 2 months android usage...

negative:

touch screen lags same or worse than Jolla C really bad and hard to use it now, the double tap wake up feature missing very much (temporarily sorted with some commands but I reckon it will affect to the battery..., the camera quality worse than I expected, video recording even worse - slow/lags, no fps setup (I only used 60fps recording before), no flash with recording, camera app and camera setup still really poor, music playing sound quality really bad as some people already reported, as I said the os a bit faster than Jolla C but it has still those lags when scrolling or swipe pages vertically so I can not feel it fast enough for this hardware..., internet sharing would be also important, storage only 17.7GB available...

But anyway, I hope more and more people are gonna buy the OS and Jolla will be able to fix these very soon with nice updates!

answered 2017-10-15 21:41:49 +0300

pawel
14895 ●231 ●341 ●376

great screen

camera much better then jolla1 or c but not as.good as when running android

webviews tend to lag

double tap patched

gps is working, android apps also

edge swipe has to be exact to be recognized, after a day got used to it. miss fingerprint after a month of using android on it.

in total very satisfied. for me most important points are: improve camera and browser behaviour

answered 2017-10-15 23:59:08 +0300

This post is a wiki. Anyone with karma >75 is welcome to improve it.

updated 2017-10-16 00:01:17 +0300

habuba
11 ●2 ●4 ●6

Where is the "Maps" app which i had on a Jolla 1 with Sailfish 2.1? I'am missing this app and the ability to open an address directly from the "People" app.

answered 2017-10-16 23:12:52 +0300

voulo
153 ●5 ●10 ●16

Purchasing I really do not understand this leg shooting with region restrictions. Is enduring a part of enthusiasm? Are we in need to cut userbase at the start of the sales for some reasons?

Installation process Sony instructions are not clear and outdated, video is confusing. It's the most struggling part of install. Google Android Studio site does not contain 144MB .exe anymore. Not a single instruction mentions that fastboot is a cli-based program and must be invoked via cmd.exe or powershell to read its output. I've read about it in comments at Jolla's blog.

First start Have well-known problem with installation of main apps (mostly Android-support and Text-prediction). Solved by reboot.

Usage pros Starts very fast. Perfect screen. Battery life is pleasing (WI-FI only for 2 days), even with constant usage. Android apps seem to run faster and smoother.

Usage cons Annoying warning at the start of the boot. Webview is broken and luggy. Browser crashes occasionaly, still weak opening large pages with embedded pictures and videos (now I know that it's not the JP processor's fault). Still can't connect to my Owncloud server (maybe because I'm dumb :| ). Reboot option was removed from Utilities, has to invoke sudoed terminal to do it.

Overall I'm happy with new device. Even through difficulties (but didn't we ask for it?) All I want now is clear sync method, then I may rest in peace))

answered 2017-10-22 11:33:41 +0300

ralooyar
1713 ●23 ●53 ●42

updated 2018-01-07 16:58:12 +0300

My experience :

Buying Sailfish X

Once my Xperia X device had been delivered, I wanted to purchase and download Sailfish X to jump straight into falshing action... But this flow was abruptly interrupted at noticing Jolla will only accept payment via credit card. Since I do not own a credit card, flashing time was over for this day. :( See jolla-shop-sailfishx-purchase-method

Thankfully I found a relative, who could help me out in this issue, so purchase and download worked and the journey could continue.

Time to read some documentation:

• https://jolla.com/sailfishxinstall/
• flashing-README.txt provided in SailfishOS-2.1.3.5-1-f5121-0.0.1.16.zip, which you download from https://shop.jolla.com/downloads/

Updating Android software version

I bought a new Xperia X with locked (but unlockable) bootloader. The initial system version was 34.2.A.0.333, so I started the update process... For me this was a very long prozess: I guess 6 hours of download, install, download, install, ... of different software updates. Here is the full list my Xperia X went through:

• starting at 34.2.A.0.333
• update to 34.2.A.2.47
• update to 34.2.A.2.69
• update to 34.3.A.0.194
• update to 34.3.A.0.206
• update to 34.3.A.0.217
• update to 34.3.A.0.228 (<- the desired target version)
• update to 34.3.A.0.238

At least the Xperia X does the most part unattended. You only have to tab "install new update now" once in a while. So you can do this along the way doing other stuff.

