First impressions
Hello, Sailfish community! This is my entry into the forum 
I’ve never used an alternative phone OS to stock Android and never even looked up alternatives until I set my eyes on the Jolla Phone 2026, so I am writing this as a complete noob and as a fresh new Sailfish user with little to no idea about the do’s and don’ts, other than that this is a Linux device and that I ought to expect a bit of tinkering. I might add that I’ve only used it as my daily driver for a couple of days, though quite extensively.
The phone (hardware and feel)
Build.
When I first held the phone in my hand, I was not all too happy. I should add that I was not disappointed either. The backside (TOH) felt relatively cheap, and the volume buttons felt mushy rather than clicky. I think this was due to me having gotten too used to the glass backside and premium buttons of my Android phone, because now, just a couple of days later, I really have another take on these things. TOH looks nice, and I like the matte touch it brings. Also, being able to swap TOHs is VERY nice. I’ve gotten somewhat used to the buttons and don’t react to them anymore. They are alright. The phone is quite a bit smaller than I’m used to, but somehow way thicker. Surprisingly, I don’t mind the change at all. The more I use it, the happier I am with it. Also, having a orange coloured phone feels like a nice touch given how everything is so grey today.
Screen
What I was most worried about (apart from the OS and Appsupport) was the screen. I’ve gotten used to a 120 Hz display, and when I heard this was only 90 Hz, I started having second thoughts about getting the phone. This has not been any issue. The difference between 60 Hz and 90 Hz is way bigger than between 90 Hz and 120 Hz. Sure, the refresh rate could be smoother, but it is nowhere near as stuttery as I had imagined, so that’s good. The notch at the top makes the whole phone look way older and less valuable than it is. I’m getting used to it, but it could have been a bit smaller so as to only give space for the LED light and camera. The LED is very nice, by the way!
Sailfish OS
Initial impressions
For me, the UI is amazing! I thought I would have more issues moving to a different OS, but I already feel like I prefer this UI. Sure, there are issues that I’ll list below, but having a home screen that is not filled with app icons has been oddly satisfying. I realise that I am less prone to open random apps just for the sake of it. In Android, when I’m a bit bored, I usually fall into this default nothing box and begin swiping around the home screen. I tend to do this until some app speaks to me, and suddenly I’m back to doomscrolling. Somehow, having to open the app drawer has made me more intentional about phone usage. I would like a search bar in the app drawer however, or some way to make it easier to launch an app. I’ve tried the QuickLaunch app, and it’s good, but I think pressing the Enter key ought to launch the highlighted app at the top. Now, if I type in “Sp” and get a total of one result: “Spotify,” I would just like to be able to use the keyboard to launch that app. The app is quite far away at the top of the screen, so it kinda slows down the “quick” part in QuickLaunch. Having something similar to Krunner would be nice.
The way all native apps work with the pull-down menus is brilliant! I like a clean screen with as little clutter on it as possible, and this feels so intuitive! I’ve read about many others struggling with the swipe system, but I’m loving it!
Also, a pleasant surprise for me was the ambiance swapper, although I must say the new default wallpapers look really bad up close. Not from a design perspective; I mean the resolution. It looks like a cheap, low-res version of the real deal. This goes only for the new ones. Were they made with AI, perchance, as the older wallpapers seem to be much higher resolution?
Finally, the keyboard. I love it! I’ve been without usable predictive text input for a couple of years now since I left Gboard, and man, does it feel nice to have this feature back! Although I have noticed that the predictive text only appears in some applications, which I hope is a bug? I have never used swipe gestures to type, so I don’t mind swiping to change keyboards. However, I do agree that the keyboard is a bit too happy to change layout. Maybe add an option to require two-finger swipes to change language? Also, make copying and highlighting text better. Please.
Camera
It is what it is. Not good, not horrible. The hardware is there, so I hope this can get better.
App stores and native apps
The default native apps, such as the contacts app, are wonderful. Way better than I ever had on Android! Getting more native apps, however, has not been the smoothest experience. To start things off: the store. Initially, I was perplexed why there were three native stores. After reading up a bit on this, I get it, but still, I think it could be set up easier for new users coming from Android. I think the Jolla store, Harbour (epic choice of name, btw), should include installers for Storeman and Chum. I get that these are not monitored by Jolla, but instead of ignoring them, there could be a big fat warning when trying to install them, such as “Hey, these can contain harmful software, and we don’t take responsibility, etcetera,” or whatever. Anything that makes it less darn hard to install Chum is welcome. As of this moment, a new user (not active in the forums) would not even know there are other native stores than Harbour. The Android app stores F-Droid and Aurora were thankfully very easy to add, so that was nice!
What I did not expect was that many native community-driven apps would be so hard to set up. I still have not gotten Whisperfish (Signal) to work. Other small issues, such as the SF forum viewer having an issue with logging in that resulted in a black screen that then suddenly went away when I checked in on it a fourth and final time. Also, don’t get me started with Pure Maps! Mamma mia, what am I supposed to do to make it even half as useful as Google Maps has been? Speaking of Google Maps and other Android map services such as HERE WeGo. Why do they all freeze? Thankfully, I’ve found CoMaps that works somewhat, but it does not include local bus traffic. Ideally, I would like to have a working NATIVE map service that just works. And setting up Pure Maps is something I still have not figured out.
AppSupport
Surprisingly enough, I’ve had fewer issues setting up my Android apps. Aside from the Maps part, ofc. I’ve gotten my banking app and everything I need up and running. MobilePay is a ticking time bomb with the “use older version” fix, and the local bus app Föli (Turku) just flat out won’t install. For some reason, the version on Aurora Store is v0 (0) with a size of 0 B. Naturally, the app won’t download (this could have solved the local bus issue I have with CoMaps). I checked Aurora Store from my Android, and it seems to be showing the correct version of Föli, so I don’t know what is going on there, but I cannot get the app working on my J2.
Other than that, I’m very happy with AppSupport. Many apps that complain when installed via Aurora on my Android phone just work on the Jolla, so that’s very nice!
Some issues
I’ve gathered that AppSupport drains more resources (understandably), so I’ve turned it off when going to sleep each night. Btw, turning off AAS as I go to sleep is a special kind of feeling. Knowing that there are no Google services running on my phone is liberating in ways I did not imagine! Could make a meme out of it. Anyway! I’ve monitored my battery drainage, and the first night I had my phone, the battery drained 3% during the whole night with AAS off. The next night it drained 6%, and then the following night it drained 12%! All with AAS off. Needless to say, this is kind of worrying, and I’m not sure what is causing it.
Searching for potential candidates, I found many issues. I get a long list of things having failed when running this command:
devel-su journalctl --since “5 minutes ago” | grep -i “deadfeed|conn_infra|thermal”
I will keep monitoring. Hopefully only temporary and an issue that can be fixed with a software update.
The charging speed is quite slow. I’m used to 80 W charging, and as I understand it, the MediaTek Dimensity 7100 only supports up to 45 W. That sounds OK, but I doubt this is what I am experiencing atm, so hopefully charging will be optimized.
Also, I seem to be affected by the dust-in-the-front-cam issue. I’ll add it to the correct forum post.
Conclusion
I’ve mostly brought up issues, but all in all, I really like the phone. The “feel” of the phone is growing on me more and more, and the UI is really nice. I just hope the battery drain issue can and will be fixed. Seems like a problem only I seem to be having, and I don’t know if that is a good or a bad thing. Assuming that gets fixed, I am very happy with my purchase!