User reports - Sailfish X

answered 2017-11-04 20:13:30 +0300

Terr-E
21 ●4

updated 2017-11-04 20:21:59 +0300

Allright, basic info; I ordered my Xperia X a week ago and did the actual flash last Thursday. Some minor disclaimer; I work as a System Administrator, so I might have an edge over the average smartphone buyer. A lot of people here seem tech minded enough that this advantage is negligible though.

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

Performance in UI and UX seem on par with what I'd expect from a mid-range phone nowadays. Sleek and smooth. This is my first Sailfish hands-on experience, so I can't really compare to the other Jolla devices. My main phone is (still) the Nokia N9 [1], and before that I used an N900. Compared to the N9 I notice slightly less stutter when swiping through screens, although it's rarely ever annoyingly stutter-y on either.

How is your experience with bluetooth connection still in beta?

Bluetooth seem to work just fine, so far. Connecting to my N9, my Dell Lattitude 7440 (running Kubuntu) and my Mac Mini and transferring files with no problems.

How much time is needed to flash the phone?

Using my Lattitude with Kubuntu 16.04 I followed the instructions here: https://jolla.com/sailfishx-linux-instructions/ I did step 1 - 3 on Tuesday, and step 4 - 6 on Thursday. Everything went pretty smooth, although I am of the opinion that the "Note" and "Note #2" on step 4 should been actual steps in the instructions, and the Sony Vendor binary image should definitively be mentioned in the "What you need to begin" section.

Taking it nice and easy, not wanting to brick my brand new phone, the entire process took me about 2 - 3 hours. If I got another dozen or so phones to get the routine down pat, I could probably do it in 1.5 - 2 hours or less, depending on the speed of the updates and such, and whether "waiting on"-time is counted.

I was pleasantly surprised on how effortlessly it all went just following the instructions, although if this is ever going to succeed as a mainstream commercial product I would still recommend a GUI tool to be made which incorporates most, if not all of these steps, including automatically fetching all the necessary binaries, or sell devices ready-flashed.

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

The camera seems to work fine, except from the already established points of the hardware button not working as designed (no focus on half-press) and resulting loss of sharpness. I haven't really spent much time with the camera due to have to work during the daytime, but I'll try and get some pictures up in the next couple of days, time and sunlight permitting.

[1] Edit - I am still using my N9 as I was disappointed to not be able to easily import my contacts from my N9 to my Sailfish X. The import function did not support any option that allowed me to select my N9, nor was there a "generic" Bluetooth option. Also the "People" app in Sailfish lacks a number of fields that the "Contacts" on my N9 has, so even when transferring vCards over Bluetooth file transfer, information was lost. This is, for now, a blocker in moving over completely to the Sailfish X.

answered 2017-11-09 23:42:36 +0300

sfinnie
690 ●13 ●15 ●20

Successfully completed, although a few queasy moments on the way (see below). Been running for a few days now, and all good so far. Immediate impressions:

1. It looks gorgeous. Yes, beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that. But compared to the gaudy default Android options, the Sailfish theme is beautiful. I've already had several "ooooh, what's that?" moments.
2. It's functionally stable. Haven't used bluetooth yet so can't comment on that. But everything else is solid and responsive
3. Performance is notably better than my J1. It should be given the difference in hardware specs, but that doesn't always follow. Good to see it does here. Browser perhaps most noticeable (understandably)
4. The blue notification light. Hurrah :)

The wrinkles:

1. The installation instructions are a little ambiguous on where to put the sony binary. It says "paste it to the same directory where you extracted the Sailfish OS .zip file ". However: extracting the Sailfish image creates a new sub-directory Sailfish-OS-<version>. So: should the Sony binary go into the folder containing the sailfish tar file, or the sub-directory that extraction creates? (answer is the latter btw)
2. Installation failed from my laptop (elementaryOS linux). Attempting to flash always aborted with error FAILED (status read failed (Cannot send after transport endpoint shutdown)). Happened at different places in the process. Tried on desktop (linux mint) & worked first time.
3. First boot took a loooong time. I'd resigned myself to it having hung and was about to re-flash. It burst into life while I was preparing. Would estimate boot took 3-4 minutes, maybe more.
4. Attempting to restore backup from my J1 failed. Froze the phone & needed restart. Still haven't resolved this. Backup quite large but not excessively so (2.3GiB). Have copied to desktop & will manually prune before trying again.

Otherwise really pretty smooth, good job guys :)

answered 2017-11-19 00:01:34 +0300

Desmo
931 ●6 ●14 ●16

After a month here are my observations.

First the good...

• Beautiful OS and simple to use/navigateList item
• able to hack and make changes
• the few devs we do have are a god send and have created some nice apps for users. Without them this platform would be completely dead and useless TO USERS...Jolla's business plans however are not consumer user based so it really doesn't matter.

Now the bad...

1. Exchange is basic and not conducive if you use your mobile for business purposes. When forwarding a mail that has images in the body those images are not forwarded. You can not answer calendar appointment requests nor can you send calendar appointments to your colleagues. Every 4-5 days the Exchange client just stops updating and the only way to fix it is to delete your account and set it up again. I use the Android app Nine for emails and it's more than enough for my needs.
2. Camera doesn't work as it should...I use the camera not for taking random pictures of nonsense but to take pictures of receipts for my expense reports. If you're not under a bright light forget about decent, in focus pictures.
3. As I said, god bless the devs we have but the official store is a desert. After 5 yrs that SF still has fewer apps than the N9 did after only one year is a disaster. The Maemo crowd here says everything is just fine but anyone with business sense knows otherwise. Without a vibrant ecosystem the platform will go nowhere...not because I say so but because it's just the way it is.

Would I recommend the phone and OS to another user? To another Linux nerd sure I would. To a normal user not a chance in hell. The phone works in basic things and is fun to use but for the most part it is just a linux play toy like the Nokia N tablets before it. I always keep my old Android phone in my backpack, fully charged just in case.

answered 2017-11-27 08:35:03 +0300

danfin
3498 ●105 ●144 ●152

It's a nice phone, but not that much different from a Jolla C. Very bright screen. Google sync seems not to be working on 2.1.3.5 nor 2.1.3.7 For now, I am back to Jolla C / Intex Aquafish, where it works fine.

answered 2017-12-19 12:27:57 +0300

libbresse
1 ●1

updated 2017-12-19 12:32:29 +0300

Works quite good.

No good working youtube apps. Sometimes youtube freezes in my browser, can't get it to play again. Have to reboot phone to start playing again.

Freezes streams for a while when going in and out from wifi zones.

Sharing wifi wont work for me even after following the guide mentioned above.

Missing snapchat app.

Missing brave browser Can't find anywhere to change alarm volume to my alarm clock ?

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

Sakke
1933 ●27 ●51 ●52

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

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.

answered 2018-01-08 17:42:52 +0300

Stormy
186 ●2 ●4 ●3

Pro:

• The Xperia runs for two days with one battery charge
• The Xperia boots very fast.
• The operation of Sailfish OS is fast and good.

Contra:

• Installation: Installing Sailfish OS on the Sony Xperia is very boring issue
• Camera: The camera only delivers acceptable images if there is sufficient light. It is not suitable for indoor use at the moment
• Browser: The browser is very, very slow.
• Email: The Sailfish EMailer is not recommended.
• Phone: I have to restart the Sony Xperia before every phone call.

Jolla has with Sailfish OS a functional mobile phone operating system, but the basic applications such as telephoning, browser, Email and camera are poorly implemented. In its current form, I hardly like to take the Xperia out of my pocket.