The Essential Phone, Essential PH-1, or whatever you want to call it, was undoubtedly an extremely memorable phone that quickly amassed quite a fan following. Its in-hand feel and purist approach to software are still something that many swear by. However, the device never really tasted success, selling only 5000 units in total, which eventually led to an untimely demise of the company itself.

Jason Keats, former head of R&D of Essential feels that the major bummer can mostly be owed to the fact that the company lacked direction and was never really sure of the point of the Essential PH-1 itself (via Android Authority).

“One of the things that hurt Essential was, it wasn’t entirely clear what the point of Essential was, what we were building for, and that hurt us,” he says.

However, mistakes can be addressed, and a part of the extremely talented team behind the Essential Phone is now working on another smartphone offering dubbed OSOM OV1, this time with a key focus on security and privacy.

A strategy of bringing control back to the consumers is being followed with three key pillars across software, hardware, and marketing: privacy, simplicity (ease of use), and choice. Everyone has got stuff that they’d rather store locally than on the web to keep it more shielded against prying eyes, and everything being done by OSOM revolves around this – or in other words, “to help the user control what’s shared and what’s not shared.”

Accordingly, the OSOM company name very aptly stands for “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” – a subtle way to promote the firm’s belief in privacy and security. The name of the handset too follows a similar theme with OV-1 being short for OSOM Vault 1.

But even with all of the extra focus on security, the OSOM OV-1 isn’t going loose on simplicity and will feature a simple yet premium design, reminiscent of the original Essential Phone.

There’s a triangular camera island on the upper left corner of the rear which carries a dual-camera system and a flash. A rear capacitive fingerprint scanner will serve as a bouncer and a Qualcomm chipset will be powering the phone.

Apart from this, the phone will be running near-stock Android, of course, which again would feel just as slick as the software the Essential Phone ran. Full specs of the OSOM OV1 will be revealed at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February and a release is expected sometime this summer. Currently, the device is at the Engineering Validation and Testing (EVT1) stage and Keats says that the device was the best EVT1 experience of his career.

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Essential is dead! Many may have seen it coming but a few of us held on to a tiny string of hope that the company founded by Andy Rubin will launch a new smartphone.

In a post released on its website, Essential announced that Project GEM, the colorful and interesting phone that showed up in images on the web last October will not be launching. “Given this, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations and shutdown Essential,” the blog post said.

Essential said in the post that the February 3 security update rolled out to the Essential PH-1 is the final update for the device. The phone will continue to work but there will be no more updates or customer support. However, they will host a prebuilt vendor image as well as everything else needed by developers for the PH-1 on their GitHub. So expect custom ROMs and the likes to continue to be available for the PH-1.

They also announced that Newton Mail, the paid cross-platform email app it owns, will continue to work until April 30, 2020.

Essential has also shared some videos that show Project GEM in action. While they give us a look at the features of a phone that will never launch, they are actually quite interesting. You can check out the videos in the source link.

Essential may have had a very short stint in the mobile phone industry but it will always be remembered as a company that tried to do things differently.

(Source)

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Essential Products, the manufacturer of the impressive Essential PH-1 smartphone, is back in the headlines after announcing a new smartphone to the guys at XDA. The Essential PH-1 that was announced in August 2017 is no longer available for purchase in the market. Now that the company has confirmed that its next product is in early stages of testing, it may launch a new smartphone in the next few months.

According to the Essential spokesperson, “the Essential team is working on a new product, which is currently in the early stages of testing”. The statement came after XDA conducted an independent investigation by gathering evidence hinting at the new device. The smartphone was spotted testing with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 SoC. It is running on the July build of Android Q, with an open source alternative to Google Play Services.

It is possible that the hardware is currently being used only for testing purposes and the production variant might feature an entirely different powerhouse. In a post last year, Bloomberg claimed that the next smartphone from Essential would be ‘AI-powered’. The device was rumored to be able to answer messages automatically. It was expected to feature a smaller display while most interactions would be over voice commands. Essential has neither confirmed nor denied those rumors as of now.

Editor’s Pick:Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha 5G Concept launched with a mind-blowing 360° Surround Display & 108MP Ceramic Camera Strip

The company has created quite a benchmark for themselves with the Essential PH-1. In the past two years the PH-1 has received monthly security patches and every major OS upgrade on the same day that Google released them. Essential drew heavy criticism for the high price tag and the weak camera setup on the PH-1. The device launched at $699 and even the $200 price reduction later on did not help pickup sales.

The Essential PH-1 is a unique smartphone, built with premium materials like ceramic and titanium. Two materials that no other mass-produced smartphone manufacturer bothers using. The device offered virtually near-stock Android experience devoid of bloatware and is among the handful of devices currently running on Android 10. Rumors of the second-generation PH-2 was quashed in December 2018 when Essential confirmed plans to shelve the device due to disappointing sales figures.

UP NEXT: Latest Android Q Beta update bricked several Essential Phones

(source)

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A new update has started rolling out to the Essential PH-1. Unlike previous updates that have mostly just been security patches, this new one brings a new feature – support for Digital Wellbeing.

Digital Wellbeing was exclusive to the Pixels and Android One phones for a while but it has now started arriving on other Android devices.

The Essential PH-1 is the latest phone to get the new feature which lets you track the time spent on each app, the number of notifications you get per day and the number of times you unlock your device.

