Articles about Essential Phone

The Android market is incredibly crowded, making it very hard to turn a profit. Unless your name is Samsung, you are going to have a tough time at it. Well-known companies like LG and HTC are struggling as no-name Chinese manufacturers flood the market with low-cost devices that surprisingly don't suck. Quite frankly, you'd have to be insane to even attempt to enter the Android market. And yet, Andy Rubin did.

If you aren't familiar, Rubin was a co-founder of Android, so when he announced he was entering the smartphone market with a company called "Essential Products Inc," it made news. His backstory aside, there was absolutely no reason for a new Android manufacturer to come along. With that said, he actually did get a device produced. Called "Essential Phone," everyone knew it would fail. And now it has -- just as it was supposed to. According to a report from Bloomberg, the company is no longer developing a successor to the Essential Phone.

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I have mixed feelings about the Essential Phone. On one hand, it is a bold attempt at creating a high-end smartphone to go up against the iPhone and the Galaxy S. On the other hand, it is difficult to make a case for it, if you ignore the fact that its parent company was founded by the creator of Android.

When you ask a lot of money for a smartphone these days you have to offer more than the device itself. Things like in-store availability and easy access to support are just as important as the hardware. That's why people buy a ton of iPhones and Galaxy S devices: because Apple and Samsung get these things right. Essential is simply not there yet.

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Andy Rubin's startup, Essential, announced its highly-anticipated smartphone in late-May. The high-end device, called Essential Phone, is aimed at flagship buyers looking for something a little different from an iPhone 7 or Galaxy S8, packing some cool features and a clean design at a competitive price.

But, unlike an iPhone 7 or Galaxy S8, you cannot just go out and buy an Essential Phone. Users can, however, "reserve" one, in either black or white, but when it will ship is as yet unknown at this stage. An email from Andy Rubin gives us a pretty good idea as to when it will be available though.

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If you like iOS, you buy an iPhone -- easy enough. If you prefer Android, well, picking a smartphone can be quite the confusing affair. Even if you select a phone you like at first, it is quite possible that the manufacturer could abandon it from an update perspective. In other words, you could end up with a vulnerable phone which, quite frankly, can be dangerous to use. This can happen even with well-known companies, such as Samsung and LG. Frustrating, right?

Of course, you can always opt for Google's own Pixel phones, as they are sure to get updates for a couple of years. What if you don't want to go that route? Well, there are two upcoming flagship smartphones that should be well supported both by the manufacturers and Android hacking communities. The phones to which I am referring are the OnePlus 5 and the Essential Phone. These devices are the "it" smartphones of the moment, and choosing between them won't be easy. So, which one will you be buying?

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Smartphones have come a long way since Apple introduced the first iPhone, but there are people who believe that all the advancements that we've seen in recent years are not enough. Andy Rubin, who created Android, is one of them, which is why he has come up with an interesting new design for his new company's first smartphone.

It's called the Essential Phone and it has everything you could want in a flagship smartphone today in a package that comes in at just under $700. But is it all that different to the typical flagship?

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