Jolla Sailfish Powered Phone Revealed; Snap-on Smart Shells & Android Support in Tow

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The first Jolla Sailfish equipped phone was just announced a couple days ago. It is called the Jolla, named after the company itself. We fully admit that this phone is obviously not Android, and in fact is an alternative to our favorite little green robot. Still, we were curious about this unique new entrant to the mobile world, and were even more curious to gauge your interest in this device. It has some intriguing features worth mentioning beyond the average specs. First, here are the specs,

• 4.5-inch display and heavily gesture-centric UI
• 4G connectivity
• 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
• 16GB of internal storage
• A microSD card slot

It also has some unique functionality. For example, the battery is user accessible, and the back cover can be swapped out to a different color. Even more interesting is that the phone can recognize which colored backplate you snap on the device and it dynamically changes the UI theme to match. Obviously, this is more of an aesthetic gimmick than truly useful, but sometimes the most fun thing to do on a phone is personalize it. Jolla calls this functionality “the Other Half” and will offer a number of different case options. One other interesting feature of the device is that it is also fully compatible with most Android apps. Obviously Jolla wants developers to jump on board and develop apps specifically for their Sailfish OS, but it's still a smart play to make all those Android apps available in the mean-time.

[video=youtube;K4lWTsqFe6I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=K4lWTsqFe6I[/video]​

Interestingly, Several aspects of this device were borrowed from the MeeGo operating system. Here's a quote with a few more of the details,

Jolla isn’t the only company to take elements of MeeGo and reuse them of late. Nokia, for instance, borrowed elements of the UI and the swiping-gesture system for its Asha Platform, debuting on the Asha 501; although not as flexible or powerful as the MeeGo-powered N9, the 501 does have the advantage of being significantly cheaper.

Jolla’s first phone will arrive by the end of the year, the company says, assuming all goes to plan. It’ll be priced at €399 ($513) SIM-free and unlocked.

What do you guys think? Will this device be a decent competitor to the other big alternatives in the global mobile world right now?

Source: SlashGear