It"s been just over a year since Jolla - the Finnish company created by a team of former Nokia employees - announced plans to license its Sailfish OS to hardware manufacturers for use on their devices. Jolla has been through some pretty turbulent times since then, but the company and its plans have survived.
Today, Jolla announced availability of the first third-party smartphone to launch with Sailfish OS onboard. Indian hardware brand Intex Technologies has launched the Aqua Fish, a low-cost handset co-developed with the Finnish firm.
The Intex Aqua Fish runs Sailfish OS 2.0, and its key specs include:
- 5-inch IPS LCD with HD (1280x720px) resolution
- Quad-core 1.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 (MSM8909) SoC
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB storage (plus microSD card support up to 32GB)
- 8MP rear camera with LED flash, autofocus, and 720p video recording
- 2MP front-facing camera with fixed focus and 720p video recording
- FM radio
- Bluetooth 4.0
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- 4G LTE connectivity
- Dual-SIM support
- USB 2.0 port
- 2500mAh battery
- Accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor
- 142.4 x 72 x 9.6mm; 150g
The handset is available in "an exciting fiery orange color" (no other options are offered), and has gone on sale today exclusively via eBay India, priced at Rs.5,499 INR (just over $80 USD). It will also become available from Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal in India "in the coming weeks", but it"s not yet clear if the device will be released in other markets.
The launch of the Intex Aqua Fish is an important milestone for Jolla, given its numerous struggles over the last couple of years. But it"s still a long way from Jolla"s chairman confidently declaring in 2014 that Sailfish was the world"s "third mobile operating system".