Digital Wellbeing also lets you set timers for your apps. When the timer ends, the app is paused for the rest of the day. There is also a “Wind Down” mode which when activated turns the screen to grayscale, so you can fall asleep easily.

The update also brings March 2019′ security patch to the 2017 device. It is less than 100MB in size and is already rolling out globally.

READ MORE: Essential wants to expand, puts up listings for 21 positions

Now that Digital Wellbeing is out of the way, we hope the next update brings support for ARCore.

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The Essential phone from the Android co-founder Andy Rubin was launched last year with a lot of expectations. Those expectations were largely not met as the phone struggled for space in the market, but the company was able to deliver new Android OS updates on time. However, in the face of a stuttering sales, the company has now announced that it has sold out all units in stock and is discontinuing production of the Essential Phone 1.

The announcement is, however, laced with some cheering news as the company equally confirmed something that has been in the rumour mills for a while.  That is, that it has got a second phone in the works. The statement actually labelled it “mobile product”. This second device might possibly be the leaked tiny phone that employs AI (artificial intelligence) to answer text messages and e-mails.

Here is the statement released by an Essential representative – “We are sold out of Essential Phone” on essential.com and won’t be adding any new inventory. We are now hard at work on our next mobile product and will continue to sell accessories and provide speedy software updates and customer support to our existing community.” So it looks like another Essential phone will soon be on sales despite the company putting itself up for sale. The company has promised to deliver fast software updates for the Essential phones and this may be one reason the company still has some loyal fans awaiting the release of the supposed “mobile product”.

(source)

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After more than a year since the release of the Essential PH-1, Essential has released the Audio Adapter HD, its second mod for the phone. The first is the Essential 360 Camera, which is the world’s smallest 4K 360° camera.

To put it simply, the Audio Adapter HD adds an audio jack to the phone. A feature believed to be essential but which is missing from the phone. However, the Audio Adapter HD does more than just add an audio jack to your phone.

The adapter has a “high-resolution ESS Sabre DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) with hardware MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) rendering for high-res audio on the PH-1“. This means that audio sounds exactly the way it was recorded with no loss of quality whatsoever. Essential says it is the first DAC to have this feature.

The adapter which is built of titanium just like the frame of the phone supports 24-bit, 96kHz and MQA rendering up to 32-bit, 384kHZ. Essential says it also has an audiophile-grade amp for audiophile-grade headphones. The Audio Adapter HD has a multi-color LED that indicates if you are playing master quality, non-MQA, or standard content.

The Audio Adapter HD has an IP55 rating, measures 29 x 30 x 11.5 mm and weighs 15.5 grams. It draws power from the phone and since it doesn’t connect to the Type-C port, you can charge your phone while using it. Do note that it will only work on an Essential Phone running Android P (build number PPR1.181005.076 or later).

READ MORE: Essential is reportedly working on an AI phone that automatically responds to messages

Essential has put a $149 price tag on the adapter. It ships to Canada and the United States only and is available for purchase on the Essential online shop.

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After taking a break from the negative spotlight for a couple of months, Essential is back in the news. Reports have surfaced saying the company has laid off about 30 percent of its workforce.

Essential has a staff strength of about 120, that means about 36 people were laid off. According to Bloomberg, the affected members of staff were from the sales, marketing, and hardware departments.

A spokeswoman for the company said in an e-mail that it was a tough decision to make and they are sorry about the impact. The mail also says “we are confident that our sharpened product focus will help us deliver a truly game changing consumer product.”

Essential launched its first phone, the PH-1 more than a year ago. Due to a number of issues the phone didn’t do well. It canceled plans of a successor this year and even suspended some other hardware devices it had in development. Other than the 360° VR camera, Essential has not released a new modular product for the PH-1. An audio attachment for the phone has been in development for months but still doesn’t have a release date.

READ MORE: Essential Phone update brings October security patch and notch settings

There was a report last week that the Andy Rubin-led company is working on an AI phone that will learn the owner’s habits and be able to respond to emails and messages. It will also have a small screen. We don’t know if Essential is still going forward with this plan.

(Source)

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Essential, a smartphone manufacturing brand from Android creator Andy Rubin, has so far launched only one device — Essential Phone PH-1. After launching its first phone last year, the company has not yet announced its plan for the next device.

Previously there were reports about the company working on its second smartphone as well as a smart home speaker. However, both were reportedly slashed because of the poor sales performance of the Essential PH-1.

Now, a report from Bloomberg suggests that the company is putting most of its projects aside and is instead focusing on developing a new kind of phone based on the artificial intelligence technology. The report adds that the phone will be able to mimic the user and will automatically respond to messages on behalf of the user.

According to the report, the design of the upcoming smartphone is not like the standard phone that we’ve seen seeing. Instead, there will be a small screen and the users will be required to interact mainly using voice commands, which will work on the company’s own AI-powered software.

It appears that the major aim for the said upcoming device from Essential is to offer work-related features like book appointments and respond to emails and text messages. However, the report adds that the users would also be able to make phone calls using this device.

While the idea may sound unique and interesting, it remains to be seen how practical this upcoming devcie from Essential is, based on the current limitations of the AI-backed voice assistants. This could also be the company’s last attempt to break into the consumer electronics market.

Essential is aiming to have the prototype of the phone finished by the end of the year so that it can be showcased to industry partners as soon as January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The news about the development of this AI-backed phone by Essential comes at a time when there’s no certainty about the company’s future. It has been clouded by workplace misconduct allegations involving Rubin’s time at Google. He also took a brief leave of absence from Essential last November. Earlier this year, the company was also up for sale.

