So couple of days ago I throw my phone on the floor and the screen broke, it was weird because this is not the first time the phone to be thrown, but this time the screen was in pieces. I didn’t plan to change my 3+ years old Honor that I bought for less than 300€, but now I have to, even tho the phone works normally, it just annoying watching through those cracks.
I want to ask more experienced members here if SailfishOS and Jolla C2 are the right choices for me. I’ve read for some days on the forum here now, but I still thought it would be good to initiate conversion. I’m currently deciding between a Fairphone with s/OS and Jolla.
I have some Android apps that I relly on them critically, as Osuuspankki app, Brave browser, Proton Mail, Bitwarden, YouTube. But also I would like to have apps as Matkahuolto, HSL, Bolt, Uber, Mullvard VPN and Home Assistant which I use sometimes. And some maps app, currently I’m using Here WeGo and Google maps.
I guess my question is how much I can rely on Jolla to have these services available on the phone, or this is not for me?
I have been looking this forum now for a while, but can’t comment from first hand user experience point of view. C2 has pretty low/mid range HW, which doesn’t have fingerprint scanner, just FYI. But it seems to have fastest development currently. With Fairphone you will get better HW and with s/OS you will get more polished OS as it is basically android. SailfishOS offers true alternative to android but as you will notice by reading this forum it is not yet as polished as android.
About the apps, there apparently is hiccups with OP app but can be used with workaround Finnish OP-Mobiili - #28 by jovirkku. Don’t know what kind of situation is with Brave, but at least to my understanding Firefox works great. Don’t remember reading anything about Proton Mail but can’t you just link that to any email app? For Bitwarden there is native app called BitSailer BitSailor support thread, I recommend reading experiences in that thread. For youtube there is native app called Microtube.
For others I highly recommend searching answers from this forum. For example there is also native app for HSL called Matkakortti — SailfishOS:Chum, a Sailfish OS software repository by the community. There is native maps app etc. All apps might have less functionalities than android counterparts, some might not work at all. It is a little bit hit or miss, but people have made ton of amazing native apps for SFOS. Jolla is doing their best to offer support but when the apps updates, it might stop working at least for while. Best side of SFOS is that it is true alternative, offers more options to hack or customise it and you own truly the device + they offer long support. Negative side is that it is not as polished and you might find problems with some apps.
This same question have been asked quite often, so I recommend reading them also from this forum. In my opinion C2 is cheap so pretty low risk to test it in Europe but do consider if you are ready for the eventual hiccups.
You perfectly summarized the advantages and disadvantages.
One point maybe missing:
If you have Linux PCs around, the choice of SFOS feels somewhat natural: it is one of the very few Linux mobile OS that is at least somewhat polished.
My computers all run linux, so SFOS is for me the best choice currently
Does this means that I can install something like Waydroid or Aurora Store on the Jolla phone, and download and run pretty much all the Android app that I want on the SFOS phone as I would do on Android phone?
With C2 you wouldn’t need Waydroid as it has Android App Support (Usually referred as AAS). This is Jolla’s proprietary emulator to run android apps. But yes you can install Aurora store or F-droid. You can run most of the android apps but note that there might be some shortcomings. For example to enable bluetooth on Android side you need to use community workaround.
Be aware that full bluetooth access and control in Android is not possible. You can route audio through BT to Android but using BT for full access is difficult, e.g. unlock something from Android via BT is not possible to my awareness, updating firmware of BT, and so on
I’ve read this over and over again here on the forum, but I’m wondering what “a lot” means, and that’s why I tried to list the apps that I need. Are those a lot?
I use bluetooth for two purposes, connect it to the car radio or my headphones and for an app called Bitwards that via bluetooth connect to the doors at work, and unlock them. So I guess it won’t work with Bitwards.
Probably not (the unlocking).
Based on my experience your Android app is quite long. I made myself free from platform dependency first, and then jumped over to SFOS completely.
What I need
phone calls
SMS
Signal messanger client
browser
listening to FLAC files
reading epub files
weather and rain radar
root SSH
So very basic.
Except browser () easily covered by SFOS
I don’t really know about the others, but Proton Mail, Bitwarden, YouTube, HSL (not personally tried), and Mullvad will all work.
Some notes:
Pretty sure Proton Mail works in the browser fine (you can also set it as a Web App and add it to the launcher through the browser menu). If you want the Proton Mail official app, you can install it in AAS. There are methods of setting up Proton Mail Bridge to use it with third-party clients but they are pretty complicated (and you need a paid account with support for it): Using ProtonMail Bridg... | SailfishOS community wiki
Bitwarden has a native app called BitSailor but I think the web UI works as well.
YouTube is okay in the browser but lacks the notifications feature for accounts (thanks Google); you can install it in AAS as well, which solves that issue.
HSL has an app called Matkakortti as mentioned by CLMA31.
You can use Pure Maps as your maps application or install HERE WeGo in AAS.
Mullvad does not have a native app last time I checked, so you’ll need to download the openvpn configs and manually add them to the VPN menu in Settings. It can get a bit tedious but otherwise it’s okay for me personally.
YouTube, because how do you eat alone without watching anything
Bitwarden because it’s a password manager that works everywhere
OP bank mobile app, because literally anything government related that I want to do need to do goes trough there
Maps, because I’m from generation that is lost without digital map
Brave, because I need the syncing between devices and I like the chrome extensions especially for translation, Mozilla just doesnt offer the translation on mobile.
The rest of the apps are convinient, as Bolt/Uber I don’t use it often but when I need it I really need it, HSL as well I use rarely, but it’s convinient to buy a daily ticket when visiting Helsinki etc.
) easily covered by SFOS