The announcement of the new Jolla Phone has brought the project back to my attention. I was the proud owner of the first official Jolla Phone until rumors began to circulate about its demise. As it turns out, these rumors were false. The stability and compatibility of the system are decisive factors for me in deciding whether to switch from Android to Sailfish OS. The most important factors for switching would be banking apps (DKB, ING) and a usable authenticator.
I myself use a Google Pixel and have also had experience with Apple iPhones. None of the devices has let me down or failed in any way so far.
How critical do you consider the use of banking apps to be?
How stable have you found the system in general?
Is there anything I should pay attention to when switching?
My daily driver since more than 4 years. I have a spare Android phone for some shi**y Android apps, but accept to live with some annoying bugs. I started with a X10-II, moved to a X10-III and I’m using now a X10-II again.
Is there anything I should pay attention to when switching?
Yes! And you already started
For exemple, check all mandatory apps you’re using on Android. List them and check on this forum if it’s working with Android App Support.
If only i had a euro for every new user coming in asking about random Android apps without searching, i could probably buy another J2.
The FAQ can’t get up quick enough.
Thank you very much for your answers! That helps a lot! I remember that support was already an issue back then. It’s great that everything is working now and that you’ve had good experiences! Four years is also a long time, which shows how reliable an alternative OS can be. What bugs are you talking about, @pherjung? Actually, I can live with many alternatives except for banking apps. These were particularly important to me. As @attah already noted, apps are often in demand. I’ll do my homework and pick out the individual ones and ask if necessary. A curated list would be cool, but probably a lot of work.
Thanks for renaming it. I could have been more precise there.
X10-II has some annoying bugs or missing implementation, like double-tap to wake and VoLTE has some issues too. One point is the outdated browser, but I accept it as we need a truly alternative to Google and Apple’s web engine.
Let me start by saying I have been daily driving a C2 for almost two months now. Including banking (Dutch Triodos and Rabobank) and Ente Auth. Sure, they sometimes freeze (Android support crashing) and I have to reboot but that fixes it.
Akso trying to raise a philosophical question: Why in heavens name would you need your banking app with you at all times? Maybe I am too old fashioned (Gen X) for that… I have cash on me at all times. In case the banking apps wouldn’t work for me I would propably just keep a degoogled Android Tablet or iPad at home to do those specific tasks.
To me it is way more important that the device I carry around daily has a great battery life, makes phone calls, can do the basic other stuff (SMS, E-Mail, Calendar etc.) and respects my privacy. The C2 fills that bill nicely and so I am sure will the J2.
I personally use NFC to pay for a lot of stuff (we have a separate service for payments that works in banking apps and just uses NFC, besides Gpay on Android or other stuff like Samsung Pay/Garmin Pay). Having a lot of cash on yourself every time can be irritating. When you can pay with NFC you just take your phone to pay, to buy a ticket on bus etc. Is it most reliable solution? Probably not, because all it needs to be reliable is power (and internet connection of course), and when battery dies on you (you forgot to charge the phone) the cash will always work. Carrying separate device just to pay with it would be IMO irrational. So I would consider banking apps almost critical. Also banking apps are being used as a 2FA when you are doing something in your bank on web.
Ironically the dumb phone can do almost all of what you are talking about here. So why do you even use a smartphone anyway?
Mostly depends on you! I personally prefer the banking website on my main computer, and an Android approver on a separate 5G tablet. I just don’t like manipulating a phone or tablet when shopping so a physical card is fine for me. For my use case I don’t want or need a banking app on the phone I take with me. (I’ll make a little effort and test my bank app when I get the Jolla Phone.)
Just as information, in case you haven’t come across it yet, there is this list of banking applications rated by their level of compatibility.
General usability and stability
Someone commented that it’s better to restart the system from time to time to avoid some bugs, but I never felt that need.
Occasionally the browser crashes (people say it’s when it exceeds memory allowance) or (strangely) the SMS app. However, they both gracefully recover by reloading immediately on their own, and any SMS in the process of drafting is recovered as well. It just surprises me and I lose maybe 3 seconds waiting for the browser to reload once a month.
I can pair the phone with a bluetooth keyboard, connect to Wifi networks, share my 5G connection through Wifi, with 100% reliability. My needs are very simple so maybe I don’t expose many bugs.
The VoLTE question
Some people report problems with the telephony. There appears to be some issues with some operators, in particular when using VoLTE. You should check this table:
Emergency services
There is the question of emergency calls.
The local emergency numbers are not supported by the Emergency call interface (which only supports 112), see: Unable to call local emergency number, only 112.
Some people report problems calling 112, but I think it was on the C2, not on Sony Reliable emergency calls Not much is known on the topic, since we cannot call them as a test (Jolla said they could perform tests in Finland).
Sweden also blocks older phones based on the premise that they can’t make 4G calls to 112 and therefore shouldn’t be used at all in Sweden. My Xperia 10 II Dual SIM will be blocked by Tele2 in Sweden In principle this should not affect the Jolla Phone.
It seems emergency cell broadcasts (sometimes called “Presidential message”) are not supported Emergency Broadcasts [Austria] Again there is little for us to do to test.
Hardware issues
The Xperia 10iii has a known issue with camera focusing, but that won’t affect you. There used to be a thread of someone complaining of no sound when making calls on certain phones, but it has not appeared recently.
Apart from the “VoLTE mess” (title of an external link in a cited thread), many issues are related to hardware support, so there is hope that a phone designed by Jolla will have fewer issues (rather than on a stock phone from Sony with half well written open source drivers they could communicate to Jolla).
I carry this device called Credit/Debit card. It is pretty well supported, you can tap to pay etc. and it doesn’t even have a battery, so you don’t have to worry about charging it… You should try it!
The banking app support is very important indeed in many countries, ie. in the Nordics nearly all official online services (insurances, car registrations, social services etc) do not work if not verified through the persons banking app. So it is not only about paying with the mobile…
Banking apps and eID are really rather different beasts. Sure, in Swederp we have them somewhat conflated with BankID being the de-facto eID. For all i’m concerned actual banking apps are really quite useless. Doing banking in peace and quiet on a real computer is a feature.
What irritates me sometimes is people fiddling minutes with their phones to pay instead of using a card and in case this doesn’t work another card or cash. Cash does not even need NFC.
A privacy oriented phone containing a track of all my payments combined with tons of sensor data also is not an idea that seems exceptionally smart to me.
Well, In the moment when I figured out how NFC payments work the best - you need to pay fresh after unlocking the phone with the fingerprint scanner - I had no issues any more. No fiddling. I just make sure NFC is turned on & close the phone to terminal & in 99% situations it just works.
Yeah, debit card is more reliable, not gonna lie - doesn’t have battery etc. On the other hand when somebody steal your card you are screwed - when somebody steal your phone & you have long pin/fingerprint lock, then until they unlock the phone they cannot pay with it.
