Jolla tablet announced at Slush '14 [Announcement] [not relevant]

asked 2014-11-14 18:20:09 +0200

midnightoil
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updated 2014-11-19 11:45:08 +0200

jiit
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  admin

Update: Indiegogo link.

A crowdfunding campaign for a Jolla tablet was announced by Marc Dillon at the Slush event. Target is $380,000, which should be easily achievable. Indeed, wouldn't surprise me if they get it in a couple of days, or even 24 hours.

Seems like more of a pre-order campaign than a drive to fund the actual device. Doing it via Indiegogo or Kickstarter definitely gets more publicity.

Spec highlights: Intel Quad Core (presumably Atom), 7.9" 2048x1536 IPS, 2GB RAM, 4300Mah, 5MP Front, 2MP Rear, 32GB ROM & SD. $189.

IMO it's rather disappointing that they decided to go with Intel for the chip ... I know they're waving around wads of cash, desperate for design wins, and it must be very tempting for a small company like Jolla, but I loathe their corporate ethos and business practices, and even their new Atoms are years behind ARM. Not very 'unlike'. Also, got to wonder about the May '15 delivery date ... assuming they have no working prototype of either 'Sailfish 2.0' or the tablet, or they would have been shown. Good to see a far better screen though.

---- Pre-release speculation

Render of the edge of a phone with almost no bezel has been posted on Twitter and the Jolla homepage. Together with a sign-up for notification of the event (w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ i̶f̶ p̶e̶d̶d̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ w̶a̶n̶t̶ t̶o̶ t̶r̶y̶ t̶o̶ c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶ t̶h̶i̶s̶ t̶h̶r̶e̶a̶d̶,̶ t̶h̶e̶ s̶i̶g̶n̶ u̶p̶ d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ w̶o̶r̶k̶ s̶o̶ J̶o̶l̶l̶a̶ n̶e̶e̶d̶ t̶o̶ b̶e̶ i̶n̶f̶o̶r̶m̶e̶d̶ o̶f̶ t̶h̶a̶t̶ -̶ y̶o̶u̶ r̶e̶c̶e̶i̶v̶e̶ n̶o̶ e̶-̶m̶a̶i̶l̶).

I think we can safely assume it is a phone, and not a tablet, since Sailfish currently lacks tablet features.

The clue for a reasonably near announcement on a new phone (though I thought it'd be at MWC) was the development e-mail recently stating the commencement of work on UI scaling etc for different resolutions.

Have to say, it's only the edge of the phone, but looks a hell of a lot more clean and modern than what we have now!

Edit: Could of course be a third party OEM announcing a Sailfish device in conjunction with Jolla.

Edit2: It makes sense actually. The recent €100 off on the Jolla, then week extension suggests clearing inventory, and AFAIK no new Jollas have been manufactured since March / April of this year, it would make more sense at this stage to bring out a new model than do a new production run on the old model.

Edit3: Just looked at it on a bigger desktop monitor. It looks to be an Other Half that's pictured (albeit more complex than existing ones). It would be rather strange to launch a countdown and hype people up only to let them down, especially as it wouldn't be 'bigger' than TOHKBr2. If it is a phone, I guess it definitely has TOH.

Edit4: Review Jolla seem to think that it is indeed the front part of a device in the same style as the current Jolla (albeit with tiny bezels), which I mistook for a TOH. Would appear not to have a TOH in that case, or none attached in the render / photo. Still think a larger phone is far more likely than a tablet ... I think it'd take a long time to get Sailfish to a stage where it was decently usable in tablet format, and it'd be very weird to have an archaic phone on sale and a presumably much more modern tablet.