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The man who co-founded Android has revealed his next project – a new large screen smartphone that can support modular upgrades.
Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone, due to go on sale in the US only for now, has an edge-to-edge display similar to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and one initial modular attachment – a small 360-degree camera.
It will run, of course, on Android.
It also has dual rear-facing and a front-facing camera to rival any of the big names, a fingerprint scanner and glass and metal design that the makers say can better survive a drop test compared to “aluminium competitor devices”.
A large part of the unique selling point of the Essential Phone is focused on minimising the clutter that can be a part of some smartphones.
Essential says that’s the reason it doesn’t have logos on its device, and why it will soon launch a magnetic connection dock which enables wireless charging and data transfer to cut down on wires.
However, there will be at lease one accessory in the box – a headphone adaptor – because the Essential Phone does not have a headphone jack. The adaptor will fit into the phone’s USB-C connection point.
The Phone can be reserved on the Essential website, for $699 (£544).
Also announced was an Amazon Echo and Google Home competitor – Essential Home.
Essential says it plans to power the device with its new operating system, Ambient OS, which “automatically introduces itself to new and existing devices and helps set them up in no time”.
The tech firm says the device has been designed to “play well with others” and also be proactive, for example notifying users automatically when they need to leave to make meetings marked in their schedule.
