Summarize this article:


  
  
  
 With a Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM, a 19:10 Quad HD display, two 13MP cameras at the back, and a 3,040mAh battery on deck, it seems to have what it takes to tackle on the Galaxy S8+, the LG G6, and the venerable iPhone 7 Plus. 
  
  
  
 Phew, what a selection! 
  
  
  
 Let's see how the bold newcomer compares against these in terms of specs and raw hardware prowess! 
  
  
  
  
  
 Specs Essential Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus LG G6 Apple iPhone 7 Plus Display 5.71-inch IPS LCD 
  
 1312 x 2560 pixels 6.2-inch AMOLED 
  
 1440 x 2960 pixels 5.7-inch IPS LCD 
  
 1440 x 2880 pixels 5.5-inch IPS LCD 
  
 1080 x 1920 pixels Size 141.5 x 71.1 x 7.8 mm 159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm 148.9 x 71.9 x 7.9 mm 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm Screen-to-body ratio 83.33% 79.47% 67.58% Processor Snapdragon 835 Snapdragon 835 (US) 
  
 Exynos 8895 (Intl) Snapdragon 821 Apple A10 Fusion RAM 4GB 4GB 4GB 3GB Storage 128GB 64GB + microSD 32GB + microSD 32, 128, 256GB Battery 3,040mAh 3,500mAh 3,300mAh 2,900mAh Rear camera 13MP RGB + 13MP monochrome 
  
 f/1.8 
  
 PDAF 
  
 4K video recording 12MP 
  
 f/1.7 
  
 OIS 
  
 4K video recording 13MP f/1.8 + 13MP f/2.4 wide-angle 
  
 OIS 
  
 4K video recording 12MP f/1.8 + 12MP f/2.8 
  
 2.0x optical zoom 
  
 OIS 
  
 4K video recording Front camera 8MP f/2.2 8MP f/1.7 5MP, f/2.2 7MP f/2.2 Software Android 7.x Android 7.x Android 7.1 iOS 10.x Water resistance - Yes, IP68-certified Yes, IP68-certified Yes, IP67-certified Special features Fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C Fingerprint scanner, iris scanner, USB Type-C Fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C, dual camera Fingerprint scanner, dual camera Colors Black, White, Gray, Green Black, Orchid Gray, Silver, Gold and Blue Black, Silver, White Jet Black, Black, Silver, Gold, Rose Gold, Red 
  
  
  
 Andy Rubin's latest foray into hardware is now official with the Essential phone , a device that arrives with a splash and obviously skimps neither on specs nor on appearance. ||||| Essential The creator of Android has finally unveiled the new smartphone he has been working on. 
  
 On Tuesday, Andy Rubin unveiled the first smartphone from Essential, his new company, after months of teasing. 
  
 The PH-1 is an Android device that packs some interesting features and clearly is intended to go head-to-head with the top smartphones from Apple and Samsung. 
  
 The first thing you notice in photos of the high-end device is the screen: It takes up almost the entire front face, going so close to the edge it curves around the selfie camera. 
  
 Another notable feature: It's modular. It has magnetic connectors on the back of the device that let you attach accessories, including a 360-degree camera that can be ordered alongside the phone. 
  
 Speaking of ordering, it costs $749 to reserve it, unlocked and with 128 GB of internal storage, along with the 360-degree camera. For just the phone, it'll cost $699. But unfortunately for international customers, it's available only in the US, to begin with. 
  
 Essential 
  
 Along with that 128 GB of internal storage, it packs 4 GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. 
  
 Its casing is titanium and ceramic, and it comes in four colours — Black Moon (glossy black), Stellar Grey (matte dark gray), Pure White (glossy white), and Ocean Depths (a glossy green with bronze sides). 
  
 The screen is a hefty 5.7 inches — even larger than the 5.5-inch screen on the iPhone 7 Plus — but the relative lack of bezels on it means it has a smaller footprint than you'd expect. The rear camera is 13 megapixels, while the front-facing camera is 8 megapixels. Both shoot 4K video. 
  
 Essential 
  
 All in all, this is a premium device, and an interesting one at that, intended to go after the high-end customers who typically buy the likes of Samsung and Apple devices. (It even compares itself to them directly when showing how its titanium body can withstand a drop test.) The big question is whether it can manage it. ||||| As the co-founder of Android, Andy Rubin was one of the most important figures in the development of modern smartphones. So when he unveiled his latest project today — a new company called Essential that will sell a high-end smartphone — the technology world paid attention. 
  
 The Essential Phone, a $699 device whose release date hasn’t yet been announced, will be made out of titanium, which Essential says is more durable than the aluminum and plastic enclosures that are common today’s smartphones. The screen covers practically the entire front of the phone. It also has a unique magnetic connector for accessories, including a tiny 360-degree camera that’s also offered by Essential. 
  
 But overall, the Essential Phone seems remarkably similar to devices that are already on the market. It runs a standard version of the Android operating system Rubin created, and in most respects it looks little different from smartphones you can buy today from Apple or Samsung. In other words, one of the smartphone industry’s greatest innovators set out to reinvent the smartphone and found that there just wasn’t that much room for improvement. 
  
 It’s a very different situation from the 2000s, which saw several generations of industry-changing smartphones. Before Android, Rubin created a company called Danger in 1999 that made a smartphone called the Sidekick. It never reached a large market share, but it beloved among techies, and concepts pioneered by Danger later found their way into Android. 
  
 Around the same time, business customers were going wild for the email-focused BlackBerry. It became so ubiquitous that in 2009 President Barack Obama insisted on being given a hardened version of the device for use as president. Microsoft, Nokia, Palm, and Motorola also had early, innovative smartphones. 
  
 Then Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007 and it instantly rendered these non-multitouch phones obsolete. In the past decade, the smartphone industry has largely been a story of other companies trying to catch up to Apple. Today’s smartphones are larger, faster, and have higher-resolution screens than the original iPhone, but they have retained the iPhone’s basic design and user interface. 
  
 In its typically enthusiastic write-up of the Essential Phone, Wired gripes that smartphones have become “as personal as refrigerators.” The phrase was intended as a complaint about the state of smartphone innovation. But it makes more sense to look at the situation the other way around: Refrigerators all look alike because refrigerator manufacturers perfected the basic design of a fridge decades ago. 
  
 Fridge manufacturers have tried every possible combination of features and configurations, and they’ve settled on the designs that do the best job of meeting consumers’ needs. That’s not to say that refrigerator innovation is impossible, but it’s not surprising that refrigerators don’t change very much from year to year. 
  
 Laptops reached the same point more than a decade ago. Apple laptops from the mid-2000s barely look different from today’s laptops. Last year’s introduction of the touch bar was the biggest change we’ve seen in years, and it’s not exactly a revolution. 
  
 And now smartphones, too, seem to have reached a point where there’s little room for further progress. If anyone had the potential to fundamentally rethink the smartphone, it would be Rubin, with his extensive experience of innovation in both hardware and software. 
  
 This isn’t to say that the Essential Phone won’t be successful. It looks like a good phone that could catch on with customers. But the best-case scenario for the Essential Phone is that it becomes one of the better-selling devices in an already crowded Android phone market. Essential doesn’t pose a serious threat to incumbents like Apple, Google, and Samsung the way the iPhone and Android threatened early smartphones. ||||| If the future of tech starts with the phone, then Andy Rubin's new company Essential started in the right place. But at first glance the Essential Phone looks more like another bleeding-edge Android phone than something completely new. 
  
 The founder of Android, Rubin created his own company, and that company's first product is a phone. In fact, it's called the "Phone." It runs Android, but it's also the key piece in a dream suite of smart home and modular devices that Essential plans to release over the next year and beyond. 
  
 Essential 
  
 It's expensive 
  
 At $699, the Essential Phone is a premium device. (UK and Australian details have yet to be announced -- it's US-only for now -- but that converts to about £550 or AU$940.) It's also got a crazy amount of screen, removing the bezel almost completely and even wrapping the 5.71-inch display around the front camera. 
  
 The specs sound competitive with other top-end phones on the market, including the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8. It has dual cameras, the popular and powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip and a titanium and ceramic-bodied design. 
  
 It has magnetic mods 
  
 Much like the Moto Z, a small magnetic connector on the back works with a future collection of add-on accessories. 
  
 The first is a 360 camera, which Essential claims is the smallest for a phone. It definitely looks smaller than the the Samsung Gear 360, but promises to shoot 3,840x1,920 pixels at 30 frames per second with two 12-megapixel f/1.8 lens 210-degree cameras and four microphones. 
  
