The biggest point of friction was that Sailfish is not actually the open Linux phone many people assume it is. Several commenters pushed back on the marketing glow and said key UI and system pieces remain closed source. That led to a broader reframing of the product. If your goal is open source, Sailfish does not obviously beat Android’s
AOSP base. If your goal is security, it looks much worse than modern Android hardening and especially worse than
GrapheneOS on Pixels. The Linux userland is the attraction here. You get a phone that behaves more like a small
GNU/Linux computer, with familiar tools and fewer Android-specific constraints. For some people that is the whole point.
That tradeoff set the tone for everything else. Supporters described Sailfish as a better fit for users who distrust the large platform vendors and want more control over their device. Critics replied that phones are where you most need strong
sandboxing, modern exploit mitigations, and good defaults because they hold banking, messaging, and identity apps. A recurring view was that Sailfish and GrapheneOS solve different problems. Sailfish optimizes for Linux-like control and distance from big-tech ecosystems. GrapheneOS optimizes for hardened security while staying in the Android app world.
The hardware and business side drew almost as much skepticism as the OS. The price felt high for a mid-range Mediatek phone, especially when compared with cheaper Pixels that can run GrapheneOS and have better cameras, chipsets, and app compatibility. People also questioned what “assembled in Finland” really means, since final assembly can range from substantial work to little more than putting together imported modules. On trust, Jolla’s old history still hurts. Some people remembered the original Jolla phone fondly and said it was usable for years. Others said earlier products, crowdfunding episodes, and support problems were enough to rule out another preorder. The result was a clear consensus: appealing mission, interesting niche hardware, but buyers should treat it like an enthusiast project and not confuse it with either a fully open phone stack or a secure mainstream smartphone substitute.