Look out, flagships of the world.
Andy Rubin, Android’s co-founder, has finally unleashed his premium Essential Phone out into the wild. The Essential Phone is the first handset from Essential Products and sports flagship specifications that rival recent smartphone titans like the Nokia 8, HTC U11, and the earlier-launched flagships out there.
Featuring a large, edge-to-edge display with a glass and titanium frame, the Essential Phone is guaranteed for 2 years worth of major updates, according to the company’s blog post. The phone will also get monthly security upgrades for 3 years.
Essential PH-1
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor
- Qualcomm Adreno 540 graphics unit
- 4GB of RAM
- 5.71-inch QHD LTPS display, 2560 x 1312 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 5
- 128GB of non-expandable storage, UFS 2.1
- 13-megapixel primary rear camera, f/1.9 aperture, RGB sensor
- 13-megapixel secondary rear camera, monochrome sensor, with laser AF, PDAF
- 8-megapixel front camera, f/2.2 aperture, fixed focus lens
- Single SIM, with 4G LTE, LTE-A
- WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC
- Fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C port, quad stereo speakers, magnetic mods support
- 3040mAh battery, fast charging
- Android 7.1.1 Nougat
- Price: $699 (~Php ~36K)
The PH-1 has mod support via its magnetic pin slots on the back. So far, a 360-degree camera addon is the only module available for the handset, but more mods are slated for release in 2018.
The Essential Phone is currently priced at $699 (~Php 35K) in the US, with no carrier restrictions. The phone can be bundled with the 360-degree camera mod for an additional $50 (~Php 2.5K).
Source: GizmoChina, Essential Products