Read More: Essential Phone update brings October security patch and notch settings

Essential is backed by around $300 million, which makes it Silicon Valley’s most ambitious consumer-electronics startup in years. Essentials’s first phone — PH-1 pioneered an edge-to-edge design before the Apple iPhone X. However, the phone’s sales were disappointing due to its relatively high price and buggy software.

(Source)

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The Essential Phone is almost a year old but its availability has been limited to just North America alone. A few days ago, the manufacturer opened its online shop to a few more countries.

If you reside in the UK, France, Germany, and Japan, you can now order the Essential PH-1 and have it delivered to you. Canadians can also order an unlocked version instead of purchasing from Telus.

Essential is practically just shipping the phone to you from the US. You also have to check out in US dollars.

The price starts at $499 for the Black Moon and Pure White and jumps to $599 for the Stellar Gray and Copper Black variants. Delivery to these regions is already included in the price.

The Essential Phone is still a great buy nonetheless. Its tri-bezel-less display, ceramic back, and titanium frame make it one of the best looking and durable smartphones money can buy. It also has a Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a whopping 128GB of storage.

READ MORE: The Next Essential Phone Will Boast A Better Camera

The Essential Phone already has an update that takes it to Android 8.1 Oreo right from Android Nougat. Essential is also committed to pushing out updates as quickly as possible.

(Source)

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The Essential PH-1 received an update to Android 8.1 Oreo last month. Before then it was still on Android Nougat. Yesterday, it got a new update which brings April’s security patch and Bluetooth 5.0.

The update is 127MB in size and updates your security patch to that of April. There are other changes and fixes too but the biggest is that Bluetooth 5.0 has now been certified.

Bluetooth 5.0 is the latest version of the wireless technology and it comes with a number of new features. First, it lets you pair your phone to more than one speaker or wireless headphone at a time. So you can stream audio to two speakers or even stream different audio sources (music and video) to two speakers/headphones. However, they must be Bluetooth 5.0 devices too for you to get the feature.

Another update to Bluetooth 5.0 is the support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for audio devices. BLE was only available to smartwatches, fitness trackers and other low-power devices. Bluetooth 5.0 also has an increased range and speed. Supported distance is now 240 meters and speed is now 2Mbps.

READ MORE: Patent Reveals The Next Essential Phone May Come With A Pop-up Camera

Essential also says the update brings modem stability fixes, improves performance, and also proper handling of external game controllers.

(Source)

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After months of waiting for a stable update to Android 8.0 Oreo, Essential announced that it had cancelled the update. Its reason for doing so had to do with stability issues present in Android 8.0 that would be addressed in Android 8.1 Oreo. So instead of an update to 8.0 Oreo, the Essential PH-1 would get an update to 8.1 Oreo.

After a few weeks of extra waiting, Essential has today announced that the Android 8.1 Oreo stable update has begun rolling out to devices. The announcement was made on Twitter a short while ago.

We're excited to announce the full release of Android Oreo 8.1 on Essential Phone! Check your phone now for the update. pic.twitter.com/0PwPBMj6h1

— Essential (@essential) March 13, 2018

Screenshots provided by some users who have received the OTA shows the update is 1015.1 MB in size. Below is the complete changelog:

1. Smart Text selection, instant apps, picture-in-picture
2. Faster startup and app sign-in
3. Google Play Protect security scans
4. Google Security Patches 2018-03
5. Dynamic Calendar and Clock Icons
6. Slow Scrolling Jitter Fix

READ MORE: Patent Reveals The Next Essential Phone May Come With A Pop-up Camera

Its interesting to see that it also brings March security patch and a fix for the scrolling jitter users have complained about.

Do you own an Essential PH-1? Have you received the update? Let us know what you think.

(Source)

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Essential Phone has received several updates improving the camera performance and functionality and now, the company has released yet another update pertaining camera features. The new camera update for the Essential PH-1 brings selfie flash, stability fixes, and a beta version of a ‘Tiny Planet’ mode.

The Tiny Planet is one of the most exciting features coming to the phone. If you have the Essential 360 Camera accessory, Tiny Planet allows you to capture 360-degree photos and videos, which it displays as if on its own planet.

The Tiny Planet creations can be edited directly within the Essential Camera application and everything making the changes, users can share it on the social media platform of their choice.

The other feature that comes with this update is selfie flash. It works by turning the screen bright white as the selfie is taken in order to illuminate the faces of the people in the picture. While it’s not as powerful as a dedicated hardware flash, it can still be useful for lighting up a dark environment.

The camera updates for the Essential Phone have become a regular thing. It’s good to see that the company is focusing on improving the camera performance after it was heavily criticized upon the phone’s release, with several issues, including poor processing and slow speeds.

Read More: Essential Reportedly Shipped Phones With Refurbished Parts

Previous camera update from the company, which was released a few weeks ago, introduced features such as Auto-HDR, along with stability fixes, and boosted capture speeds.

Recently, reports emerged suggesting that the company could soon launch its Essential Phone Halo Gray variant in India, which is one of the largest smartphone markets in the world, for a price of about Rs. 24,999 (approximately $388). This has led many to believe that the company is looking to clear stocks before it starts working on the successor of Essential PH-1.

(Source)

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Last year, Andy Rubin — the father of Android, launched a smartphone company named Essential. Ever since the company launched its first device — Essential PH-1, popularly known as Essential Phone, it has been facing troubles.

