Andy Rubin's Essential phone unveiled with unique edge-to-edge screen

30 May 2017
The on-phone camera has two sensors, but using the accessory pins you can snap on a 360° cam.

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Essential phone with extremely high price, useless toy as an accessory (360 degree camera), essential lack of essential port (3.5mm jack), essential titanium frame which won't bend if you drop the phone... even though both back and front will shatter into tiny pieces that will easily cut your hands. Great phone, I must say.

I like its width, though, and the idea of "unnecessary" screen space being cut into by a camera. After all, phones don't really need that extra screen real estate, so lets cut into it with a camera and make it a design feature! No, really, you don't need that half an inch screen space, so having a notification area in an unused space is a good idea, although I expected something similar to LG's secondary display for notifications, which connects to main display seamlessly and allows touch gestures.

But overall, I'd prefer to see it sold at $400-500, not $700+. Not that I'd buy anything without a 3.5mm jack...

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    • AnonD-472515
    • KZK
    • 02 Jun 2017

    Ok andy you can start abandon this project

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • Xw%
      • 01 Jun 2017

      Interesting but why should follow Apple...
      Like a duck now every vendor want to be "like" iphone.
      Why it has no 3.5 mm jack?seriously it won't harm anything but a lot more useful than combo with usb-c.
      Why?????

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        • Gram
        • XHx
        • 01 Jun 2017

        Linas, 01 Jun 2017I was seriously interested, but no 3.5mm is serious deal br... moreChange is inevitable. We have seen people take stand against removing physical keyboard, removable battery, physical home button, etc. It seems all manufacturer will be removing 3.5mm slowly and the process has already started. Apple and htc already did it. Moto is doing it with their flagship. Google pixel seems to be next in line to do so.

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          • Linas
          • QPU
          • 01 Jun 2017

          I was seriously interested, but no 3.5mm is serious deal breaker. Not only it is inconvenience, but as well I am principally against this trend.

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            • Linas
            • QPU
            • 01 Jun 2017

            Anonymous, 01 Jun 2017Abandoning the 3.5 mm is the future. The more will do it th... moreNo... it is rubbish. You don't need to replace simple and perfect to the none... 3.5mm is smaller than USB-C, cheaper and can be used as stand alone. Unless you suggest to have 2xUSB-C on a single phone that is not a solution. I often want to listen to music and charge the phone at the same time... and yes adapters are available but the question is what we achieving by that? Removing completely harmless and extremely useful connection to carry dongles around - madness... Ok there are wireless headphones, but these comes with more issues yet... - needs to be charged before use, sound quality is hit and miss and finally even if I invest into high end ones I cannot use them with my existing hi-fi at home. So are you suggesting of changing all hi-fi just to enable apple (and others) to charge royalties on their proprietary accessories? No thanks I am happy with 3.5mm

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              • Anonymous
              • 6jr
              • 01 Jun 2017

              Anonymous, 01 Jun 2017It looks cool. Stereo speakers are nice. Size is nice. B... moreAbandoning the 3.5 mm is the future. The more will do it the faster we'll get USB c accessories alone.

              Also buying 3.5mm to USB c adapter for all your devices is trivial. Like 10 of them cost $20 or sth. Leave them attached at all times and voioa all your devices are USB C

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                • Anonymous
                • N}Y
                • 01 Jun 2017

                Four microphones is interesting. I wonder if they are all used for in call noise cancellation or just for recording video and voice assistant stuff. In call noise cancellation really could be improved upon. Nothing has advanced with this in years.

                Also, on the website it doesn't say in the spects that there are stereo speakers.

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                  • Anonymous
                  • 6jr
                  • 01 Jun 2017

                  asurasonic, 01 Jun 2017looks like Sony but more creativeSony is the opposite of creative. Everybody is more creative than Sony... Same design for untold amount of years, old fashioned looks, bad post processing, low battery. Pretty Mich nothing goes right w those phones.

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                    • Anonymous
                    • N}Y
                    • 01 Jun 2017

                    It looks cool. Stereo speakers are nice. Size is nice.

                    But despite all the focus on the camera, there's no OIS. Also no 3.5mm jack and 4GB RAM is a bit ho-hum. And will it work with T-Mobile Wifi calling and VoLTE? Also, how long will it get security updates for. I'm tired of "flagship" phones that become obsolete and dangerous to the user after two years. Apple gives five years of OS support (and obviously desktops get much much longer). I get that this may be Andy Rubin's personal idea of the perfect phone, but I don't see what's so earth shattering about it.

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                      • asurasonic
                      • 9FF
                      • 01 Jun 2017

                      looks like Sony but more creative

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                        • Anonymous
                        • ijX
                        • 01 Jun 2017

                        If you can't wait for this, then get a Mi Mix instead. A tad larger I know but also cheaper, bigger battery by about +1000mAh and by now also with a growing custom ROMs' support. If you can wait, then wait for Mi Mix 2.

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                          • Jonas
                          • p36
                          • 01 Jun 2017

                          Short battery for that screen resolution & size. Will hardly reach the end of the day if above moderate usage.
                          Besides that, looks premium build and so, justified price.
                          I understood it runs Android but will somehow be different than Googles Nougat or other. My doubts are how will Essential deal with firmware updates and security fixes plus consumer support and for how long after purchase...

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                            • AnonD-661148
                            • U}}
                            • 01 Jun 2017

                            Its so weird that a small circle in the middle of the screen. For the design, I prefer choose xiaomi mi mix with last year flagship sd than this one..

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                              • AnonD-601061
                              • JYJ
                              • 31 May 2017

                              So a flat standard Galaxy s7?

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                                • smashd
                                • Af9
                                • 31 May 2017

                                AnonD-670214, 31 May 2017I'm guessing this won't have a notification LED, right? I m... morei dont like front fingerprint sensor.

                                But this is the ideal phone for me

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                                  • AnonD-90109
                                  • X9m
                                  • 31 May 2017

                                  This project of Andy Rubin is about AI automation technologies, the phone is just an extension of his project, I can write you an entire article of what his vision is and how he plans to achieve it, but you can watch the video from the horses mouth Andy Rubin and Essential at Recode. I know exactly what he is trying to do and it is genius.
                                  https://youtu.be/HCjjnVNXDLI

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                                    • Frank
                                    • 3Yd
                                    • 31 May 2017

                                    No dual SIM. Useless!

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • g3Z
                                      • 31 May 2017

                                      AnonD-670214, 31 May 2017I'm guessing this won't have a notification LED, right? I m... moreUhmm mi6? P.s not a phablet

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                                        • Anonymous
                                        • 8ns
                                        • 31 May 2017

                                        AnonD-670214, 31 May 2017I'm guessing this won't have a notification LED, right? I m... moreWell if this one has an AOD screen(which i guess it would have),than notification LED is redundant.
                                        As for the OIS,its repeated multiple times by Huawei that's isn't possible to sync two cameras if they had OIS(and I personally tend to agree with that).And as much as I want OIS myself,two cameras are something entirely different of a tech,and with good implementations(as with Huawei) no OIS is not an issue.