Jolla preview: First look

Introduction

Jolla may be a completely new name in the smartphone game, but the people in charge are no rookies. Founded by former Nokia employees, the Finnish company is looking to give the MeeGo platform a new lease of life. Established in 2011, it took Jolla two years to unveil its first product.

Their first handset is called just like company itself - Jolla, but while the naming wasn't particularly innovative the Sailfish-based smartphone certainly is. It's pretty clear that plenty of fresh new ideas went into its development and the result is quite different from anything else you can get in the market.

Jolla official photos

The Jolla smartphone runs Sailfish OS - a successor of the MeeGo open platform, which Jolla took and developed further. In a way, it could be viewed as MeeGo 2.0 However, Jolla would like to start fresh and not carry the burden of its neighbor, who abandoned the project that many truly loved.

We are yet to see if the new Finnish kid on the block will feature the same sort of magic as the Nokia N9, which made so many mourn the end of MeeGo. For starters here are the key Jolla specs.

Jolla at a glance

• Dimensions: 131 x 68.0 x 9.9mm, 143g
• Display: 4.5" IPS LCD display of 960 x 540 pixels resolution, Gorilla Glass 2, 245ppi pixel density
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400; dual-core Krait 200 at 1.4GHz, Adreno 305 GPU, 1GB RAM
• OS: Sailfish OS
• Camera: 8MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
• Video camera: 1080p @ 30fps video capture with main camera
• Storage: 16GB built-in, microSD card slot with support of up to 64GB
• Connectivity: NFC, A-GPS+GLONASS, WLAN b/g/n, microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0 LE
• Battery: 2,100mAh Li-Ion
• Misc: Android app compatibility via the Yandex.Store and Amazon Appstore

Given the price tag, the mid-range specifications came as somewhat of a nasty surprise when Jolla unveiled its smartphone. However history has shown that a smartphone can be much more than a sum of its parts and we shouldn't write off any device before giving it a proper test.

And while the screen resolution could have certainly been higher, you can't blame this one for skimping on innovation. The Jolla phone is made out of a unique combination of aluminum and premium plastic and sports a replaceable back panel dubbed "the Other Half", which allows you to automatically change profiles with covers. The smartphone is meant to

Jolla live photos

Given the unique situation that the newly born company faces, that seems to be the only logical step to take - building a very close relationship with its first customers. These are the people who are ready to invest their hard-earned cash into the unknown and they should be treated deserve something beyond mere specifications.

Follow us after the break as we take a look at the hardware of the first Jolla smartphone.