In latest development, a new report suggests that Essential has notified Sprint that a small number of units of the Essential Phone are shipped with refurbished parts. According to the source, the affected users will receive notification which will redirect them to the Sprint website for resolution. However, it is not yet clear what the resolution will be.

The report comes from a Reddit user who claims to be working at Sprint. Neither Sprint nor Essential has given any official statement regarding this. At this moment, we couldn’t verify the authenticity of this report.

As the reports says that the affected users will get notifications, it seems that the company is aware which units are affected. The possible solution for this problem could be offering replacement, but there is no such confirmation from the company yet.

According to a report from International Data Corporation (IDC), Essential sold less than 90,000 units units of its PH-1 last year. However, the company seems to be hoping to have better numbers this year and has recently announced three new color variants.

Recent report also suggests that the company could launch the Essential Phone Halo Grey variant in India in April for about Rs. 24,999 ($386), exclusively through Amazon India. The suggested Indian pricing is considerably low given that the phone is currently available in the United States at $449.

The Essential PH-1 features a 5.71-inch IPS LCD display with 1312 x 2560 pixels resolution and comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top. It is powered by a Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB RAM, coupled with 128GB of internal storage.

The phone comes with a 13-megapixel dual rear camera with f/1.9 aperture lens, an LED flash, PDAF (phase detection autofocus) and LDAF. There’s an 8-megapixel front facing camera sensor with f/2.20 fixed hyperfocal lens.

Read More: Essential PH-1 Gets New Halo Gray Variant With Alexa Built-in, Amazon Lowers Prices to $449

It is running on Android 7.1 Nougat with a planned upgrade to Android 8.1 Oreo operating system. The device, which is IP54 rated for water and dust resistance, packs a fingerprint sensor mounted on the back panel and is powered by a 3,040mAh battery with fast charging support.

(Source)

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Essential Phone, the first smartphone from Andy Rubin’s new brand was launched last year. The phone, which falls under affordable premium category, is now reportedly launching in India soon.

The Essential PH-1, which is popular called Essential Phone, is expected to launch in India later this year — in late March or in early April. As per the report, the phone could be an Amazon-exclusive device.

It seems that the phone will be launched in India to clear out the stock before the company starts working on its successor. Because of this, the phone is expected to come with a very competitive price tag. As per the report, it could be priced at around Rs. 24,999 (approximately $388) in India.

The company is expected to list the recently announced “Halo Gray” variant of the phone in India, which comes pre-installed with the Alexa application. However, the company has not yet officially commented regarding the phone’s launch in the Indian market. In the United States, the Halo Gray variant currently costs $499.

The Essential Phone features features a 5.71-inch IPS LCD display with 1312 x 2560 pixels resolution and comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top for protection from minor scratches. There’s a notch on top of display which houses the front-facing camera.

Under the hood, the device is powered by a Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB RAM, coupled with 128GB of internal storage. It features a 13-megapixel dual rear camera with f/1.9 aperture lens, an LED flash and PDAF (phase detection autofocus) and LDAF. There’s an 8-megapixel front facing camera sensor with f/2.20 fixed hyperfocal lens.

Read More: Essential Rolls Out Android Oreo Beta 8.1, Includes February’s Security Patch, Bug Fix, and New Features

The phone runs on Android 7.1 Nougat with a planned upgrade to Android 8.1 Oreo operating system. The device, which is IP54 rated for water and dust resistance, packs a fingerprint sensor mounted on the back panel. Along with USB Type-C port, other connectivity options on the device include Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS and LTE. The Essential Phone is powered by a 3,040mAh battery with fast charging support.

(Source)

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On February 15, Essential announced three new color variants for the PH-1. The three colors – Ocean Depths, Stellar Gray, and Copper Black are $100 more expensive than the first two colors but they do look really nice. Yesterday, Essential announced a 4th new color variant that comes with an additional feature.

The new color variant is called Halo Gray but looks like the Stellar Gray version. It has the same matte finish which hides fingerprint smudges but its frame is silver like that of the Pure White variant.

That is not the only exciting about the Halo Gray variant. Unlike the other colors, it comes with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant built-in.

This version is an Amazon-exclusive and will be available for purchase on February 21, though you can pre-order it now. However, unlike the other three released this week, the Halo Gray variant sells for $449 and $499 with the 360° Camera and a free pill case.

The pill case is a new addition used for carrying the 360 camera instead of the small cloth sack that used to come with it.

READ MORE: Essential Rolls Out Android Oreo Beta 8.1, Includes February’s Security Patch, Bug Fix, and New Features

Don’t want the new Halo Gray variant? Fine. Amazon is also selling the Black Moon and Pure White variants at $449 without the camera and $499 with the camera and pill case. This is way cheaper than the $499 price for the phone and $678 with the camera (excluding pill case) on the online Essential Shop.

Fact: Amazon is also an investor in Essential.

(Source)

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A few days ago, Essential announced that it had a launch scheduled for today, February 15. While the teaser image did point to a “new” color variant of the Essential PH-1, Essential has actually announced three new colors for the phone.

The three new colors are Ocean Depths, Stellar Gray, and Copper Black. The first two are actually not new as they were announced back when the phone launched. Essential says all three colors will be limited edition variants.

Surprisingly, Essential is charging an extra $100 for these new color variants, bringing the price to $599 instead of $499. This is unusual as other manufacturers usually keep the price uniform irrespective of color.

