Jolla C2 Community Phone

Good phone. And thanks to forum guides ,I am using it daily.

The only user-ready mobile Linux, not just for nerds. Solid, simple alternative to the major players. It has different pros and cons for a regular user and the Linux enthusiasts, but it definitely deserves solid 4 stars.

From a regular user perspective:
+ Good battery life, requires charging only every second day even during an active usage.
+ Good performance, not as good as latest models of the top brands, but enough for regular tasks like chats, music or online videos.
+/- Outdated built in browser, lightweight, but has troubles with modern heavy websites (like mobile youtube). Brave Android could be used instead.
- Poor camera, cannot make beautiful photos, but enough for QR codes and documents.
- Can be difficult to install Android applications like WhatsApp or banking apps.

From a Linux nerd perspective:
+ Linux device that works smoothly and convenient to use (in comparison to beautiful, but not very stable Plasma Mobile and stable, but slow Phosh)
+ Quite easy to set up environment for development or porting.
+/- Not a Graphene-level, but still descent privacy: native applications run in a firejail-like sandbox, Android subsystem could be switched off.
- Some libraries and packages are old and manual reinstall could be difficult because of the version conflicts.

I've been using the Jolla as my main phone since June and overall I'm quite happy with it! It has all the features that I need and installing Android apps works well. I'm for sure continuing using it and I don't miss my iPhone days much!

There are some bugs that sometimes requires the phone to get restarted, but nothing that's really impacting my day to day use of it.

The main complaint is that the CPU/GPU is a bit too weak for some of the Android apps and that the camera does not produce very good quality pictures. Both of these are understandable considering the price - but for me it's unfortunately a bit limiting.

I'm very, very much hoping that Jolla will offer a more high-end alternative going forward. I would be quite happy to pay 2-3 times as much for an alternative with a solid CPU/GPU and a high-end camera that would really allow me to take the pictures that I want to.

I do understand that that price range would close the door for many other users and that it might be a challenge to launch both a low-end and a high-end phone for a small company such as Jolla - but one can hope!

TL;DR

The C2 (Community Edition) is a fine phone with an excellent price and performance ratio. It is an alternative for those looking for something different than Android or iOS. The user interface (GUI) is very intuitive, although it is different to both Android and iOS user experience. The C2 is the reference phone for SailfishOS, so I expect every feature/function of SailfishOS to be working on this phone. Also, there is a compability mode, which allows any Android app installation very easily. Unfortunately, the phone/OS still has some bugs, which might requires some technical understanding and, therefore, I cannot recommend the OS to any non-tec-at-all person. If interested in new stuff and able to use another design or fix stuff on your own trough reading stuff on the internet and clicking buttons accordingly, this phone is fine for yourself. I will post further experience blog entries and keep you updated.

A detailed review is found here: https://lithilion.at/blog/2025-03-sailfishos-impression.html

Good independent alternative! I love the privacy focused aspect.