 Essential 
  
 Unlike the Moto Z, the Essential's mods seem to attach nearly invisibly. The 360 camera snaps on next to the rear camera at the top of the device with two pins. Motorola uses a larger strip of exposed pins on the bottom of its modular phones. 
  
 There's also a contactless charging dock, which is sold separately. The phone comes with a 27-watt fast-charging USB-C adapter in-box. 
  
 It's made of titanium 
  
 Essential's sleek launch page promises that the phone's ceramic and titanium body will be extremely durable. The slab is minimalist and logo-free, and with its fingerprint sensor on the back it looks like the Google Pixel mixed with the Galaxy S8's all-screen look. 
  
 Yes, there's a dual camera (or a 360 one) 
  
 It's become standard to throw a dual camera onto high-end phones now. The Essential Phone promises to have the slimmest design, and a combination monochrome/RGB camera with an intense focus on low-light performance. 
  
 Essential 
  
 How is this different from other Android phones, really? 
  
 Rubin's other mission -- the larger one -- is for a connected, ambient operating system called Ambient OS that knits together home, phone and other things. This Ambient OS isn't clearly explained yet, but should be home-focused, and will live on the Essential Home smart speaker to connect smart devices using Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. 
  
 It's all a little unclear, however, whether Essential's phone is an essential part of that Ambient OS equation, and how. It's first and foremost a premium Android phone, but it could end up tapping into Ambient OS. We also don't know what other customized software is running on Essential's phone beyond Android. The cut-around-the-front camera display seems to be unique, and could be customized to fit certain notifications at the top. 
  
 Colors: four 
  
 The Phone comes in "black moon" and "pure white" for now, with "stellar gray" and "ocean depths" (a muted green) soon. 
  
 Notable downsides: No water resistance, no headphone jack 
  
 The Essential Phone PH-1 (the phone's official model name) uses USB-C but ditches the headphone jack, like the iPhone 7. No mention of any water resistance, however, means this phone may want to stay away from serious splashes. 
  
 Essential does throw a USB-C headphone adapter in the box, at least. 
  
 Cost and specs 
  
 The PH-1 costs $699 to preorder, or $749 (roughly £580 or $AU1,000) for the phone plus the 360 camera, which is normally a $200 add-on. It's only being sold online in the US for now. ||||| Andy Rubin wasn't ready to retire when he left Google in 2014. He certainly could have: After an illustrious career developing some of the most innovative products in tech, he had all the wealth and accolades anyone could want. As an engineer at the Apple spinoff General Magic, he built some of the world's first internet-connected portable devices. As CEO at Danger, he created the Sidekick, a smartphone that defined the category before anyone had invented the term. And then, of course, Rubin created Android, the operating system found in more than two billion phones, televisions, cars, and watches. 
  
 But Rubin wasn't done. More to the point, he couldn't be done. Ask around, and everyone says the same thing: Andy Rubin sees the future, and can't sit around waiting for it to arrive. He's spent the past few years watching Apple and Google and everyone else try to rule the world from walled gardens, and he considers that a dead end. Rubin has always believed that the open platform is the one that wins. 
  
 Most people complain that there's no innovation in smartphones. Andy Rubin disagrees. Vehemently. 
  
 And so he's back, as the CEO of Essential Products, his first company since Android. He wants to make Essential the first great gadget maker since Apple, one that builds and distributes the open platform that will power the billions of phones, watches, light bulbs, and toaster ovens about to come online. 
  
 That wasn't always the plan. Rubin likes telling a story from just after he left Google, where he spent a decade running Android and a few years leading its robotics projects. Over dinner and wine, he and his wife, Rie, discussed his next move. "How do I top Android?" Rubin asked. "What could I possibly do that would be bigger than that?" "Don't do one thing," Rie replied. "Do 10." And so Rubin launched Playground, a venture capital firm where a few dozen engineers and designers at Playground Studios help startups build stuff. 
  
 Rubin and his partners sought out a wide range of investments. "You meet a ton of people, thousands of people," he says. "Some really crazy ideas, some pretty good ideas, some teams that are great, some teams that are not that great." As he speaks, Rubin curls his lanky body into a comfortable chair at the head of a long table in the same room where he met many of those people. He fidgets as he talks and touches his stubbled face as he thinks. Now and then, he walks over to the whiteboard to diagram his points. "We thought that people weren't swinging for the fences and doing big-vision things in consumer products," he says. All of which is to say, there hasn't been an Apple since Apple, and Rubin figures it's time. 
  
 Essential launches publicly today with the announcement of two products expected later this summer: a $699 smartphone called Phone and a smart-home hub called Home that Rubin hopes will bring order to the endless standards, protocols, and systems wrought by the Internet of Things. To understand what Essential hopes to achieve in the long term, look at the hub. Rubin wants to build an open source, infinitely extensible platform, called Ambient OS, that powers all the smart stuff in your home. Android for everything. But even Rubin concedes that it will take a while. If you want to know how he plans on getting there, we need to talk about the Phone. 
  
 Carlos Chavarría for WIRED 
  
 Take a Bite 
  
 Most people look at smartphones and see one of the largest and most competitive markets in history, one with no room (or profits) for anyone but Apple or Samsung. And most people complain that there's no innovation. Rubin disagrees. Vehemently. He sees loads of innovation, but believes companies don't take advantage of it because they're simply too big. "When Apple finds some new technology, they're like, 'Great, can I have 50 million next quarter?' Manufacturers are like, 'No, you can't. We just invented it,'" he says. Meanwhile, companies design by committee—with too much input from supply chain experts and accountants—and everything moves slowly. 
  
 If Essential sells 50 million phones this quarter, Jason Keats, the company's head of product architecture, is totally screwed. Essential simply cannot produce that many phones. That's the point. "We've gone after technologies and methods of manufacturing that aren't designed to support 50 million devices," he says. He wants Essential to think like a high-end watchmaker, not a commodity gadget builder. (Granted, everyone says this, even the commodity gadget builders.) From the start, Essential's designers and engineers met with countless manufacturers in search of the most interesting technology and materials, especially stuff no one could produce at scale. "We're not for everybody," Keats says. "You know it's going to be a little exclusive." 
  
 Gadgets used to say something about their buyers, communicating fashion sense or nerd cred. Now that everyone has an iPhone or a Galaxy, neither say anything. 
  
 Everybody at Essential hates the idea that you, your grandma, and your accountant all carry the same phone. Gadgets once said something about the people who carried them. They communicated fashion sense or nerd cred. Now they're as personal as refrigerators. Rubin wants the Essential phone to clearly and emphatically state that the person carrying it isn't won over by marketing, isn't a fanboy, isn't driven by trends. +++inset-left 
  
 Jason Keats, Essential's head of hardware architecture and noted prototyping enthusiast. Carlos Chavarria for WIRED ||||| Andy Rubin, the inventor of Android, finally revealed his new smartphone today, called Essential. 
  
 Rubin teased a photo of the new smartphone on Twitter back in March; it will, unsurprisingly, run Android. 
  
 Rubin will say more about his new company and smartphone on Recode’s Code Conference stage where he will be interviewed by Walt Mossberg; you can watch live here. 
  
 Unlike Apple, which tends to be selective about what apps can run on the iPhone and only until recently started letting users delete unwanted apps that came pre-installed, Essential is touting itself as a company that values user choice and interoperability first. 
  
 “Devices are your personal property,” Rubin wrote in a blog post today announcing his new company. “We won’t force you to have anything on them you don’t want to have.” 
  
 He continues by hinting that Essential won’t have a product schedule premised on planned obsolescence that forces customers to update their device every year. Rather, he says, devices “should evolve with you.” 
  
 “We will always play well with others. Closed ecosystems are divisive and outdated,” writes Rubin. 
  
 The first smartphone from Essential features a screen that stretches to cover the full front of the phone. Even the camera lens is embedded in the screen. The phone comes with 128 gigabytes of storage and can take 13-megapixel pictures and 4K videos. 
  
 Looking at the new smartphone, you won’t know who made it. That’s because Rubin’s team decided not to put any logos on its titanium and ceramic exterior, materials Essential chose because they don’t blemish, “unlike the aluminum competitor devices,” the website reads. 
  
 The phone also doesn’t have a headphone jack, so, like the iPhone 7, users will be forced to either use a dongle or wireless headphones. 
  
