14 DAY TRIAL // Andy Rubin recently announced the new smartphone from Essential company, a modular device that features premium specs and a very appealing design. Reservations for the new phone are already live in the US, but the exact release date wasn’t disclosed.
Andy Rubin did recently say that the smartphone should arrive in the next 30 days, which means that its release date could be by the end of June. However, an exact date wasn’t provided. In an interview with Recode, Rubin said that the new Essential phone, which runs stock Android 7 Nougat, would also come with its own virtual assistant.
The digital assistant is already available on Essential’s Home smart speaker, which was recently unveiled. The virtual assistant will compete against major players on the market, like Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, Cortana and Samsung’s Bixby. But it’s not quite clear how Essential’s virtual assistant will manage to differentiate itself from the other AI assistants.
The smartphone carries a price tag of $699
The Essential smartphone won’t be offered by any carrier in the US, but it should work on CDMA networks in the country. The phone has a price tag of $699 on the Essential website and other distribution channels will be added at some point.
The PH-1 comes with a 5.71-inch Full Display with 19:10 aspect ratio and 500nits of brightness, while its resolution is 1312 x 2560 pixels. It features a dual-camera setup on the back with two 13MP sensors, while the front camera is an 8MP lens with f/2.2 aperture and support for 4k recording.
The Essential phone has a titanium frame and a ceramic back, while the display features Gorilla Glass 5 coating. It runs the latest Snapdragon 835 and comes with 4GB of RAM, together with a 3,040mAh battery and USB Type-C port. It’s accompanied by accessories like a 360-degree camera and the Phone Dock for charging the device using a magnetic dock.