Andy Rubin has been teasing the ‘Essential Phone’ for quite some time now, and the device has just landed. The Verge has exclusively released the Essential Phone info, and this is one really interesting smartphone. Now, before we dive into the device itself, for those of you who do not know, Andy Rubin is actually the person who created Android, though he’s no longer working for Google, he hasn’t been working for the company for a while now, and we’ve been waiting to see what is Essential (company) up to following a number of released teasers. In any case, let’s see what this phone has to offer, shall we.
As you can see, this smartphone is made out of titanium and ceramic, and it comes with extremely thin bezels, well, its bezels are almost non-existent. This phone actually resembles the Xiaomi Mi MIX a bit, though its home key is not placed below the display. The Essential Phone sports a fingerprint scanner on the back, along with a dual camera setup, and some additional ports / sensors. On the left side of the phone’s dual camera setup lies an LED flash, while you’ll find a noise canceling microphone on the right. Next to that microphone, there are two connectors (POGO pins) which will let you connect Moto Mod-like accessories to the device, including a 360-degree camera that Essential also announced today, which we’ll talk about in a separate article. The device does not sport a 3.5mm headphone jack, unfortunately, but it will ship with a headphone dongle.
Now, we do not have access to the phone’s full spec sheet just yet, but it is known that the device is fueled by the Snapdragon 835 64-bit octa-core SoC, while it packs in 4GB of RAM and 128GB of native storage. Now, as far as its cameras are concerned, the Essential Phone has a similar setup to the Huawei P10 on the back, as it features one regular sensor, and one monochrome sensor. It seems like the phone comes with two 13-megapixel cameras (at least one of them packs in such a sensor), though we cannot confirm that just yet. An 8-megapixel shooter is placed on the front side of this smartphone, and it’s even capable of capturing 4K video. As far as software is concerned, we still don’t have that much info, but we do know that it is based on Android. This handset will become available in several color options, as you can see in the gallery down below. The Essential Phone is priced at $699, and it will go on sale in the US first, that’s all we know for now. Andy Rubin will go on stage tonight at the Code Conference, though, so chances are he’ll talk more about the device.
UPDATE: Essential posted all the necessary Essential Phone details on the official website now, so we have plenty more info to share with you. The Essential Phone will become available in Black Moon, Stellar Gray, Pure White and Ocean Depths colors soon. The device sports a 5.71-inch 2560 x 1312 display (19:10 aspect ratio), and a 3,040mAh battery is also a part of this package. There are two 13-megapixel snappers included on the back of the Essential Phone, and the phone measures 141.5 x 71.1 x 7.8mm, while it weighs 158 grams.
