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People-powered and crowd-funded: The hit Jolla Tablet is back for more on Indiegogo

The $200 Jolla Tablet's a crowd-funding hit, proves people-power works

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In late 2014, Jolla proudly showed the next stage in the company’s development: The Jolla Tablet. Rather than create a sequel to its niche smartphone, the firm introduced a tablet running version 2.0 of Sailfish OS. A massive success on Indiegogo, the Jolla Tablet smashed its target and went on to raise more than $1.5 million.

Updated on 01-29-2015 by Andy Boxall: Added in news of a second crowd-funding campaign, and some hardware revisions.

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Second crowd-funding campaign announced

Jolla has put the Jolla Tablet back on sale, again through Indiegogo, to give those who missed out on the device last year a chance to pick one up. Oh, and in the hope it can make another large pile of cash. To further tempt buyers, Jolla has added a slightly updated 64GB model to the list. Anyone who bought the first 32GB tablet can pay an additional $25 to get the larger capacity model too.

The Jolla Tablet now comes with a MicroSD card slot that supports cards up to 128GB in size, but with the slight caveat of those over 32GB not being readable on some Windows computers. Additionally, a gyroscope and digital compass have been added, and the touchscreen is fully laminated.

If your credit card is ready and waiting, then it’s $220 for the 32GB Jolla Tablet, and $250 for the 64GB model. You’ll have to wait a little longer for delivery, and this second run of Jolla Tablets are scheduled to ship between April and June.

Designed in Finland, the Jolla Tablet is a minimalist, sleek affair, without intrusive buttons on the front panel, and curved ends giving it a shape you just want to hold. Sailfish OS retains its gesture control system seen on the smartphone, and is capable of running both Sailfish apps and Android apps. Version 2.0 introduces an Events view, where notifications are gathered together in one spot, and Ambiences, for switching between alternate themes with task-specific settings built in.

People powered tablet

Jolla says its new tablet is “people powered,” which means Jolla supporters can request features or make suggestions about Sailfish OS 2.0 to the development team. The best will be put to the vote, and the winning ideas prioritized. A similar system was implemented for the Jolla phone, and four of the eight winning ideas were eventually included in the software. The second Indiegogo campaign’s updated tablet includes features requested by Jolla’s fans.

Jolla has opted for a 7.85-inch IPS touchscreen with a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution, nudging it just beyond the Apple iPad Mini 3 when it comes to pixel density. A 64-bit quad-core Intel processor provides the power, just like Nokia’s N1 tablet, but here it runs at 1.8GHz. There’s 2GB of RAM, and a total of 32GB internal storage memory, along with a MicroSD card slot. A 5-megapixel camera is mounted on the back of the tablet, and a 2-megapixel camera sits above the display on the front.

It measures 8.3mm thick and weighs 384 grams, and has a 4450mAh battery. This makes the Jolla Tablet slightly heavier than the iPad Mini, and equipped with a smaller capacity battery. Deliveries of the first Jolla Tablets are likely to commence in the next few months, and according to the company, everything is progressing on schedule.

Previous updates:

Updated on 11-19-2014 by Andy Boxall: Added in revised prices, and news on the crowd-funding campaign

Article originally published in November 2014

Andy Boxall
Andy Boxall
Former Senior Mobile Writer
Andy has written about mobile technology for almost a decade. From 2G to 5G and smartphone to smartwatch, Andy knows tech.
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