Maybe faster (but more complex): I have read (https://together.jolla.com/question/168870/versionnumber-build-number/?answer=168914#post-id-168914) that one can use the Emma tool to directly install version 34.3.A.0.228, but this would require time to install the Emma tool first. ;)

Unlocking the bootloader and flashing:

Using the tutorial sailfish-x-install-flash-on-linux and a linux pc, this process worked like a charm. No struggling with Windows driver issues or installing large Android SDKs. On Debian linux I only had to install android-tools-fastboot (118 kByte) and the whole unlocking and flashing process took 30 minutes (+ time reading the documentations).

Very first steps in the new SailfishX:

• The display looks way better than the one in my Jolla1 (brighter and sharper) :)
• Why do I have to go to the tutorial again? Where is the option to skip it? Fortunately it is not very long. :|
• Installation of android support failed :(
• Installation of predictive keyboard failed :(
• No "double tab to turn on display" :(
• Hmm, I can't close apps by wiping down on this device - Guess, I need to check the device settings

Time to call it a day. Configuring and (re-)installing apps will be done tomorrow.

Hardware test after flashing

I tested the Xperia hardware before flashing (using the Android/Sony test tools of the "service menu", which you can find by calling * # * # 7378423 # * # ) and now it is time to test the hardware after flashing, again. To get access to Sailfish test utilities, either call # * # 310 # * # * or (enable developer mode and type csd on the commandline).

Test results:

• OK:
  • LCD (no dead or broken pixels)
  • LCD touch
  • buttons
    • power button
    • volume up/down
    • photo button (two-step-functionality missing, only "full press" == "take photo", no "half press" == "focus")
  • phone call
  • mobile data
  • back camera
  • camera flash
  • front camera
  • WLAN
  • proximity sensor
  • light sensor
  • gyro / accelerometer
  • top / bottom microphone (there are two separate tests, but it seems to make no difference, whether I speak in the top or the bottom microphone!?!?)
  • loudspeaker (this test is great! It definitely is a loud speaker! :)
  • left/right speaker (make sure, you have the smartphone in landscape orientation)
  • headset
    • headset button
    • volume buttons
    • headset microphone
    • headset audio (without the crackling of my Jolla1)
  • GPS
  • LED
  • vibration
  • USB charging
  • read/write SD-card
• FAIL: (exactly those mentioned at the Jolla Shop disclaimer, so I knew what I bought; that's fair)
  • compass
  • fingerprint sensor
  • bluetooth (test pass in "csd", but no devices found in "Settings" > "Bluetooth" > "Search for devices")
  • FM Radio

=> Conclusion: The most important stuff is working. :) But it would be nice, if Jolla staff would get bluetooth in a "working" state, too. Keep going. cheer :)

Update on bluetooth

Having read https://together.jolla.com/question/169519/sony-xperia-bluetooth/?answer=169564#post-id-169564, I gave connecting by bluetooth a few more tries (about 10 or 20). In the end I managed to send a picture from Jolla1 to XperiaX. But this process needs some more fixing by Jolla staff to work more flawless.

Application check

Applications, which worked without problems:

• Phone calls
• Firefox
• Notes
• Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

Applications with problems:

• OsmAnd
• CodeReader
• SpeedCrunch mobile

Finally migrating to SailfishX

Application problems have been fixed by workaround:

• OsmAnd Voice: Fixed by installing Google TTS Engine (Poor Maps is a very interesting native alternative, but not mature enough yet for my usecases)
• CodeReader: Problem fixed in Git Repository, but it is block from Jolla Store because of other issues. So switching to android code reader "QR scanner" (from FDroid repository).
• SpeedCrunch: Buttons in app not useable, but you can switch to Sailfish keyboard to type in your terms

=> Finally migrating from Jolla1 to Sailfish X (06.01.2018)

Process went very smooth via backup to SD and restore from SD in "Settings".

Data migrated via backup/restore: - addressbook - SMS - calender events - notes - pictures

Data not migrated via backup/restore (manual migration necessary): - music - installed native apps + data - installed android apps + data

I'm curious about, how Sailfish X is performing "in production". :) But I guess, very well.

Minor issues during migration: - contacts from SIM card are displayed in address book - delete those - contacts disappear - reboot - contacts back again => soluition

To be continued...