In an official blog post, Essential said its engineers spent months designing these custom ceramic colors as it is more difficult to change colors of ceramic compared to other materials like plastic. It also mentioned the difficulty associated with production, hence the reason for it being available in limited quantities.

READ MORE: Essential Rolls Out Android Oreo Beta 8.1, Includes February’s Security Patch, Bug Fix, and New Features

Starting today at 12PM (PST), users will be able to purchase the Essential PH-1 Ocean Depths variant. The Stellar Gray variant will go on sale at the same time on February 20, while the Copper Black variant will be sold on February 22 at 12PM (PST).

All variants will be available on the official online store.

(Source)

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Keeping to its promise, Essential has begun rolling out a beta version of Android 8.1 Oreo for the Essential PH-1. Two weeks ago, it had announced that it would skip the Android 8.0 stable update as there are multiple issues with it. These issues are believed to have been fixed in Android 8.1, hence the reason for skipping 8.0.

The Oreo 8.1 beta update brings a number of new features such as dynamic calendar and clock icons. What this means is that the clock and calendar icons will show the time and date as the homescreen or notification bar.

The update also brings a beta fix for the slow-scrolling jitter that plagues the phone. Although Essential already released February’s security patch last week for those on the stable version, the beta update still includes it.

READ MORE: Report Reveals Less Than 90,000 Essential PH-1 Units Were Shipped In 2017

Ever since the Essential PH-1 launched, it has received several updates which brings fixes, new features, and security patches. We can’t think of a phone that has received as much updates as the Essential PH-1.

(Source)

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When the Essential PH-1 was unveiled, it was announced in four color variants – Black Moon, Pure White, Ocean Depths, and Stellar Gray. Surprisingly, only the Black Moon variant was available for purchase for the first two months before it was joined by the Pure White variant in October. Four months later, Essential will launch the third color variant – Ocean Depths (green).

Essential didn’t explicitly announce that we are getting a new color variant but take a look at the tweet below and tell me that’s not what it is. Not only is the image the same color but the text also hints at the new color variant. Wave = Ocean!

A new wave is coming. #EssentialPhone pic.twitter.com/YPFgzusFhb

— Essential (@essential) February 13, 2018

READ MORE: You Can Now Purchase Accessories For The Essential Phone On The Official Site

Personally, the Ocean Depth Essential PH-1 is easily the most beautiful of all. It has copper accents around the titanium frame, fingerprint scanner, and even the connectors for the accessories. Other than that, the specs are the same as the other two variants. It should also retain the $499 price tag when it launches.

Do you think the new color variant will help Essential sell more units?

(Source)

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Essential is a company founded by Andy Rubin, one of the co-founders of Android. Last year, they released their first phone – the Essential PH-1, which is also one of the most durable smartphones of the year.

Unfortunately, Andy Rubin’s popularity and the Essential Phone’s build quality didn’t help the phone make much sales. An IDC research director has revealed that the company shipped just 88,000 units of the PH-1 in 2017.

. @Arubin's @essential smartphone is still a long way from becoming a successful venture. In 2017, it shipped less than 90K units (first six months after launch) pic.twitter.com/NHVlA2Gjzr

— Francisco Jeronimo (@fjeronimo) February 12, 2018

To be honest, you can’t blame people for not buying the Essential Phone. First, it went on sale later than scheduled and when it did, its $700 price tag didn’t justify the experience users got from it. There were complaints about the camera performance as well as the overall system software.

Essential cut the price to $500 and released a bunch of software updates afterwards. While it made the phone more attractive to purchase, the report shows it didn’t do much to boost sales.

Apart from that, the Essential Phone also had to compete against like the OnePlus 5 and later OnePlus 5T, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, and phones from Huawei, Apple and Google.

READ MORE: You Can Now Purchase Accessories For The Essential Phone On The Official Site

Essential is still pushing out more updates for the phone and is working on updating it from Nougat to Android 8.1 Oreo. We are also optimistic that Essential will not make the same mistakes when it launches a successor later this year.

(Source, Via)

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The Essential PH-1 has been on Android 8.0 Oreo beta for over a month. For a device that runs close to stock Android, one would think it should have received a stable update instead. Unfortunately that update hasn’t come and will never come.

In a tweet via its official account, Essential has announced that the PH-1 will not get a stable Android 8.0 Oreo update. The reason is said to be due to several stability issues in Android 8.0 Oreo which they believe will be addressed in Android 8.1.

So rather than releasing Android 8.0 riddled with bugs, the Essential PH-1 will instead receive Android 8.1 Oreo. However, this will add a couple of weeks to when the device finally gets updated to Oreo.

An update on the public release of Oreo: pic.twitter.com/fPJRtX7kvY

— Essential (@essential) January 30, 2018

Essential says it will release the Android 8.1 beta update in the meantime while they work on the build.

While this may be a bit disappointing for those who have been waiting endlessly for the update, we can all agree that waiting for a stable version that is bug free isn’t all that bad. You wouldn’t want to end up in the same boat as users of a certain Android One device, right?

READ MORE: You Can Now Purchase Accessories For The Essential Phone On The Official Site

There is no specific date as to when the beta version of Android 8.1 will be available but trust us to let you know once Essential make it available.

(Source)

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Yesterday, Essential took to Twitter to announce that it now sells accessories for its phone. Prior to the announcement, if you wanted to purchase a replacement accessory for your phone, you had to settle for those made by third parties.

