Andy Rubin, who we all know as the father of Android, now has a new favorite offspring. Rubin’s company just announced the Essential Phone, which we think could become a direct competitor for Apple and Samsung flagships. It is a new, innovative device that certainly freshens up the smartphone market a bit. A new player on the field is always welcome, especially if it is as awesome as the Essential Phone is. Or at least as it seems to be. A little more time has to pass until we can say for sure that this is the next global flagship. Who knows what problems we may encounter with it later on?
As its moniker suggests, the Essential Phone returns to the essentials. No extra bulk anywhere. Even the design of the handset is an incredibly simple one, with only the important features in sight. We must admit, the result is fascinating. Everything in the Essential Phone seems to be new and innovative. Even the choice of materials is surprising. The Essential Phone doesn’t come with a metal and glass body like other flagship smartphones do. Instead, Rubin’s company opted for ceramic and titanium. We’ve seen ceramic smartphones before, but only in limited editions. Titanium, however, is a unique choice. It’s supposedly harder, stronger, and more resilient than aluminum, so the device should be quite a resistant one to drops and scratches. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be waterproof. On the other hand, not many people go swimming with their handsets on them.
The Essential Phone is also surprisingly compact, despite its large screen. It only measures 141.5 x 71.1 x 7.8mm and weighs 185g. The bezels are almost inexistent on the front, and the back also keeps it simple. All there is on the back cover of the device are a dual rear camera setup and a fingerprint sensor. Naturally, there is also a flash light near the camera lenses. The overall image is quite pleasant. The smartphone’s design is not dull at all, but it’s not offensive either. It’s simple, yet elegant, and creates the feeling of a premium handset. At first, the Essential phone will only be available in ‘Black Moon’ or ‘Pure White’ colors. Later on, ‘Stellar Grey’ and ‘Ocean Depths’ color options will also become available. The latter is an incredibly pleasant shape of green, nothing like we’ve seen before in other handsets.
The screen of the Essential Phone is just as amazing as everything else on the handset. It is a 5.71-inch display with a 2560 x 1312 pixels resolution. On the top of the display, there is a small cutout for the front-facing camera. There is a really slim bezel on the lower part of the display, but it is almost unnoticeable. Also, it is an edge-to-edge display. As Essential puts it, it is a “Full Display”. However, this is not a curved display, which might be a turnoff for some people.
The looks would be in vain if the Essential Phone was not smart as well. Thankfully, it seems to be quite a powerful handset. It is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset with its Adreno 540 GPU. The device includes 4GB of RAM, which could seem a little disappointing when we think of other flagships that come with 6GB or even 8GB of RAM. However, 4GB of RAM is more than enough to turn a smartphone into a speedy device. Extra memory is always welcome, but it’s not always necessary. The Essential Phone offers 128GB of internal storage. unfortunately, it seems that this is all users will get as there is no sign of the existence of a microSD card slot. Even so, there aren’t many people who would need more than 128GB of storage on their smartphones. Naturally, the handset runs on Android.
The cameras of the Essential Phone are pretty impressive also. The handset features a 13MP dual rear camera setup with f/1.85. One of the lenses is a color one, while the other is monochrome. According to Essential, this camera setup is able to capture up to 200% more light than other smartphone cameras. If this proves to be true, images captured in low-light conditions by the cameras of the Essential Phone will be just amazing. The selfie camera of the smartphone has an 8MP sensor. Both the rear cameras and the front-facing one can capture 4K videos. As for the battery of the handset, it is a 3,040mAh one. At this size, we would have expected a slightly larger power pack. On the other hand, there are other flagship handsets with even smaller batteries, and they seem to be able to go through the day, so the Essential Phone should pull it off too.
Another great thing about the Essential Phone is that it supports hardware attachments. Users will be able to attach different accessories, such as 360- degree cameras, via a magnetic connector on the back of the phone. The possibilities here are limited at this point, but with the speed technology evolves these days, soon there will be countless accessories to mount on the handset. A little disappointing to some is the lack of a 3.5mm audio jack. At some point, the Essential Phone will also feature the company’s own AI assistant. When this will happen is still unclear. The Essential Phone will reportedly hit the stores in late June. Unfortunately, it won’t be a budget phone. Its starting price is $699. It may not be a small price to pay for a smartphone, but we must admit, it gets you a beautiful, powerful, innovative handset.
Source: Tech Radar
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