 Essential isn’t just planning to be a smartphone maker. The company is also touting an Essential Home device. 
  
 The Essential Home has a screen, making it look a bit like the Echo Show from Amazon, and shares a name with the smart-home hub from Rubin’s former employer, Google. 
  
 But the feature that Rubin’s new company thinks will set its Home apart from the others is privacy. Essential Home is designed to run most of its functions locally on the device, in order to keep as much data as possible in the home. This is different from the way many smart-home devices work, where data collected from the home is stored on a distant server, as opposed to on the device itself. 
  
 The Essential Phone is available now for preorder for $699 and comes in four colors: Black Moon, Stellar Gray, Pure White and Ocean Depths. The Essential Home device is not yet available for preorder and no price is listed. 
  
 Watch: Andy Rubin and the Essential Phone ||||| The Essential Phone, brought to us by the person who created Android, is finally ready for the spotlight. It’s an incredibly audacious and ambitious project, with an outlandish screen and the beginnings of a modular ecosystem. 
  
 First, the Android phone basics: the Essential Phone costs $699 with top-of-the-line specs and features. As you can see above, it prominently features an edge-to-edge display that one-ups even the Samsung Galaxy S8 by bringing it all the way to the the top of the phone, wrapping around the front-facing selfie camera. 
  
 It’s a unique take on a big screen that makes the phone stand out — and it’s smart, too. Often, the status bar at the top of an Android phone doesn’t fill that middle space with icons, so it’s efficient. The screen does leave some bezel at the bottom of the phone, but nevertheless it’s as close to the whole front of a phone being display as I’ve seen. 
  
 Essential is launching the phone in the US to start, and it’s filled the phone with radios that should make it work on all major carriers, alongside usual Android flagship internals like a Qualcomm 835 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. And because Essential seems to be hanging its hat on the idea of shipping phones without extraneous junk (the designers don’t even put a logo on the exterior), chances seem good that there won’t be a ton of extraneous software laded on to slow the phone down. 
  
 Essential is clearly planning on releasing a very well-made phone: the screen looks promising, it has no annoying logos, and it is built with a combination of titanium and ceramic so it can survive a drop test “without blemish, unlike the aluminum competitor devices.” (Those would be Samsung and Apple, if you’re wondering.) 
  
 But nice hardware isn’t all that hard to come by on Android phones, so the company is aiming to build an ecosystem of accessories. It starts with a magnetic connector and wireless data transfer. Essential will ship a 360-degree camera that can click in to the top of the phone, and the company will also offer a charging dock. Both connect to the phone with small metal pogo pins. They won’t entirely replace USB-C for most people, but Essential is clearly hoping that they could someday. 
  
 Speaking of ports, there is no traditional 3.5mm headphone jack — which is a bummer. We’re told that it will ship with a headphone dongle in the box. It’s possible that other audio accessories could be made that could clip on to the magnetic accessory port. 
  
 The Essential Phone also has a good take on the dual-camera systems we’ve seen on other phones. Rather than use the second lens for telephoto or bokeh, it’s using it for a monochrome sensor, just like Huawei has been doing with the P9 and P10. That second sensor will be able to take in more light than a traditional color camera, meaning it can be combined with the regular 13-megapixel for better low-light shots. The front-facing camera is in line with current expectations, too: an 8-megapixel sensor that can also capture 4K video. 
  
 All that sounds great, but it ignores some key facts in the smartphone space: Apple and Samsung have it pretty locked up right now. The pessimist might say that although this phone looks incredible, it is also likely to break upon the shoals of the phone market, the same rocks that have cracked every Android phone that doesn’t have the Samsung logo emblazoned on it: carrier support, consumer interest, and lack of true differentiation. 
  
 But when it comes to cracking on the rocks, Andy Rubin claims that the Essential phone’s titanium and ceramic build is better able to withstand a drop test. Presumably, Essential’s grander ambitions are equally durable — it’s impossible to look at just this phone outside the context of Essential’s other announcements: the Essential Home speaker and its Ambient OS. 
  
 Even if those ambitions don’t bear out, the Essential Phone itself is exciting on its own. It’s a simple, straightforward Android device that respects the user: it’s powerful, clean, and not entirely beholden to the business whims of the giant companies that currently control the mobile and smart home markets. 
  
 If nothing else, it deserves our attention because it’s coming from Andy Rubin, who knows a thing or two about doing the right thing in the smartphone world. 
  