The inventory on the online shop not only includes standard accessories like the $39 27W fast charger with braided USB cable and the $15 USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack connector, but also some new accessories.

There are two USB-C earphones – the Earphones|HD with high-res audio for $99 and the Earphones|Mini for $49. Both earphones support USB Audio Class 2, work with a Mac or PC, and have a multi-function button for controlling music playback, answering calls, and activating Google Assistant. They are also tangle free and come with a custom-built hard shell case.

READ MORE: Essential Phone Gets New update: No Oreo, But Brings January Security Patch & Spectre and Meltdown Fixes

Essential also lists a few other accessories as coming soon such as a carrying case for the 360° camera which comes in black and red, and a fast charge phone dock.

(Sources: 1, 2)

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Essential is pushing out a new update but sadly it is not the stable update for Android 8.0 Oreo. We know most people are expecting that update but this new one is pretty important too.

The new update (build NMJ88C) not only brings January’s security patch but also fixes the latest security flaws – Spectre and Meltdown. If you have been following the news lately, you must have come across those two words.

Both are the names of two security flaws found within computer processors which affect nearly all devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. It is also said to affect cloud computing systems.

Meltdown can grant an attacker access to read kernel memory and affects processors made by Intel and Qualcomm and a certain type of ARM chip.

Spectre on the other hand may grant attackers access to private data by tricking error-free applications into giving it up. It is harder to exploit but also harder to fix. It affects processors from Qualcomm, Intel, ARM, and AMD.

READ MORE: Essential To Focus On Reparability For Its Next-Generation Smartphone

Essential is one of the first phone manufacturers to fix the flaws. We hope other manufacturers follow suit in the coming days. However, there is a high-chance that smaller companies won’t release a patch and even bigger companies won’t release a patch for all their devices.

In a response to when the stable Oreo update will be available, Essential says they are getting close to the full release.

(Source)

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We can’t help but agree that the cut in the price of the Essential Phone from $700 to $500 has made it one of the most affordable flagships. While the phone isn’t perfect – it sure has gotten a lot better since its launch.

If you are on the lookout for a new phone to begin the new year, you can purchase the Essential Phone for $449 on Amazon. Or better still, throw in an extra $50 and get the world’s smallest 360° camera too. The price cut applies to both the Black Moon and Pure White variants.

Essential has continued to push out more updates  to improve the performance of the cameras which is the issue people had with it when it launched. While it is still far from the Pixel 2 or iPhone X‘ camera level, the Essential PH-1’s cameras have drastically improved. If you still are not satisfied, you can side-load modified versions of the Pixel’s camera app too.

READ MORE: Essential Phone Users Receive Second Android 8.0 Oreo Beta, Final Stable Version Arriving Soon

Apart from the camera (and its lack of  an audio jack), the Essential Phone is one the best built phones in the market right now. You get a phone with a titanium frame and a ceramic back which is stronger and more scratch resistant than most if not all of the flagships released this year.

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Essential Phone was launched in May 2017 with a price tag of $699. Even though the company had promised that the shipping of the phone would begin at June end, but it could manage to begin the shipments in mid-August. In September, it was reported that only 5,000 units of the Essential Phone were sold in the U.S. Since then the smartphone has been available with a significantly low price of $499 along with a $200 friends and family code that can be used by Essential Phone owners to avail discount on 360-degree camera module or another Essential Phone. Fresh information suggests that according to camera app download numbers from the Google Play Store, the company may have sold 50,000 units of Essential Phone.

The sales number of the Essential Phone calculated on the basis of camera app downloads may not be 100 percent accurate. However, it suggests that Essential Phone has met with increased sales in the past six weeks. Compared to the sales report of September, the company has managed to achieve impressive sales with the recent price cut on the Essential Phone.

 
Read More: Essential To Focus On Reparability For Its Next-Generation Smartphone

Apart from $399 pricing and friends and family code, the Essential Phone and the 360 Camera were available with a bundled pricing of $399 during the recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. These offers may have certainly boosted the sales of Essential Phone to achieve a mild success.

The company has previously claimed that it wants to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung in the U.S. The bezel-less Essential Phone may not be a major rival for the Apple iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy Note 8, but the company seems to be determined to rival the top tier smartphone brands. In the previous month, the company had confirmed that it has already started working on Essential Phone PH-2. It had also said that it is working on improving display/glass durability on the PH-2 phone.

(source)

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Essential Products, the newest entrant in the premium flagship smartphones category, has confirmed in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) that the company is working on its next-generation smartphone.

It’s good to see that the company has not been affected by the absence of Andy Rubin, the company’s founder and CEO, who is also the face of the company.

In the Reddit AMA, while the company said that it’s working on its next-generation smartphone, it has not revealed anything related to the phone. However, the company said that they are “focusing on reparability” of the smartphone. The Essential Phone (PH-1) is very hard to repair, as concluded by the iFixit team.

The company said, “We will make sure that your phone can be repaired at a reasonable and competitive price if the consumables, like batteries need to be replaced.”

Currently, there is no information available related to the upcoming smartphone’s features and specification. It is not known when the company is planning to launch the device, but we expect the phone to get launched in the first half of next year.

Essential PH-1 was launched in May this year, with an aim to make its mark in the premium flagship smartphone category. However, it seems that the company is struggling to sell the smartphone.

Recently, the smartphone received a price cut of $200, bringing down the phone’s price to just $499 from $699. The smartphone features a 5.7-inch bezel-less display that comes with a screen resolution of 2560 x 1312 pixels and an unusual aspect ratio of 19:10.

