If you're looking for a reason to ditch the iPhone, the founder of Android just gave you one. Andy Rubin, who developed Android, unveiled a new phone from his company, Essential [1]. So far, the phone looks promising, but whether or not it'll become more popular than other devices is unclear.
The smartphone, simply called "Essential PH-1," includes several features:
- The 5.71-inch screen display is huge and wraps around the front-facing camera.
- It's built out of titanium, which Essential promises that "unlike aluminum, which is what most phones are made of, titanium doesn't scratch, dent, or bend."
- A 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The rear-facing camera includes two lenses, one of which is a monochrome sensor.
- It has 128 GB of storage, a fingerprint reader, and no headphone jack.
- You can magnetically connect accessories to the phone's back, like a 360-degree camera.
- It will come in four colors: Black Moon, Stellar Grey, Pure White, and Ocean Depths.
- It costs $699 unlocked and is available for preorder. You can buy a bundle that comes with the 360 camera for $749.
The company's various principles — like believing "devices are your personal property" and that "technology should assist you so that you can get on with enjoying your life" — definitely make the phone appear promising. However, it's not water-resistant and it has no headphone jack, so that makes it way less appealing and seemingly not so different from other Android devices. Plus, the continued rumors around the iPhone 8 [3] might not make anyone take the leap to get this phone (at least not yet).