 Andy Rubin will be onstage tonight at the Code Conference. You can watch it live starting at 6PM PT / 9PM ET. |||||
– The man who created the Android operating system unveiled a brand new smartphone Tuesday to compete with Apple and Samsung, Business Insider reports. Andy Rubin's Essential Phone—Essential is his new company—will sell for $699 and only in the US to start. It has a massive screen that takes up nearly the entire front of the phone, wrapping around the selfie camera. It has a larger screen than the iPhone 7 Plus, 128GB of internal storage, and magnetic connectors to attach accessories. Here's what you need to know: Wired, which has more on Rubin's journey from Android to Essential, calls the Essential Phone (it has no branding) the "anti-iPhone." Rubin believes Apple no longer has the ability to create devices that seem brand new; Essential can take that mantle. But if that's the case, Vox would have to classify the Essential Phone a failure: "One of the smartphone industry’s greatest innovators set out to reinvent the smartphone and found that there just wasn’t that much room for improvement." Rubin promises to do a few things different with the Essential Phone than Apple does with the iPhone, namely staying away from "planned obsolescence" and not forcing customers to have stuff on their phone they don't want, Recode reports. Phone Arena compares the Essential Phone to its top competitors, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, the LG G6, and the Apple iPhone 7 Plus. The Essential Phone "looks incredible"—and it promises to be more durable than its competition because it's made of ceramic and titanium instead of aluminum—but there's little reason to believe it will have better luck than any other phone not made by Samsung or Apple, according to the Verge. CNET reports the Essential Phone also has a few drawbacks, such as its lack of headphone jack and water resistance.
Sammanfatta denna artikel: Med en Snapdragon 835, 4GB RAM, en 19:10 Quad HD-skärm, två 13MP kameror på baksidan, och en 3,040mAh batteri på däck, verkar det som om det har vad som krävs för att tackla på Galaxy S8+, LG G6, och den ärevördiga iPhone 7 Plus. Vilket urval! Låt oss se hur den djärva nykomlingen jämför med dessa i termer av specifikationer och rå hårdvara skicklighet! Specs Essential Samsung-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-S-Svart-Svart-Svart-Svart-S-S-Svart-S-S-Svart-S-Svart-S-Svart-Svart-Svart-S-S-Svart-T-S-S-S-Svar-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S ••• Essential Skaparen av Android har äntligen avslöjat den nya smartphone han har arbetat på. På tisdagen presenterade Andy Rubin den första smartphonen från Essential, hans nya företag, efter månader av retas. PH-1 är en Android-enhet som innehåller några intressanta funktioner och tydligt är avsedd att gå head-to-head med de bästa smartphones från Apple och Samsung. Det första du märker på foton av den high-end enheten är skärmen: Det tar upp nästan hela framsidan, går så nära kanten att det svänger runt selfie kameran. En annan anmärkningsvärd funktion: Det är modulärt. Den har magnetiska kontakter på baksidan av enheten som låter dig fästa tillbehör, inklusive en 360-graders kamera som kan beställas vid sidan av telefonen. På tal om beställning kostar det $749 att reservera den, olåst och med 128 GB intern lagring, tillsammans med 360-graderskameran. För bara telefonen kostar det 699 dollar. Men tyvärr för internationella kunder, det finns bara i USA, till att börja med. Essential Tillsammans med den 128 GB intern lagring, det innehåller 4 GB RAM och en Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. Dess hölje är titan och keramik, och det finns i fyra färger — Black Moon (glansig svart), Stellar Grey (matt mörkgrå), Pure White (glansig vit), och Ocean Djup (en glansig grön med brons sidor). Skärmen är en rejäl 5.7 inches — ännu större än 5,5-tums skärmen på iPhone 7 Plus — men den relativa avsaknaden av bezels på den innebär att den har ett mindre fotavtryck än du kan förvänta dig. Den bakre kameran är 13 megapixlar, medan den främre är 8 megapixlar. Båda filmar 4K-videon. Essential Allt som allt, detta är en premium enhet, och en intressant en på det, avsedda att gå efter de high-end kunder som vanligtvis köper liknande Samsung och Apple-enheter. (Den jämför sig till och med med med dem direkt när den visar hur dess titankropp tål ett fallprov.) Den stora frågan är om den kan hantera det. Som medgrundare av Android var Andy Rubin en av de viktigaste personerna i utvecklingen av moderna smartphones. Så när han presenterade sitt senaste projekt idag — ett nytt företag som heter Essential som kommer att sälja en high-end smartphone — teknikvärlden uppmärksammade. Essential Phone, en $699 enhet vars releasedatum ännu inte har tillkännaget, kommer att göras av titan, som Essential säger är mer hållbara än aluminium och plast kapslingar som är vanliga dagens smartphones. Skärmen täcker praktiskt taget hela telefonens framsida. Den har också en unik magnetisk kontakt för tillbehör, inklusive en liten 360-graders kamera som också erbjuds av Essential. Men totalt sett verkar Essential Phone anmärkningsvärt liknar enheter som redan finns på marknaden. Den kör en standardversion av operativsystemet Android Rubin skapat, och i de flesta avseenden ser det lite annorlunda ut än smartphones du kan köpa idag från Apple eller Samsung. Med andra ord, en av smartphone branschens största innovatörer som satt ut för att återuppfinna smartphone och fann att det bara inte fanns så mycket utrymme för förbättringar. Det är en helt annan situation än 2000-talet, som såg flera generationer av industri-förändrande smartphones. Innan Android skapade Rubin 1999 ett företag vid namn Danger som gjorde en smartphone kallad Sidekick. Det nådde aldrig en stor marknadsandel, men det älskade bland tekniker, och koncept pionjär av Fara senare hittat sin väg in Android. Ungefär samtidigt höll företagskunder på att bli vilda för den e-postfokuserade BlackBerry. Det blev så allmänt förekommande att president Barack Obama 2009 insisterade på att få en hårdnackad version av apparaten för användning som president. Microsoft, Nokia, Palm och Motorola hade också tidiga, innovativa smartphones. Sedan Apple presenterade iPhone 2007 och det omedelbart renderade dessa icke-multitouch telefoner föråldrade. Under det senaste årtiondet har smartphone-industrin till stor del varit en berättelse om andra företag som försöker komma ikapp Apple. Dagens smartphones är större, snabbare, och har högre upplösning skärmar än den ursprungliga iPhone, men de har behållit iPhone: s grundläggande design och användargränssnitt. I sin typiskt entusiastiska uppskrivning av Essential Phone, Wired gripes att smartphones har blivit “lika personliga som kylskåp.” Frasen var avsedd som ett klagomål om tillståndet för smartphone innovation. Men det är mer logiskt att se på situationen tvärtom: Kylskåp ser alla likadana ut eftersom kylskåpstillverkare fulländade den grundläggande designen av ett kylskåp för årtionden sedan. Kylskåpstillverkarna har provat alla möjliga kombinationer av funktioner och konfigurationer, och de har bestämt sig för de konstruktioner som gör det bästa för att möta konsumenternas behov. Det är inte att säga att kylskåp innovation är omöjligt, men det är inte förvånande att kylskåp inte förändras särskilt mycket från år till år. Bärbara datorer nådde samma punkt för mer än ett decennium sedan. Apple bärbara datorer från mitten av 2000-talet ser knappt annorlunda ut än dagens bärbara datorer. Förra årets introduktion av touch bar var den största förändringen vi har sett på flera år, och det är inte precis en revolution. Och nu smartphones, också, verkar ha nått en punkt där det finns lite utrymme för ytterligare framsteg. Om någon hade potential att i grunden ompröva smartphone, skulle det vara Rubin, med sin omfattande erfarenhet av innovation inom både hårdvara och programvara. Detta är inte att säga att Essential Phone inte kommer att lyckas. Det ser ut som en bra telefon som kan fånga på med kunder. Men det bästa scenariot för Essential Phone är att det blir en av de bättre säljande enheter i en redan fullsatt Android-telefonmarknaden. Väsentligt inte utgör ett allvarligt hot mot dominerande som Apple, Google och Samsung hur iPhone och Android hotade tidiga smartphones. Om framtiden för tekniken börjar med telefonen, då Andy Rubins nya företag Essential började på rätt ställe. Men vid första anblicken Essential Phone ser mer ut som en annan blödande kant Android-telefon än något helt nytt. Grundaren av Android, Rubin skapade sitt eget företag, och det företagets första produkt är en telefon. Det kallas faktiskt "Telefonen". Det kör Android, men det är också nyckelstycket i en drömsvit av smarta hem och modulära enheter som Essential planerar att släppa under det kommande året och därefter. Essential Det är dyrt På $ 699 är Essential Phone en premium enhet. (Storbritannien och Australien har ännu inte tillkännaget detaljer -- det är bara USA-för tillfället -- men som konverterar till cirka £550 eller AU$940.) Den har också en galen mängd skärm, ta bort bezel nästan helt och även slå in 5,71-tums displayen runt den främre kameran. Specifikationerna låter konkurrenskraftiga med andra topptelefoner på marknaden, inklusive LG G6 och Samsung Galaxy S8. Den har dubbla kameror, den populära och kraftfulla Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip och en titan och keramiska-fyllig design. Den har magnetiska modder Ungefär som Moto Z, en liten magnetisk kontakt på baksidan fungerar med en framtida samling av tillägg tillbehör. Den första är en 360-kamera, som Essential hävdar är den minsta för en telefon. Det ser definitivt mindre än Samsung Gear 360, men lovar att skjuta 3,840x1,920 pixlar på 30 bilder per sekund med två 12-megapixel f/1,8 objektiv 210-graders kameror och fyra mikrofoner. Essential Till skillnad från Moto Z, verkar Essential mods fästa nästan osynligt. 