Under the hood, the device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, along with 4GB of RAM 128GB of internal storage. It has dual camera system at the back, which includes a pair of f/1.85 aperture 13-megapixel sensors — one is monochrome lens while the other one is RGB lens. It also has a f/2.2 aperture 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

The smartphone is fueled by a 3,040mAh battery. On the back of the phone, there is a set of magnetic pins that hold Essential modules just like Motorola’s Moto Mods. It recently received the latest Android Oreo update.

Read More: Essential Phone Gets Another Camera Update, Brings Portrait Mode

At the time of launch, Essential promised that the smartphone will receive guaranteed updates for two years. The smartphone is also slated get monthly security updates for the next 3 years.

(Source)

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Earlier this year, Android co-founder Andy Rubin launched smartphone brand Essential and its first smartphone — Essential Phone. The smartphone was launched in May this year, with a price tag of ₹699.

Recently, the phone received a price cut of $200, bringing the effective price of the smartphone to $499. Now, the US-based retailer BestBuy has cut down the price of Essential Phone by another $50 and it is now available for just $449.99.

Along with the Essential Phone PH-1, the 360-degree camera accessory also received a price cut, but it seems to have gone out of stock for now. However, it appears that the discount is not official as Essential is still selling the smartphone for $499.

While cutting down the pricing of the Essential Phone, the company had not revealed the reason. However, it is believed that the company could be struggling to make its mark given that there are many popular flagship smartphones in the market such as LG V30, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Apple iPhone 8, Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.

Essential Phone features a 5.7-inch bezel-less display that comes with a screen resolution of 2560 x 1312 pixels and an unusual aspect ratio of 19:10. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, along with 4GB of RAM 128GB of internal storage.

The smartphone features a dual camera system at the back, which includes a pair of f/1.85 aperture 13-megapixel sensors — one is monochrome lens while the other one is RGB lens. It also has a f/2.2 aperture 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

It is fueled by a 3,040mAh battery. On the back of the phone, there is a set of magnetic pins that hold Essential modules just like Motorola’s Moto Mods. The 360-degree camera is the only module available for now but the company says they will release new accessories every few months.

There is NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C and stereo speakers. The phone runs on Android 7.1 Nougat operating system out of the box with planned update to Android 8.0 Oreo.

Read More: Only 5000 Units of The Essential Phone Sold Through Sprint

At the time of announcing the launch, the company promised that Essential Phone will receive guaranteed updates for two years. It will also get monthly security updates for the next 3 years.

(Source)

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According to reports, Andy Rubin’s new smartphone has only sold 5000 units since it launched on Sprint.

This is a sad revelation for a phone that ticks all the boxes of a 2017 flagship, offers a bit more and is priced at about the same as other flagships. But when you examine the factors surrounding the release of the Essential phone, then it becomes clear as to why it has sold such a low amount.

Delay. The Essential Phone faced serious delay before being available for purchase. First teased in March, then released in May with a promise to ship in 30 days. It didn’t ship in June, neither did it ship in July. It started shipping in late August to those who pre-ordered and was available in Sprint retail stores in mid-September. The carrier-unlocked version became available for purchase shortly afterwards. That is close to 4 months after announcement. What’s more, only the black variant has been available since it went on sale, the white, gray and green variants  are yet to go on sale.

This delay resulted in two things – first, it made people think something was wrong at Essential as some of the company’s top executives left. We covered a few here and here. Then the delay made it possible for other manufacturers to announce their flagships, thereby creating more options for buyers. OnePlus released the OnePlus 5, HTC unveiled the U11, LG launched the V30, Samsung announced the Galaxy Note8, and Nokia unveiled the Nokia 8.

Even though some of these phones are yet to be available in all markets, customers now had more devices to choose from. Let’s also not forget that the Essential phone is extremely difficult to repair.

The Essential Phone is a great device overall. Its one of the strongest phones released this year with its titanium frame. It runs a stock version of Android with promised software support for 2 years.

The Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 are expected to be a bit pricey. Those who want pure android and are not ready to fork out so much to Google can pick up the Essential Phone instead.

The Essential Phone is priced at $699 unlocked. It comes with an edge-to-edge 5.71-inch display, a Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB of RAM. Available in only 128GB of storage with no choice of expansion. However, it will be nice to see a 64GB version of the phone with a much lesser price. There are dual rear cameras on the back and a 3040mAh non-removable battery.

READ MORE: Andy Rubin Mentions The Sharp S2’s Striking Resemblance To The Essential Phone, Reveals New Modules

Will Essential survive as a company? It probably will. Andy Rubin says the company is working on new products and new modules for the Essential phone. It is also valued at over $1 billion with key investors like Foxconn.

(Source)

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Before the launch of Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone, the smartphone was expected to come with flagship specs to take on the leading smartphones from the likes of Apple and Samsung. The Essential Phone managed to impress the audience with its full-screen design and its modular capability. However, the company has failed to meet a couple deadlines in making the Essential Phone to the buyers. Customers are reluctant on whether to purchase it or not. iFixit has revealed that it is almost impossible to repair the Essential Phone. This can be another reason that may cause the customers to not to buy the Essential Phone.

iFixit is known for performing teardown on newly smartphones to reveal the internal components used by the phone makers and also to check how easy it is to repair. It provides a repairability score of 1 to 10 where the latter means easiest to repair. How much did Essential Phone score? It scored 1 which indicates it is almost impossible to repair. Here is what iFixit found after performing Essential Phone teardown on its titanium and ceramic build.

