TELUS announced today that it will be selling the Essential PH-1 smartphone in Canada, and that it would be the exclusive carrier of the new device. TELUS is the “preferred” partner in Canada for Essential, which is the new smartphone company that Android co-founder, Andy Rubin recently launched. Initially, the Essential PH-1 was set to be exclusive to the US (where only one carrier is selling the device, Sprint). Now the company apparently is bringing it over to Canada. TELUS has not yet announced pricing nor availability for the Essential PH-1 smartphone just yet, but it will likely be a bit higher than the price in the US, of $749 (due to the weak Canadian dollar).
The Essential PH-1 garnered quite a bit of fanfare when it was announced. And that was because Rubin stated that the PH-1 would be fixing what’s wrong with Android – the platform he created. The PH-1 is definitely a high-end smartphone from Rubin, sporting the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 5.71-inch 2560×1312 resolution display (it’s a 16:10 aspect ratio, instead of the usual 16:9 aspect ratio display) along with a 3040mAh battery inside. It’s actually said to be a somewhat rugged device, although not as rugged as what Kyocera puts out, with a titanium body. It’s definitely a looker.
Now what’s special about the Essential PH-1, besides what Rubin is fixing with Android, is the fact that it has pogo pins on the back so that you can attach things to the back of the phone. This isn’t the first time it’s been done, but it is the most minimal way of doing so. Since the pins are at the top of the phone, most people don’t even see the pins, making it pretty minimal. With this, Essential announced a few products, including a 360-degree camera that can attach to the back of the phone. Essential said it was the smallest 360-degree camera on the market. The Essential PH-1 is shaping up to be a pretty impressive smartphone, although some analysts don’t think it’ll sell as well as it should, due to the availability of the device.