360-kameran snappar på bredvid den bakre kameran högst upp på enheten med två stift. Motorola använder en större remsa av exponerade stift på botten av sina modultelefoner. Det finns också en kontaktlös laddbrygga, som säljs separat. Telefonen levereras med en 27-watts snabbladdande USB-C-adapter in-box. Den är gjord av titan Essentials eleganta lanseringssida lovar att telefonens keramik- och titankropp kommer att vara extremt hållbar. Skivan är minimalistisk och logotypfri, och med sin fingeravtryckssensor på baksidan ser den ut som Google Pixel blandat med Galaxy S8:ans all-screen-look. Ja, det finns en dubbel kamera (eller en 360) Det har blivit standard att kasta en dubbel kamera på high-end telefoner nu. Essential Phone lovar att ha den smalaste designen, och en kombination av monokrom/RGB-kamera med ett intensivt fokus på prestanda med lågt ljus. Essential Hur skiljer sig detta från andra Android-telefoner, verkligen? Rubins andra uppdrag -- det större -- är för ett uppkopplat, omgivande operativsystem kallat Ambient OS som stickar ihop hem, telefon och annat. Detta Ambient OS är inte tydligt förklarat ännu, men bör vara hemfokuserad, och kommer att leva på Essential Home smart högtalare för att ansluta smarta enheter med Siri, Alexa och Google Assistant. Det är dock lite oklart om Essentials telefon är en väsentlig del av den där Omgivande OS-ekvationen, och hur. Det är först och främst en premium Android-telefon, men det kan sluta med att du använder Ambient OS. Vi vet inte heller vilka andra anpassade program som körs på Essentials telefon bortom Android. Den cut-around-the-front kameradisplay verkar vara unik, och kan anpassas för att passa vissa meddelanden i toppen. Färger: fyra The Phone kommer i "svart måne" och "ren vit" för tillfället, med "stellar grå" och "ocean djup" (en dämpad grön) snart. Noterbara nackdelar: Inget vattenmotstånd, inget hörlursuttag Essential Phone PH-1 (telefonens officiella modellnamn) använder USB-C men dikar hörlursuttaget, som iPhone 7. Inget omnämnande av något vattenmotstånd betyder dock att den här telefonen kanske vill hålla sig borta från allvarliga stänk. Essential kastar åtminstone en USB-C-hörlursadapter i lådan. Kostnad och specifikationer PH-1 kostar $699 att förbeställa, eller $749 (ungefär £580 eller $AU1,000) för telefonen plus 360 kameran, som normalt är en $200 tillägg. Den säljs bara online i USA för tillfället. Andy Rubin var inte redo att gå i pension när han lämnade Google 2014. Han kunde säkert ha: Efter en lysande karriär som utvecklade några av de mest innovativa produkterna inom teknik, han hade alla rikedomar och utmärkelser någon kunde önska. Som ingenjör vid Apple spinoff General Magic byggde han några av världens första internetanslutna bärbara enheter. Som VD på Danger skapade han Sidekick, en smartphone som definierade kategorin innan någon hade uppfunnit termen. Och sedan, naturligtvis, skapade Rubin Android, operativsystemet som finns i mer än två miljarder telefoner, TV-apparater, bilar och klockor. Men Rubin var inte klar. Och till saken, han kunde inte göras. Fråga runt, och alla säger samma sak: Andy Rubin ser framtiden, och kan inte sitta och vänta på att den ska komma. Han har tillbringat de senaste åren med att titta på Apple och Google och alla andra försöker styra världen från muromgärdade trädgårdar, och han anser att en återvändsgränd. Rubin har alltid trott att den öppna plattformen är den som vinner. De flesta klagar på att det inte finns någon innovation i smartphones. Andy Rubin håller inte med. Vördsamt. Så han är tillbaka, som VD för Essential Products, hans första företag sedan Android. Han vill göra Essential den första stora gadget maker sedan Apple, en som bygger och distribuerar den öppna plattformen som kommer att driva miljarder telefoner, klockor, glödlampor och brödrostugnar på väg att komma online. Det var inte alltid planen. Rubin gillar att berätta en historia från strax efter att han lämnat Google, där han tillbringade ett decennium med att köra Android och några år leda dess robotikprojekt. Över middag och vin diskuterade han och hans fru, Rie, sitt nästa drag. "Hur toppar jag Android?" Rubin frågade. "Vad skulle jag kunna göra som skulle vara större än så?" »Gör inte en enda sak», svarade Rie. "Gör 10." Rubin lanserade Playground, ett riskkapitalföretag där några dussin ingenjörer och designers på Playground Studios hjälper startups att bygga saker. Rubin och hans kompanjoner sökte sig till en lång rad investeringar. "Man träffar massor av människor, tusentals människor", säger han. "Några riktigt galna idéer, några ganska bra idéer, några lag som är bra, några lag som inte är så bra." Medan han talar, lockar Rubin sin slappa kropp in i en bekväm stol vid huvudet på ett långt bord i samma rum där han träffade många av dessa människor. Han fvidar när han pratar och rör vid sitt stubbiga ansikte som han tror. Då och då går han över till tavlan för att rita sina punkter. "Vi trodde inte att folk svängde för stängslet och gjorde storvisionsgrejer i konsumentprodukter", säger han. Allt som är att säga, det har inte funnits ett Apple sedan Apple, och Rubin siffror det är dags. Viktiga lanserar offentligt idag med tillkännagivandet av två produkter som förväntas senare i sommar: en $ 699 smartphone som heter Telefon och ett smart-hem nav som heter Home som Rubin hoppas kommer att ge ordning till oändliga standarder, protokoll och system som skapats av Internet of Things. För att förstå vad Essential hoppas uppnå på lång sikt, titta på navet. Rubin vill bygga en öppen källkod, oändligt extensibel plattform, kallad Ambient OS, som driver alla smarta saker i ditt hem. Android för allt. Men även Rubin medger att det kommer att ta ett tag. Om du vill veta hur han tänker ta sig dit, måste vi prata om telefonen. Carlos Chavarría för WIRED Ta en bit De flesta människor tittar på smartphones och se en av de största och mest konkurrenskraftiga marknaderna i historien, en utan plats (eller vinster) för någon annan än Apple eller Samsung. Och de flesta klagar på att det inte finns någon innovation. Rubin håller inte med. Vördsamt. Han ser massor av innovation, men tror att företag inte utnyttjar det eftersom de helt enkelt är för stora. "När Apple hittar ny teknik, säger de: "Kan jag få 50 miljoner nästa kvartal?" Tillverkare säger: "Nej, det kan du inte. Vi uppfann det bara, säger han. Samtidigt designar företag av kommitté – med för mycket input från experter och revisorer i leveranskedjan – och allt går långsamt. Om Essential säljer 50 miljoner telefoner det här kvartalet är Jason Keats, företagets chef för produktarkitektur, helt körd. Det väsentliga kan helt enkelt inte producera så många telefoner. Det är det som är poängen. "Vi har satsat på tekniker och tillverkningsmetoder som inte är utformade för att stödja 50 miljoner enheter", säger han. Han vill att Essential ska tänka som en high-end urmakare, inte en varupryl byggare. (Gjorda, säger alla detta, även vara pryl byggare.) Från början träffade Essentials designers och ingenjörer otaliga tillverkare på jakt efter den mest intressanta tekniken och materialen, särskilt saker som ingen kunde producera i skala. "Vi är inte för alla", säger Keats. "Du vet att det blir lite exklusivt." Gadgets brukade säga något om sina köpare, kommunicera mode känsla eller nörd cred. Nu när alla har en iPhone eller en Galaxy, säger de inget. Alla på Essential hatar tanken att du, din mormor och din revisor alla har samma telefon. Gadgets sa en gång något om de människor som bar dem. De kommunicerade modesinne eller nördtrots. Nu är de lika personliga som kylskåp. Rubin vill att Essential-telefonen tydligt och bestämt ska säga att den person som bär den inte vinns över av marknadsföring, inte är en fanboy, inte drivs av trender. +++inset-left Jason Keats, Essentials chef för hårdvaruarkitektur och uppmärksammad prototypentusiast. Carlos Chavarria för WIRED ́ ́ Andy Rubin, uppfinnaren av Android, äntligen avslöjade sin nya smartphone idag, kallas Essential. Rubin retade ett foto av den nya smartphonen på Twitter tillbaka i mars; det kommer, föga förvånande, köra Android. Rubin kommer att säga mer om sitt nya företag och smartphone på Recode Code Conference scenen där han kommer att intervjuas av Walt Mossberg; du kan titta på live här. Till skillnad från Apple, som tenderar att vara selektiv om vad appar kan köras på iPhone och först tills nyligen började låta användare ta bort oönskade appar som kom förinstallerade, Essential är touting sig själv som ett företag som värderar användarens val och driftskompatibilitet först. “Enheter är din personliga egendom,” Rubin skrev i ett blogginlägg idag tillkännage sitt nya företag. “Vi kommer inte att tvinga dig att ha något på dem du inte vill ha.” Han fortsätter med att antyda att Essential inte kommer att ha en produkt schema premisser på planerad föråldring som tvingar kunderna att uppdatera sin enhet varje år. Snarare, säger han, enheter “bör utvecklas med dig.” “Vi kommer alltid att spela bra med andra. Slutna ekosystem är splittrande och föråldrade, skriver Rubin. Den första smartphonen från Essential har en skärm som sträcker sig för att täcka telefonens hela framsida. Även kameraobjektivet är inbäddat i skärmen. Telefonen levereras med 128 gigabyte lagringsutrymme och kan ta 13-megapixel bilder och 4K-videor. När du tittar på den nya smartphonen vet du inte vem som gjorde det. Det beror på att Rubin team beslutat att inte sätta några logotyper på sin titan och keramiska exteriör, material Essential valde eftersom de inte blemmor, "till skillnad från aluminium konkurrent enheter," webbplatsen läser. Telefonen har inte heller ett hörlursuttag, så, som iPhone 7, användare kommer att tvingas antingen använda en dongle eller trådlösa hörlurar. Viktigt är inte bara planerar att vara en smartphone maker. Företaget tippar också en Essential Home-enhet. Essential Home har en skärm, vilket gör att det ser lite ut som Echo Show från Amazon, och delar ett namn med smart-home nav från Rubins tidigare arbetsgivare, Google. Men den funktion som Rubins nya företag tror kommer att sätta sitt hem bortsett från de andra är integritet. Essential Home är utformad för att köra de flesta av sina funktioner lokalt på enheten, för att hålla så mycket data som möjligt i hemmet. Detta skiljer sig från hur många smart-home-enheter fungerar, där data som samlas in från hemmet lagras på en avlägsen server, i motsats till på själva enheten. Essential Phone finns nu för förbeställning för $699 och finns