An attempt to repair the smartphone can damage it because of the seams and huge amount of adhesive in building it. Since it is very difficult to open the smartphone, trying to repair it can damage its chassis. In order to open the Essential Phone, iFixit had to freeze the device and then access the internals from the rear. This led to breaking of the display.

The Essential Phone does not feature a 3.5mm audio jack. The USB-C is the only port available for charging the handset as well as for connecting headphones. Hence, the USB-C port can wear out faster. Since it is soldered to the motherboard, it is difficult to repair or replace.

Read More: Essential Phone Goes On Sale Starts At $699, Promises Updates For 2 Years

The identification marks of the smartphone are placed on a small tag that resides under the SIM card tray. Few things that make it repair-friendly is the usage of standard screws and stretch-release adhesive for the battery. Still, reaching the battery of the smartphone is a difficult task.

It seems that if the users of the Essential Phone encounter come across a hardware issue on it, they may end up replacing it instead of repairing it. To checkout the entire teardown of the Essential Phone, users can visit the source link.

(source)

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Last week, Sharp’s General Manager of mobile phone business unit in China posted a photo of the manufacturer’s yet-to-be released bezel-less smartphone. Apart from the device itself sharing similarities to the Essential PH-1, the entire image is also strikingly similar to the very first image of the Essential phone released to the public. A new image of the phone has surfaced and it wears an entirely different look.

Posted by the Vice President of Foxconn Technology Group, Luo Zhongsheng, the image shows several units of the phone undergoing testing in the factory.

Unlike the first image which has a nearly bezel design and looks like the Essential PH-1, the new device has moderately-sized bezels. The top bezel is significantly smaller than what you will find on most phones. The thickness can even be compared to that of the Samsung Galaxy S8.

The side bezels are okay but we are concerned about the lower bezel. From the image, we can see Sharp is using on-screen buttons but there is a thick black bar at the base which is part of the screen. That is a waste of space and defeats the purpose of the on-screen buttons. If it is going to be there permanently, why then is the lower bezel that thick?

READ MORE: Sharp FS8016’s Back Panel with Dual Rear Cameras in Multiple Colors Allegedly Appears

We can’t tell if the phone has its fingerprint scanner in front or at the back, so we won’t pass a final judgement on the design.

The phone is also reported to come with a Snapdragon 630 and not a Snapdragon 660 processor. Release date is still unknown.

(Source)

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The Essential Phone by Andy Rubin should already be available for purchase but it is already past 30 days since the shipping date deadline set by Mr.Rubin himself.

It appears the delay isn’t the only problem the new tech company is facing. Reports say it is also having issues with top executives, two of whom have resigned recently.

The company’s vice-president of marketing, Brian Wallace announced his resignation recently. He is now the Chief Marketing Officer of i.am+, a startup founded by musician will.i.am.

Mr Wallace is the second top executive to resign in recent times. Andy Fouché, who held the post of Head of Communications left in June according to His LinkedIn page.

These two positions are key ones in any company and it means a lot if a company loses its marketing and communications chiefs before it even launches its first product. The reason for their departure is unknown but some say Andy Rubin is a difficult person to work with.

The Essential Phone is a Snapdragon 835-powered phone with a bezel-less design. It also plays with modularity as it has support for additional hardware that can be attached to the back via 2 accessory power pins. A 360-degree camera is the first accessory made for the phone.

The Essential Phone has a display of 5.7-inches, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. Following the trend of modern smartphones, the Essential PH-1 has dual rear cameras (13MP RGB+ 13MP true monochrome sensors) and up in front is an 8MP sensor. Battery is 3040mAh and there is NFC, Bluetooth 5.0 and Gorilla Glass 5 on both sides.

READ MORE: Essential Phone’s Noisy Camera Samples & 360 Video Shared

The Essential Phone is a beautiful phone but a rugged one too. Instead of aluminium, it has a titanium body making it stronger and more rugged than your average phone.

(Source)

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Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone was the topic on the front burner last week when it was unveiled officially to the public. The Essential Phone-1 dazzled with the sleek design it came with as well as the powerful specs it features. The major highlight was no doubt the Snapdragon 835 chip it would launch packing. Another spectacular feature is the rear camera setup.

The Essential PH-1 packs two 13MP f/1.85 lenses on its rear panel arranged in a horizontal manner, one of which exclusively captures monochrome (black and white) images, while the other one records colours. The two work in conjunction to deliver high-quality photos that would hardly be achieved with conventional single-lens mobile camera setups.

Apart from the dual cameras, the device has a module from where a 360-degree camera can be clipped on the device to enable a whole different kind of phone-based photography. Essential President Niccolo de Masi has now given us a glimpse of what the 360-degree camera and the dual camera samples look like. Interestingly, the dual camera sample photos look quite grainy with lots of image noise all over. The two sample images don’t look like what have been captured by a flagship phone. We may even find much better samples from budget phones. The two sample photos have since been deleted from his Twitter account but the crisps clear panoramic video apparently captured by the Essential Ph-1 is still on his timeline.

Read Also: Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone Makes Its First Official Outing

We really can’t say why the Essential Phone’s camera samples came out bad bot we’re sure the company will reveal better samples soon. But then, if much better ones surface, it becomes difficult knowing what’s true and what’s not.

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