Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, is launching a new type of smartphone. Essential Phone combines an edge-to-edge display with a modular system for accessories. Essential, Rubin's company is also launching a new Amazon Echo competitor with a focus on privacy.
Andy Rubin, the founder of Essential and the original creator of the Android OS platform, left Google more than two years ago. His vision is to marry his background in software with artificial intelligence in consumer hardware. Armed with about a 40-person team, filled with recruits from Apple and Alphabet's Google, he etablished his company and just unveiled two new products.
The Essential Phone features a 5.71-inch edge-to-edge QHD display that reaches all the way to the top of the phone and runs around the 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
The phone is constructed from titanium and ceramic. It has a fingerprint sensor and camera lenses on it srear side, along with a modular accessory system that works via a pair of magnetic pins.
Initially, the cordless connector pins will hook up to the company's 360-degree camera and phone dock, with more modular products planned. A USB-C connector at the bottom of the phone provides the only other connectivity; no headphone jack is included.
The Essential Phone is powered by a Qualcomm 835 processor, 4GB of RAM, and has 128GB of storage, while its 13-megapixel rear-mounted dual lens camera includes a monochrome sensor and supports 4K at 30 frames per second. The phone runs some form of Android, but the company promises no extraneous software is pre-installed. Available in black, grey, white, and "Ocean Depths" colors, the phone will launch in the U.S. later this summer and cost $699.
Essential's second product is a competitor to Amazon's Echo, called "Essential Home."
The intelligent assistant device has a round touchscreen, which allows users to control music, ask general interest questions, set times, and control lights. It can be activated with a question, a tap, or even a "glance", according to Essential, suggesting some form of face detection.
The Essential Home will run the company's open platform Ambient OS, allowing it to interface with existing smart home products as well as SmartThings, HomeKit, Nest, and other popular standards.
The device will let the user choose between Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri. Like an iPhone, the Home will do much of the processing for voice and image recognition on the device itself rather than sending data to remote servers.
It is expected to ship later this summer.
Essential Phone specifications
- Model Name: Essential PH-1
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Materials:
- Titanium body
- Ceramic back
- Corning Gorilla Glass 5 cover glass
- Dimensions:
- Height: 141.5mm
- Width: 71.1mm
- Thickness: 7.8mm
- Weight: < 185 grams
- Display
- Resolution: 2560 x 1312 QHD
- Aspect Ratio: 19:10
- Diagonal Size: 5.71" with radiused corners
- Brightness: 500 nits (typical)
- Contrast Ratio: > 1:1000 (typical)
- Technology: CGS / LTPS
- Human Input + Sensors
- 10 finger multitouch; palm and water-error rejection
- Fingerprint reader: fastest available technology
- Proximity / Ambient light sensor
- Volume buttons, Power button
- Environmental pressure sensor (barometer)
- Accelerometer, Magnetometer and Gyroscope
- Audio
- Microphone: 4x microphones with noise cancellation and beam forming
- Low Audio (earpiece)
- High Audio: (loudspeaker)
- Rear Camera
- 13MP Dual RGB + Mono camera with image fusion technology
- 13MP True Monochrome mode
- f/1.85 lens
- Hybrid Auto Focus combing Contrast, Phase Detect and IR Laser Assist Focus
- Video at 4K 30fps, 1080p 60fps or 720p 120fps
- Front Camera
- 8MP resolution with 16:9 aspect ratio
- f/2.20 fixed hyperfocal lens
- Video at 4K 30fps, 1080p 60fps or 720p 120fps
- Battery
- 3040mAh.
- Fast charging via USB
- Memory & Storage
- RAM: 4GB
- Storage: 128GB UFS 2.1
- Connectivity
- Bluetooth: 5.0 LE
- WiFi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac with MIMO
- NFC: yes
- Positioning: GPS and GLONASS
- Network / Bands
- UMTS/HSPA+: 1, 2, 4, 5 6, 8
- GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
- CDMA EV-DO Rev. A: 0, 1, 10
- FDD-LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 66
- TDD-LTE: 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
- TD-SCDMA: 34, 39
- System Architecture / OS:
- Android
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
- CPU: Kryo 280 Octa-core (2.45GHz Quad + 1.9GHz Quad), 64 bit, 10nm processor
- GPU: Adreno 540, 710MHz, 64bit
- Ports
- USB Type-C
- 60GHz, 6 Gbps Wireless Accessory Connector
- 2x accessory power pins
- NanoSIM tray with pin eject