I use it. You can feel their severe development resource constraints everwhere. The browser is years behind. Native apps are rather limited. I bought the newest supported hardware 3.5 years ago. It is stuck at Android 4.4, which is supported by fewer and fewer apps.
Whenever they support new HW, it takes quite a while to stabilize. Not sure what is the situation right now. My guess would be the newest supported HW is getting obsolete already and nothing new has been announced.
Latest supported hardware is Xperia 10 II, which is still quite recently and pretty fast (I got it myself).
Also, you can get the previously supported Xperia devices cheaply second hand. Just make sure it has an unlockable bootloader or else you won't be able to install Sailfish OS on it.
> Also, you can get the previously supported Xperia devices cheaply second hand
While they are still decent hardware that advice is useful only for purists that don't intend to use Android at all. As I wrote, you get only Android 4.4 on those devices.
Android 4.4 support is only an issue for the Xperia X. The Xperia XA2, 10 and 10II have updated support, first at Android 8, I think it is now at Android 9.
The Xperia X is somewhat tricky in this regard. It uses the "old" way of Android support. Android 8 and 9 is supported with an LXC container. Bringing that to the Xperia X would mean reflashing. Then you end up in the situation where some users reflash, and some stay on the old flash-image. Which needs another choice; support both groups, or drop all users of the old 4.4 image.
I do understand the disappointment if you have an Xperia X and see all other devices get updated Android support. But Jolla here is between a rock and a hard place.
The problem is not reflashing, we all have flashed the first time, we could do it again. The problem is kernel support. There is no new enough kernel for Xperia X hardware. For obvious reasons Sailfish does not have resources to port a kernel for a 3-4 year old device. Not sure whether source is even available from Sony for all drivers.
Thanks for correcting me. I wish all vendors would provide such clear and easy to read information. I was just repeating what I had heard elsewhere.
So is it just one of those management decisions that we don't put any work into an old device? It annoys me mostly because the X is the last device of a reasonable size. I would not even pay for a new one because I am entitled to a new work phone. But I don't like the huge devices you get these days.
Yep, IMHO it's a management/resource decision - the choose to only support one base port stream, not two.
Still if you manly use native Sailfish OS apps, you will be getting all support and updates on Xperia X for years to come.
It's unfortunate but at least the newer devices should hopefully be in better shape. And as for size, Xperia10 II does not feel so much bigger than X as its the same width, just a bit longer. Feels quite subtleactually.
The latest Sailfish OS release is supported on all HW generations except the first Jolla phone. But the Android version you get depends on your HW. Only the newest HW generation gets a newer Android. All previous HW generations stay at version 4.4 despite the Sailfish OS upgrade.
Whenever they support new HW, it takes quite a while to stabilize. Not sure what is the situation right now. My guess would be the newest supported HW is getting obsolete already and nothing new has been announced.