Jolla Phone
Ranked 5 of 60 smartphones by recommenders
Linux phone running Sailfish OS, praised for its usable interface, Android app support and unlocked bootloader; critics point to its high price and the company's record of shipping problems.
Linux phone running Sailfish OS, praised for its usable interface, Android app support and unlocked bootloader; critics point to its high price and the company's record of shipping problems.
167 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 88
- criticize it
- 79
- approval share
- 53%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 3.5 years
Median of the 11 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 88 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Full Linux phone, usable day to day
“it was a full fledged linux phone where I could have potentially installed any piece of software”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “The Jolla Phone Proved We've Been Using Smartphones Wrong All Along” “they have a track record of releasing phones that are good enough to be used as daily drivers”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Jolla Phone Pre-Order” “they create GNU/Linux phones that are actually usable and offer better specs than Purism”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Which companies do you admire and why?” - Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Jolla Phone, Over 13 500 units sold”
Unlocked bootloader and root access
“full root access is a checkbox in settings that will install terminal for you, for geeks it's the best option out there”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Jolla Phone Pre-Order” “with the $750 price tag you're getting an unlocked bootloader/Linux support and the labor of Finnish people”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Jolla Phone, Over 13 500 units sold” “it was a full fledged linux phone where I could have potentially installed any piece of software”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “The Jolla Phone Proved We've Been Using Smartphones Wrong All Along” Competitive specs versus other Linux phones
“The new Jolla actually does look really good compared to all the other avaiaobale Linix phone hardware options.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches” “The Android app support means it's actually usable in the modern world, and the specs look competitive.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” “they create GNU/Linux phones that are actually usable and offer better specs than Purism”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Which companies do you admire and why?” Good UX and Android app support
“To me this is way ahead of iOS/Android, the native browser sucks, and it requires some massaging to get everything running smoothly, but the UX is second to none.”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Jolla phone – a full-stack European alternative” “The Android app support means it's actually usable in the modern world, and the specs look competitive.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak camera and bulky design
“they simply lack the funds to put in the best cameras and the dev community for native apps is small”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)” “Reduce it to the size of iPhone 5 and make the main camera flush with the surface”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Jolla phone – a full-stack European alternative” “Who designed such ridiculous camera bump? It would be a really nice device, if only it had a flat backside.”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Jolla Phone, Over 13 500 units sold” Past pre-order and crowdfunding problems
“I would strongly advise do not spend any money on Jolla devices. Check their history of Tablet and other preorder products?”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Jolla phone – a full-stack European alternative” “I would strongly urge people not to pre-order from the company since they have a track record of not shipping”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Jolla Phone Pre-Order” “100s of donors were stiffed of greater than half the money they put into their crowdfunding for the phones”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Jolla phone – a full-stack European alternative” High price for the hardware
“I'd love an updated phone like this Jolly orange Jolla to hack on, but not at that price, and seems like it might be locked down.”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Jolla Phone Pre-Order” “the partially closed source OS, the locked bootloader, the $50 device reset fee, the cheap underpowered chinese chipset”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Jolla phone – a full-stack European alternative”
Other smartphones people recommend
The four most recommended other smartphones, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone | 706 | 882 | 44% | 13 | 7 yrs107 owners | — |
| Fairphone | 168 | 107 | 61% | 13 | 3 yrs19 owners | — |
| Apple iPhone Pro | 144 | 155 | 48% | 12 | 4 yrs26 owners | — |
| iPhone 13 mini | 141 | 51 | 73% | 12 | 1.5 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Jolla PhoneThis page | 88 | 79 | 53% | 11 | 3.5 yrs11 owners | — |
What people said
40 of the 205 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they create GNU/Linux phones that are actually usable and offer better specs than Purism”
“they simply lack the funds to put in the best cameras and the dev community for native apps is small”
“with the $750 price tag you're getting an unlocked bootloader/Linux support and the labor of Finnish people”
“Who designed such ridiculous camera bump? It would be a really nice device, if only it had a flat backside.”
“My main gripe was that RAM was limited, the OOM killer killed my browser way too often”
“I used it as a daily driver back in 2014/15 and it worked ok from what I remember.”
“the biggest problem for a lot of adoption is the compatibility with things like banking apps, 2fa etc.”
“The ergonomy of Sailfish is sometimes bizarre, the little top left dot for navigation for example.”
“They're building a mobile operating system and the hardware it runs on; that's harder and a moving target.”
“They selected a phone that's more likely to be used by average people rather than a fully open one.”
“100s of donors were stiffed of greater than half the money they put into their crowdfunding for the phones”
“To me this is way ahead of iOS/Android, the native browser sucks, and it requires some massaging to get everything running smoothly, but the UX is second to none.”
“Jolla chose a little more pragmatism for their hardware in the hope that they actually sell phones to other people”
“it's not something Jolla is supporting and it still has a long way to go”
“I would strongly advise do not spend any money on Jolla devices. Check their history of Tablet and other preorder products?”
“Reduce it to the size of iPhone 5 and make the main camera flush with the surface”
“Orange, black and white being inspired by scandinavian design felt like a bit of a reach though.”
“The notch is a bit silly, given that you have the bezel at the bottom”
“the partially closed source OS, the locked bootloader, the $50 device reset fee, the cheap underpowered chinese chipset”
“if you read carefully all the announcements and communication from Jolla, you can easily see they have learned from that crowdfunding affair”
“it was a full fledged linux phone where I could have potentially installed any piece of software”
“Let's hope that jolla and Sailfish OS make a comeback with their current crowdfunded”
“I'm going to buy one anyway (though its likely not allowed on Australia networks sigh )”
“The Android app support means it's actually usable in the modern world, and the specs look competitive.”
“The new Jolla actually does look really good compared to all the other avaiaobale Linix phone hardware options.”
“it's the only phone in the world running an FSF-endorsed OS that has no blobs”
“A surprising amount of banking apps actually work. Check the forum. My two german banks were fine”
“I would pre-order one, but they don't seem to be willing to sell to US customers.”
“full root access is a checkbox in settings that will install terminal for you, for geeks it's the best option out there”
“It was cool being able to emacs and irc natively on the phone, but that was limited in use cases tbh.”
“some things are unfortunately just not possible with their staffing and budget”
“Blaming they can't keep up with user requests, granted reasonable ones, is a little short sighted in my opinion.”
“It sounds closer to graphene where they understand the benefit of reasonable hardware quality and battery life.”
“they have a track record of releasing phones that are good enough to be used as daily drivers”
“I'm not in the mood to buy new hardware (right now) just to try it out.”
“I would strongly urge people not to pre-order from the company since they have a track record of not shipping”
“I'd love an updated phone like this Jolly orange Jolla to hack on, but not at that price, and seems like it might be locked down.”
“No jack, meaning I'll have to fight a hacked together Bluetooth implementation.”
“The problem with having a single button, even configurable, is that it's all-or-nothing”
“Seems they still havent figured out a business model for their OS. Hardware at low volumes wont move ala kickstarter.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.