i fyra färger: Black Moon, Stellar Gray, Pure White och Ocean Djup. Essential Home enheten är ännu inte tillgänglig för förbeställning och inget pris anges. Titta: Andy Rubin och Essential Phone <unk> The Essential Phone, som förs till oss av personen som skapade Android, är äntligen redo för rampljuset. Det är ett otroligt djärvt och ambitiöst projekt, med en outlandish skärm och början av ett modulärt ekosystem. Först Android-telefon grundläggande: Essential Phone kostar $ 699 med top-of-the-line specifikationer och funktioner. Som du kan se ovan, har det framträdande en kant-till-kant display som en-upp även Samsung Galaxy S8 genom att föra det hela vägen till toppen av telefonen, linda runt fronten-vänd selfie kamera. Det är en unik ta på en stor skärm som gör telefonen sticker ut — och det är smart, också. Ofta, status bar på toppen av en Android-telefon inte fylla att mitten utrymme med ikoner, så det är effektivt. Skärmen lämnar lite bezel längst ner i telefonen, men ändå är det så nära hela framsidan av en telefon som visas som jag har sett. Väsentligt är att lansera telefonen i USA för att starta, och det är fylld telefonen med radioapparater som bör göra det fungerar på alla stora bärare, tillsammans med vanliga Android flaggskepp internar som en Qualcomm 835 processor, 4GB RAM, och 128GB lagring. Och eftersom Essential verkar hänga sin hatt på idén om frakttelefoner utan främmande skräp (formgivarna inte ens sätta en logotyp på utsidan), verkar chansen bra att det inte kommer att finnas ett ton av främmande programvara lastas på för att sakta ner telefonen. Essential är tydligt planerar att släppa en mycket välgjord telefon: skärmen ser lovande, den har inga irriterande logotyper, och det är byggt med en kombination av titan och keramik så att den kan överleva ett dropptest “utan blemmor, till skillnad från aluminium konkurrent enheter.” (Dessa skulle vara Samsung och Apple, om du undrar.) Men fin hårdvara är inte så svårt att komma förbi på Android-telefoner, så företaget siktar på att bygga ett ekosystem av tillbehör. Det börjar med en magnetisk kontakt och trådlös dataöverföring. Essential kommer att skicka en 360-graders kamera som kan klicka in till toppen av telefonen, och företaget kommer också att erbjuda en laddningsbrygga. Båda ansluter till telefonen med små metallpogostift. De kommer inte helt ersätta USB-C för de flesta människor, men Essential är tydligt hoppas att de skulle kunna en dag. På tal om hamnar, det finns ingen traditionell 3,5 mm hörlursjacka — vilket är en skam. Vi får veta att den kommer att skickas med en hörlur dongle i lådan. Det är möjligt att andra ljudtillbehör kan göras som kan klippa på den magnetiska tillbehör port. Essential Phone har också en bra syn på de dubbla kamerasystem vi har sett på andra telefoner. I stället för att använda den andra linsen för telefoto eller bokeh, det är att använda den för en enfärgad sensor, precis som Huawei har gjort med P9 och P10. Den andra sensorn kommer att kunna ta in mer ljus än en traditionell färgkamera, vilket innebär att den kan kombineras med den vanliga 13-megapixel för bättre lågljusbilder. Den främre kameran är också i linje med aktuella förväntningar: en 8-megapixelsensor som också kan fånga 4K-video. Allt som låter bra, men det ignorerar några viktiga fakta i smartphone utrymme: Apple och Samsung har det ganska låst just nu. Pessimisten kan säga att även om denna telefon ser otrolig, är det också troligt att bryta på stim av telefonmarknaden, samma stenar som har knäckt varje Android-telefon som inte har Samsung logotyp emblazoned på det: bärare stöd, konsumentintresse, och brist på sann differentiering. Men när det gäller att knäcka på klipporna, Andy Rubin hävdar att Essential telefonens titan och keramik bygga är bättre i stånd att tåla en droppe test. Förmodligen är Essentials större ambitioner lika hållbara – det är omöjligt att titta på just denna telefon utanför ramen för Essentials andra tillkännagivanden: Essential Home speaker och dess Ambient OS. Även om dessa ambitioner inte håller, är själva Essential Phone spännande på egen hand. Det är en enkel, okomplicerad Android-enhet som respekterar användaren: det är kraftfull, ren, och inte helt förfallen till affärsinfall av de stora företag som för närvarande kontrollerar de mobila och smarta hemmarknaderna. Om inget annat, det förtjänar vår uppmärksamhet eftersom det kommer från Andy Rubin, som vet en sak eller två om att göra det rätta i smartphone världen. Andy Rubin kommer att vara på scenen ikväll på kodkonferensen. Du kan se det live från och med 6:00 PT / 9:00 ET. Â°°
Summarize this article: With a Snapdragon 835, 4GB RAM, a 19:10 Quad HD screen, two 13MP cameras on the back, and a 3.040mAh battery on the deck, it seems that it has what it takes to tackle on the Galaxy S8+, LG G6, and the venerable iPhone 7 Plus. What a selection! Let's see how the bold newcomer compares to these in terms of specifications and raw hardware skill! S.E.c.s. Essential Samsung-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S The Essential Creator of Android has finally revealed the new smartphone he has been working on. On Tuesday, Andy Rubin presented the first smartphone from Essential, his new company, after months of tease. PH-1 is an Android device that includes some interesting features and is clearly designed to go head-to-head with the best smartphones from Apple and Samsung. The first thing you notice on photos of the high-end device is the screen: It takes up almost the entire front, goes so close to the edge that it swings around the selfie camera. Another notable feature: It is modular. It has magnetic connectors on the back of the device that allow you to attach accessories, including a 360-degree camera that can be ordered alongside your phone. Speaking of ordering, it costs $749 to reserve it, unlocked and with 128 GB of internal storage, along with the 360 degree camera. For the phone alone, it costs $699. But unfortunately for international customers, it only exists in the United States, for starters. Essential Along with the 128 GB internal storage, it contains 4 GB RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. Its casing is titanium and ceramic, and it is available in four colors — Black Moon (glossy black), Stellar Grey (matt dark grey), Pure White (glossy white), and Ocean Depth (a glossy green with the sides of the bronze). The screen is a hefty 5.7 inches — even larger than 5.5-inch screen on the iPhone 7 Plus — but the relative lack of bezels on it means it has a smaller footprint than you can expect. The rear camera is 13 megapixels, while the front is 8 megapixels. Both film the 4K video. Essential All in all, this is a premium device, and an interesting one on it, intended to go after the high-end customers who typically buy similar Samsung and Apple devices. (It even compares itself to them directly when it shows how its titanium body can withstand a fall test.) The big question is, can it handle it? As a co-founder of Android, Andy Rubin was one of the most important people in the development of modern smartphones. So when he unveiled his latest project today — a new company called Essential that will sell a high-end smartphone — the technology world noted. Essential Phone, a $699 device whose release date has not yet announced, will be made of titanium, which Essential says is more durable than aluminum and plastic enclosures that are common today's smartphones. The screen covers practically the entire front of the phone. It also has a unique magnetic connector for accessories, including a small 360-degree camera also offered by Essential. But overall, Essential Phone seems remarkably similar to units already on the market. It runs a standard version of the Android Rubin operating system created, and in most respects it looks a little different than smartphones you can buy today from Apple or Samsung. In other words, one of the smartphone industry's biggest innovators set out to reinvent smartphone and found that there was just not much room for improvement. It is a completely different situation from the 21st century, which saw several generations of industrial-changing smartphones. Before Android, Rubin created a company named Danger that made a smartphone called Sidekick in 1999. It never reached a large market share, but it loved among technicians, and concept pioneer of Danger later found its way into Android. Around the same time, corporate customers were going wild for the email-focused BlackBerry. It became so widespread that in 2009 President Obama insisted on getting a hard-necked version of the device for use as president. Microsoft, Nokia, Palm and Motorola also had early, innovative smartphones. Since Apple presented the iPhone in 2007 and it immediately rendered these non-multitouch phones obsolete. Over the past decade, the smartphone industry has largely been a story of other companies trying to catch up with Apple. Today's smartphones are larger, faster, and have higher resolution screens than the original iPhone, but they have retained the iPhone's basic design and user interface. In its typically enthusiastic write-up of Essential Phone, Wired is arrested that smartphones have become “as personal as refrigerators.” The phrase was intended as a complaint about the state of smartphone innovation. But it makes more sense to look at the situation the other way around: refrigerators all look the same because refrigerator manufacturers perfected the basic design of a refrigerator decades ago. The refrigerator manufacturers have tried all possible combinations of functions and configurations, and they have decided on the designs that do the best to meet consumers' needs. It is not to say that refrigerator innovation is impossible, but it is not surprising that refrigerators do not change very much from year to year. Laptops reached the same point more than a decade ago. Apple laptops from the mid-2000s look barely different from today's laptops. Last year's introduction of the touch bar was the biggest change we've seen in years, and it's not exactly a revolution. And now smartphones, too, seem to have reached a point where there is little room for further progress. If anyone had the potential