Jolla’s first 16GB Sailfish smartphones arrive on 27 November
Jolla's first 16GB Sailfish smartphone is set to reach a small set of consumers in Finland's capital, Helsinki, on 27 November.
Finnish carrier DNA announced today it would offer a batch of 450 Jolla phones for one evening at a pop-up store in central Helsinki to customers that had pre-ordered the device.
For the past two years, Jolla has been working towards the launch of its Linux-based Sailfish OS that it hopes for OEMs to license, as well as its own "Other Half" smartphone. The device was made available to fans to purchase for €399 (£337) through a pre-order campaign that Jolla launched in May and was fully booked in July.
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DNA, an early supporter of Jolla which has 2.4 million subscribers, announced this June it would sell Jolla's phone once it arrives.
"Being a Finnish operator, it has been very important to DNA to be able to support a Finnish success story, one in which we see great potential. People have been eagerly awaiting Jolla phones and their long wait will finally be rewarded in Helsinki on the 27th," DNA business director Cedric Kamtsan said.
Not much is known about the specs of the device, which Jolla has tried to played down compared with the user experience and features such as a backplate that can deliver a customised user interface.
The phone will run on a dual-core processor with 16GB of onboard storage and an extra SD card slot, and will include an 8-megapixel camera and 4.5-inch display.
Jolla has said the mobile is 4G compatible, depending on carrier support. The devices will ship with the Yandex.Store app for users to install Android apps from. It's also shipping with Nokia's Here maps app.
According to DNA, most of the phones sold from the store will be to customers that had pre-booked the phone, though it adds that "thousands of Finns" have pre-booked it. DNA plans to sell the devices to consumers that haven’t booked it from its Kauppa outlets in early December.
As for pre-order customers outside of Finland, Jolla said today: "All pre-booking customers will be contacted with the details via email, stay tuned." It can't, however, ship outside of Europe.