Andy Rubin, the father of Android and founder of Essential, has shared a rather interesting tweet with the world. In his tweet, he said: “We’ll make an announcement, Hang tight”. Now, that tweet may suggest that the Essential PH-2 / Essential Phone 2 is coming soon on its own, but the fact Mr. Rubin said this in response to another tweet only makes the possibility of a smartphone announcement bigger.
Mr. Rubin sent this response to Will Pinner, a Twitter user who asked Andy Rubin for Essential to announce something, while praising the Essential PH-1. So, when you put Andy Rubin’s tweet into context, it’s clear that he’s hinting at a smartphone-related announcement, and based on his tweet, that announcement is coming soon.
The Essential PH-1 was announced way back in May 2017, so over two years ago, and back then, it was one of the best-looking phones around. The Essential PH-1 basically had the smallest notch on the market at that point, and in addition to that, a thin chin below the display. Not much else.
If you’re wondering why we didn’t see a follow-up in 2018, well, sales of the Essential PH-1 were not what the company expected, not to mention that Andy Rubin ended up in the middle of a sexual harassment scandal. Those two are probably the main reasons why Essential wanted to take a step back, and rethink things.
Essential was a new company back in 2017, and it could not expect sales of the PH-1 to be over the top, but still, the company sold very few devices, and its original price tag could have something to do with it. The phone launched with an original price tag of $700, and that price dropped a number of times in both 2017 and 2018.
In addition to a rather high price tag, it was especially high for a phone in 2017, the phone’s camera was… well, let’s just say not good enough. The Essential PH-1 had various issues with camera performance, and the image quality that it was able to produce was not good. Essential did improve the PH-1’s camera over time, via updates, but that didn’t really help much, as the damage was done already.
The Essential PH-1 was quite innovative, it wasn’t too big, it had a unique design, and Essential actually used titanium in order to build the device. If the company ends up announcing the Essential PH-2 in 2019, it will have to be careful not to repeat previous mistakes. Essential needs to get the price right this time around, while the phone will hopefully sport a far better camera this time around.
Some consumers are eagerly awaiting this device, as it is seen as a direct competitor to Google’s Pixel devices, and OnePlus’ flagships, due to fast updates, and clean Android build. The Essential PH-2 will almost certainly ship with the Snapdragon 855, if the company opts to announce the device, while you can expect at least 6GB of RAM in the device, if not 8GB… it’s possible that more than one variant will be available. Android 9 Pie will come pre-installed on the phone if it gets announced in the near future, while the company may opt to utilize titanium once again. We don’t really have any info regarding its design, so we’ll just have to wait and see what will happen.