to fundamentally reconsider smartphone, it would be Rubin, with his extensive experience of innovation in both hardware and software. This is not to say that Essential Phone will not succeed. It looks like a good phone that can catch on with customers. But the best scenario for Essential Phone is that it becomes one of the better selling devices in an already crowded Android phone market. Essentially, does not pose a serious threat to incumbents like Apple, Google, and Samsung how iPhone and Android threatened early smartphones. If the future of technology starts with the phone, then Andy Rubin's new company Essential started in the right place. But at first glance Essential Phone looks more like another bleeding edge Android phone than anything completely new. The founder of Android, Rubin created his own company, and that company's first product is a phone. Actually, it's called "the phone." It runs Android, but it is also the key piece in a dream suite of smart homes and modular devices that Essential plans to release in the coming year and beyond. Essential It's expensive At $699 Essential Phone is a premium device. (UK and Australia have not yet announced details -- it's just the United States -- but converting to about £550 or AU$940.) It also has a crazy amount of screen, removing bezel almost completely and also wrapping the 5.71-inch display around the front camera. The specifications sound competitive with other top phones on the market, including LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8. It features dual cameras, the popular and powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip and a titanium and ceramic-bodied design. It has magnetic mods Much like Moto Z, a small magnetic contact on the back works with a future collection of add-ons accessories. The first is a 360 camera, which Essential claims is the smallest for a phone. It definitely sees less than Samsung Gear 360, but promises to shoot 3.840x1.920 pixels at 30 frames per second with two 12-megapixel f/1.8 lenses 210-degree cameras and four microphones. Essential Unlike Moto Z, Essential mods appear to attach almost invisible. The 360 camera snaps on next to the rear camera at the top of the device with two pins. Motorola uses a larger strip of exposed pins on the bottom of its modular phones. There is also a contactless charging dock, which is sold separately. The phone comes with a 27-watt fast charging USB-C adapter in-box. It is made of titanium Essential's elegant launch page promises that the phone's ceramic and titanium body will be extremely durable. The disc is minimalist and logo-free, and with its fingerprint sensor on the back it looks like Google Pixel mixed with the Galaxy S8's all-screen look. Yes, there is a double camera (or a 360) It has become standard to throw a double camera on high-end phones now. Essential Phone promises to have the narrowest design, and a combination of monochrome/RGB camera with an intense focus on performance with low light. Essential How does this differ from other Android phones, really? Rubin's other mission -- the bigger -- is for a connected, surrounding operating system called Ambient OS that knits together home, phone and other things. This Ambient OS is not clearly explained yet, but should be home-focused, and will live on Essential Home smart speakers to connect smart devices with Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. However, it's a little unclear whether Essential's phone is an essential part of that Surrounding Olympic equation, and how. It is first and foremost a premium Android phone, but you may end up using Ambient OS. We also don't know which other custom programs run on Essential's phone beyond Android. The cut-around-the-front camera display appears to be unique, and can be customized to fit some messages at the top. Colors: four The Phone come in "black moon" and "clean white" at the moment, with "stellar grey" and "ocean depth" (an subdued green) soon. Notable drawbacks: No water resistance, no headphone socket Essential Phone PH-1 (the official model name of the phone) uses USB-C but ditches the headphone socket, like iPhone 7. However, no mention of any water resistance means that this phone may want to stay away from serious splashes. Essential throws at least one USB-C headphone adapter into the box. Cost and specifications PH-1 costs $699 to pre-order, or $749 (approximately £580 or $AU1,000) for the phone plus 360 camera, which is normally a $200 supplement. It is only sold online in the United States at the moment. Andy Rubin was not ready to retire when he left Google in 2014. He could certainly have: After a brilliant career that developed some of the most innovative products in technology, he had all the riches and awards anyone could wish for. As an engineer at Apple spinoff General Magic, he built some of the world's first internet-connected portable devices. As CEO of Danger, he created Sidekick, a smartphone that defined the category before anyone had invented the term. And then, of course, Rubin created Android, the operating system available in more than two billion phones, TVs, cars and watches. But Rubin wasn't done. And to the point, he couldn't be done. Ask around, and everyone says the same thing: Andy Rubin sees the future, and can't sit and wait for it to come. He has spent the past few years watching Apple and Google and everyone else trying to control the world from walled gardens, and he believes that a dead end. Rubin has always believed that the open platform is the winner. Most complain that there is no innovation in smartphones. Andy Rubin disagrees. Venerable. So he's back, as CEO of Essential Products, his first company since Android. He wants to make Essential the first major gadget maker since Apple, one that builds and distributes the open platform that will power billions of phones, watches, light bulbs and toaster ovens about to come online. That wasn't always the plan. Rubin likes to tell a story from soon after he left Google, where he spent a decade running Android and a few years leading its robotics projects. Over dinner and wine, he and his wife, Rie, discussed their next move. "How do I top Android?" Rubin asked. "What could I do that would be bigger than that?" "Don't do a single thing," Rie replied. "Make 10." Rubin launched Playground, a venture capital company where a few dozen engineers and designers at Playground Studios help startups build things. Rubin and his partners sought a wide range of investments. "You meet lots of people, thousands of people," he says. "Some really crazy ideas, some pretty good ideas, some teams that are good, some teams that aren't that good." While speaking, Rubin lures his lax body into a comfortable chair at the head of a long table in the same room where he met many of these people. He farts when he talks and touches his stumpy face as he thinks. From time to time, he goes over to the painting to draw his points. "We didn't think people were swinging for the fence and doing big-vision stuff in consumer products," he says. All that is to say, there hasn't been an Apple since Apple, and Rubin numbers it's time. Important launches publicly today with the announcement of two products expected later this summer: a $699 smartphone called Phone and a smart-home hub called Home that Rubin hopes will bring order to endless standards, protocols and systems created by the Internet of Things. To understand what Essential hopes to achieve in the long term, look at the hub. Rubin wants to build an open source, infinitely extensible platform, called Ambient OS, that drives all the smart things in your home. Android for everything. But even Rubin admits that it will take a while. If you want to know how he's gonna get there, we need to talk about the phone. Carlos Chavarría for WIRED Take a bite Most people look at smartphones and see one of the largest and most competitive markets in history, one without place (or profits) for anyone other than Apple or Samsung. And most complain that there is no innovation. Rubin disagrees. Venerable. He sees lots of innovation, but thinks companies don't take advantage of it because they're simply too big. "When Apple finds new technology, they say, "Can I get 50 million next quarter?" Manufacturers say, "No, you can't. We just invented it, he says. At the same time, companies design committees – with too much input from experts and auditors in the supply chain – and everything is slow. If Essential sells 50 million phones this quarter, Jason Keats, the company's head of product architecture, is completely screwed. The essentials simply cannot produce so many phones. That's the point. "We have invested in technologies and manufacturing methods that are not designed to support 50 million units," he says. He wants Essential to think like a high-end watchmaker, not a merchandise builder. (Making, everyone says this, even being a gadget builder.) Initially, Essentials designers and engineers met countless manufacturers in search of the most interesting technology and materials, especially things that no one could produce on a scale. "We're not for everyone," Keats says. "You know it'll be a little exclusive." Gadgets used to say something about their buyers, communicating fashion feeling or nerd cred. Now that everyone has an iPhone or a Galaxy, they don't say anything. Everyone at Essential hates the idea that you, your grandmother and your accountant all have the same phone. Gadgets once said something about the people who wore them. They communicated fashion mind or nerd despite. Now they're as personal as refrigerators. Rubin wants the Essential phone clearly and firmly to say that the person who wears it is not won over by marketing, is not a fanboy, is not driven by trends. ++inset-left Jason Keats, Essential's head of hardware architecture and noted prototype enthusiast. Carlos Chavarria for WIRED Andy Rubin, the inventor of Android, finally revealed his new smartphone today, called Essential. Rubin teased a photo of the new smartphone on Twitter back in March; it will, unsurprisingly, run Android. Rubin will say more about his new company and smartphone on the Recode Code Conference scene where he will be interviewed