Jolla 1 running Sailfish OS 1.0 vs. Xperia 10 II running 4.4
A fun post: how does a 7+ years ago SFOS compare with today's SFOS?
Why this comparison?
Recently, on the Sailfish OS French Telegram Group, Patrick (one of the members) shared that he just bought a "Jolla 1" (the original Jolla phone, released at the end of 2013) to play with it.
I figured out it would be fun to get some screenshots from a "stock" Sailfish OS 1.0, and see how it compares with the latest version. Thanks Patrick for providing those screenshots! :)
The Jolla phone is running Sailfish OS version 1.0.8.19 (Tahkalampi), and the Sony Xperia 10 II is running Sailfish OS version 4.4.0.58 ("Vanha Rauma").
Comparison
Approach
I will just have 2 screenshots side-by-side: Jolla 1 on the left, X10II on the
right.
For each screenshot, I'll add a note/explanation when it makes sense.
Lock Screen
Items have been reorganised:
- The time is now displayed at the top, with the day and date below,
- Weather forecast is new, and displayed below time/date,
- Cellular and Wifi connectivity are now at the very top,
- Carrier name is at the bottom:
Home Screen
No change at all (apart from the Cell/Wifi connectivity at the top).
You can't see it here, but some of the Jolla apps have only one action in their app cover, compared with 2 before (e.g. with the Mail app, you can only refresh, whereas before you could also start composing straight from the Home Screen).
App Grid
Same thing with the App Grid: it stayed the same - the only thing which changed recently is the "Sticky mode", which gives the ability to pin the App Grid and launch the App directly.
Composing a text
Probably one of the areas where almost nothing changed - basic but it works :)
Browser
If you just look at the bottom icons bar, you may think that the browser hasn't
changed much.
But that's not true at all: with SFOS 4, a lot of things were added, and also
the UI changed (not always to everyone's liking though ;))
Of course, under the hood, the browser also evolved a lot in 7 years :)
Sharing
The Sharing picture has been recently revamped, and in my opinon is a lot nicer to use now:
Telephone
There are now 3 different sections in the Telephone app: Dialler, History and
People.
I like it as swiping between them is a lot easier than using the Pulley menu.
People
- Adding a contact: the philosophy is the same since SFOS 1.0, however with SFOS 4.4, there are a lot more options and nice "touches", like the ability to add a picture to a contact, or icons reflecting the type of details being entered.
- Browsing Contacts: a lot of changes here!
- Ability to search for Contacts at the top
- Quick browsing using the alphabet is now done on the right (instead of big icons)
- "Favorite contacts" are shown at the top
- "Recent contacts" section
No longer there
Presence
This feature allowed setting your status (available/away/offline) in e.g. XMPP.
It is no longer available, although it seems possible to install the needed
package (see this Forum
post.
Facebook integration
Used to allow synchronising photos, contacts and Messenger, but it's no longer available - probably because of Facebook's habit to keep changing its APIs...
Google Chat integration
Same as Facebook, this is gone - used to allow synchronisation with the People app, as well as with SMS.
Wrap Up
Fun article to write - you can see that the Sailfish OS "UI/UX basics" are still there, but the system has evolved gradually, adding a few changes here and there.
Some people may find that SFOS isn't that unique anymore - I disagree, and I can tell you that when I come back to my professional phone (iPhone) or test an Android phone, I am really missing my Xperia phone running SFOS! :)
Tags: SailfishOS