No tracking, no Google: Jolla’s new Linux phone promises true privacy for Europeans

A new Linux phone, the Jolla Phone, supports Android apps, features a dedicated physical privacy switch, and promises no tracking, no calling home, and no hidden analytics, all for a price tag of €549 ($639). The initial batch was sold out in hours, and the project is now fully funded.

Finnish company Jolla, established in 2011 by former Nokia employees, has announced a new “European Do It Together” Linux phone, sparking excitement among privacy enthusiasts.

The mid-range price device is privacy-oriented, offering generous specifications, a replaceable battery, and a removable back cover. It still supports Android apps.

“Today, that alternative matters more than ever,” Jolla said on X.

“Every Android phone, every iPhone – they all phone home to California. Your data, your habits, your conversations: processed, analyzed, stored on someone else's terms. GDPR promised European digital sovereignty. But what good are data protection laws when your entire digital life runs on American infrastructure?”

What is Jolla?

Tampere-based Jolla publicly announced its ambition to develop new smartphones more than a decade ago, in July 2012. The company maintains Sailfish OS, a Linux-based mobile phone operating system that adopted the codebase of the discontinued MeeGo project, developed by Nokia and Intel. It featured a gesture-oriented swipe interface.

The first Jolla smartphone was released in 2013, and the company continued to support it for seven years.

However, the company had experienced several setbacks. Most backers of the Jolla Tablet project lost their money in 2015, as the company was unable to deliver the crowdfunded devices due to financial troubles and repeated production delays.

The firm had previously accepted Russian capital, and when the war in Ukraine began, Jolla severed ties with Russia. The firm subsequently filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and was restructured under a new management-owned entity.

The firm’s main revenue source has been the AppSupport product, which allows running Android apps on embedded systems, such as in-car infotainment systems.

“In 2013, when we founded Jolla from Nokia, MeeGo’s ashes, people called us naive. ‘You can't compete with iOS and Android,’ they said. They were right about one thing: we weren't trying to compete. We were building an alternative,” Jolla said.

What does the new device offer?

Announced last Friday, the second Jolla phone has been an instant sellout. The initial batch of devices, available at a reduced price of €499, sold out in under 48 hours. The company now offers pre-orders for a €99 down payment and a full price of €549. The normal price will be €599-699 later.

At the time of writing, 3188 out of 2,000 had been sold, and the project was 159% funded, according to the company’s website.

The phone, which “isn’t about nationalism” but about choice, offers quite decent specifications.

At a time when storage and memory prices are skyrocketing, it features 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, expandable to 2TB with a micro SD card. Jolla doesn’t mention which SoC (System on a Chip) will be powering the device, except that it will be “high-performant Mediatek 5G platform.”

The AMOLED display has a 6.36-inch size and Full HD resolution, protected by Gorilla Glass. The phone has two main shooters: a 50MP Wide camera and a 13MP ultrawide camera. However, the tech specs don’t mention if any of these will have optical image stabilization (OIS).

The 5,500 mAh battery is user-replaceable. Other features include WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, a power key fingerprint reader, a user-replaceable back cover, and an RGB indication LED.

“No tracking, no calling home, no hidden analytics,” the product page reads.

“User configurable physical Privacy Switch – turn off your microphone, Bluetooth, Android apps, or whatever you wish.”

Jolla offers three distinct user-replaceable colors: white, black, and orange.

“No Google Play Services siphoning your data,” Jolla said.

“It’s about owning your device instead of renting it.”

The company assures that the comeback isn't driven by investors or quarterly targets – it simply “loves building products that actually deserve to exist.”

The company promises that pre-orders are fully refundable, and it estimates that the phone will ship by the end of the first half of 2026. It is currently only available for European customers.

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