by Walt Mossberg; you can watch live here. Unlike Apple, which tends to be selective about what apps can run on the iPhone and only recently began to allow users to remove unwanted apps that came pre-installed, Essential is touting itself as a company that values user choice and interoperability first. “Unity is your personal property,” Rubin wrote in a blog post today announcing his new company. “We won’t force you to have anything on those you don’t want.” He goes on to suggest that Essential won’t have a product schedule premises on planned obsolescence that forces customers to update their device every year. Rather, he says, devices “should evolve with you.” “We will always play well with others. Closed ecosystems are divisive and obsolete," writes Rubin. The first smartphone from Essential has a screen that extends to cover the entire front of the phone. The camera lens is also embedded in the screen. The phone comes with 128 gigabytes of storage space and can take 13-megapixel images and 4K videos. When you look at the new smartphone, you don't know who did it. This is because Rubin teams decided not to put any logos on their titanium and ceramic exterior, material Essential chose because they did not blemishes, "unlike aluminum competitor devices," the website reads. The phone also does not have a headphone socket, so, like iPhone 7, users will be forced to either use a dongle or wireless headphones. Important is not just planning to be a smartphone maker. The company also dumps an Essential Home device. Essential Home has a screen, making it look a bit like Echo Show from Amazon, and shares a name with smart-home hubs from Rubin's former employer, Google. But the function that Rubin's new company believes will put its home aside from the others is integrity. Essential Home is designed to run most of its functions locally on the device, to keep as much data as possible in the home. This differs from how many smart-home devices work, where data collected from home is stored on a remote server, as opposed to on the device itself. Essential Phone is now available for pre-order for $699 and is available in four colors: Black Moon, Stellar Gray, Pure White and Ocean Depth. Essential Home device is not yet available for pre-order and no price is stated. Look: Andy Rubin and Essential Phone <unk> The Essential Phone, brought to us by the person who created Android, is finally ready for the spotlight. It is an incredibly bold and ambitious project, with an outlandish screen and the beginning of a modular ecosystem. First Android phone basic: Essential Phone costs $699 with top-of-the-line specifications and features. As you can see above, it features an edge-to-edge display as a one-up even Samsung Galaxy S8 by bringing it all the way to the top of the phone, wrap around the front-turned selfie camera. It's a unique touch on a large screen that makes the phone stand out — and that's smart, too. Often, the status bar on top of an Android phone does not fill that center space with icons, so it is effective. The screen leaves a little bezel at the bottom of the phone, yet it is as close to the entire front of a phone that appears as I have seen. Essentially, launching the phone in the United States to boot, and it is filled the phone with radios that should do it works on all major carriers, along with regular Android flagship internals such as a Qualcomm 835 processor, 4GB RAM, and 128GB storage. And since Essential seems to hang its hat on the idea of freight phones without foreign debris (the designers don't even put a logo on the outside), chances seem good that there won't be a ton of foreign software loaded on to slow down the phone. Essential is clearly planning to release a very well made phone: the screen looks promising, it has no annoying logos, and it is built with a combination of titanium and ceramics so it can survive a drop test “without blemishes, unlike aluminum competitor devices.” (These would be Samsung and Apple, if you are wondering.) But fine hardware is not so hard to get past on Android phones, so the company aims to build an ecosystem of accessories. It starts with a magnetic contact and wireless data transmission. Essential will send a 360-degree camera that can click in to the top of the phone, and the company will also offer a charging bridge. Both connect to the phone with small metal pogo pins. They will not completely replace USB-C for most people, but Essential is clearly hoping that they could someday. Speaking of ports, there is no traditional 3.5 mm headphone jacket — which is a shame. We're told it's going to be sent with a headphone dongle in the box. It is possible that other audio accessories can be made that can cut on the magnetic accessory port. Essential Phone also has a good view of the double camera systems we have seen on other phones. Instead of using the second lens for telephoto or bokeh, it is to use it for a monochrome sensor, just as Huawei has done with P9 and P10. The second sensor will be able to bring in more light than a traditional color camera, which means it can be combined with the usual 13-megapixel for better low light images. The front camera is also in line with current expectations: an 8-megapixel sensor that can also capture 4K video. Anything that sounds good, but it ignores some important facts in smartphone space: Apple and Samsung have it pretty locked right now. The pessimist may say that although this phone looks incredible, it is also likely to break at the shoals of the phone market, the same stones that have cracked every Android phone that does not have Samsung logo emblazoned on it: carrier support, consumer interest, and lack of true differentiation. But when it comes to cracking the rocks, Andy Rubin claims that Essential phone titanium and ceramics build are better able to withstand a drop of test. Probably Essential's greater ambitions are equally durable – it is impossible to look at this particular phone outside the framework of Essential's second announcements: Essential Home speaker and its Ambient Olympics. Although these ambitions do not hold, Essential Phone itself is exciting on its own. It is a simple, straightforward Android device that respects the user: it is powerful, clean, and not completely derelict to the business whims of the large companies currently controlling the mobile and smart home markets. If nothing else, it deserves our attention because it comes from Andy Rubin, who knows one thing or two about doing the right thing in the smartphone world. Andy Rubin will be on stage tonight at the code conference. You can watch it live as of 6:00 PT / 9:00 ET. <unk>
– Mannen som skapade operativsystemet Android presenterade en helt ny smartphone tisdag för att konkurrera med Apple och Samsung, Business Insider rapporter. Andy Rubins Essential Phone – Essential är hans nya företag – kommer att sälja för $699 och bara i USA för att starta. Den har en massiv skärm som tar upp nästan hela framsidan av telefonen, linda runt selfiekameran. Den har en större skärm än iPhone 7 Plus, 128GB av intern lagring, och magnetiska kontakter för att fästa tillbehör. Här är vad du behöver veta: Wired, som har mer på Rubins resa från Android till Essential, kallar Essential Phone (den har inget varumärke) "anti-iPhone." Rubin tror att Apple inte längre har förmågan att skapa enheter som verkar helt nya; Essential kan ta den manteln. Men om så är fallet, Vox skulle behöva klassificera Essential Phone ett misslyckande: "En av smartphone branschens största innovatörer som ut att återuppfinna smartphone och fann att det bara inte fanns så mycket utrymme för förbättringar." Rubin lovar att göra några saker annorlunda med Essential Phone än Apple gör med iPhone, nämligen att hålla sig borta från "planerad föråldring" och inte tvinga kunder att ha saker på sin telefon de inte vill ha, Omkoda rapporter. Phone Arena jämför Essential Phone med sina främsta konkurrenter, Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, LG G6, och Apple iPhone 7 Plus. Essential Phone "ser otroligt" – och den lovar att vara mer hållbar än sin konkurrens eftersom den är gjord av keramik och titan i stället för aluminium – men det finns inte mycket anledning att tro att den kommer att ha bättre tur än någon annan telefon som inte tillverkas av Samsung eller Apple, enligt Verge. CNET rapporterar att Essential Phone också har några nackdelar, såsom dess brist på hörlursuttag och vattenmotstånd.
“The man who created the Android operating system presented a brand new smartphone Tuesday to compete with Apple and Samsung, Business Insider reports. Andy Rubins Essential Phone – Essential is his new company – will sell for $699 and only in the United States to start. It has a massive screen that picks up almost the entire front of the phone, wrapping around the selfie camera. It has a larger screen than iPhone 7 Plus, 128GB of internal storage, and magnetic connectors to attach accessories. Here's what you need to know: Wired, who has more on Rubin's journey from Android to Essential, calls Essential Phone (it has no brand) "anti-iPhone." Rubin believes Apple no longer has the ability to create devices that seem brand new; Essential can take that cloak. But if so, Vox would have to classify Essential Phone a failure: "One of the smartphone industry's biggest innovators who out to reinvent smartphone and found that there just wasn't so much room for improvement." Rubin promises to do some things differently with Essential Phone than Apple does with iPhone, namely to stay away from "planned obsolescence" and not force customers to have things on their phone they don't want, Recode reports. Phone Arena compares Essential Phone with its main competitors, Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, LG G6, and Apple iPhone 7 Plus. Essential Phone "looks incredible" – and it promises to be more durable than its competition because it is made of ceramics and titanium instead of aluminum – but there is little reason to believe that it will be better luck than any other phone not manufactured by Samsung or Apple, according to Verge. CNET reports that Essential Phone also has some drawbacks, such as its lack of headphone sockets and water resistance.