The Essential Phone is official:

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1. Exclusive: this is the Essential Phone: The Verge

2. The Essential Phone has just broken cover. It's the first phone by the namesake company, conceived by Andy Rubin... : Phone Arena

2. The Father of Android Is Back, and He’s Built the Anti-iPhone: Wired




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This is one of the most anticipated phones to watch for this year. Now my biggest question is how does videos work on this screen? I want to see how YouTube and Netflix (as well as certain video "hub" sites) look on the screen before I make a reservation. If the movie only stretch to the border of the camera cutout, then sure; but if it goes all the way to the edge with a cutout on the video, I would say no thanks to this phone. I really hope it doesn't stretch past the cutout to the edge, cause that would make it so ugly and annoying. This phone is supposed to be designed to be simple and get out of your way, says Rubin. So if that cutout totally gets in the way of enjoying a video, that would just be beyond stupid.

Other question is whether the phone will be updated quickly.

I wonder how well it'll go over consumers that Rubin is forbidding phone cases on the Essential. A third party would be able to make them, but that'll block the magnet connectors for the attachments.

Another personal inquiry: will this support TMo wifi calling?
 
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I like the band support, small bezels, and 360 degree camera. The "Ocean Depths" color is beautiful too! The lack of 3.5mm jack kills it for me though.
 
I'll pass thank you. A 3,040 mAh battery on a (2560 x 1312) 5.7 inch screen doesn't cut it for me.
My next phone has to pack a meaningful sized battery.
 
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I'm going to be watching this very carefully. It seems like what I want on the surface.
They don't make any mention of waterproofing anywhere, which isn't a deal breaker, but something I'd like.
They're also very vague about the OS. Is it vanilla Android or at least something really close (a la Moto)? Or is this going be another device forever waiting on updates or rocking an annoying launcher?

EDIT: Looks like it's running straight-up Android, but it isn't waterproof. Will be very curious to see what the next Pixel brings to the table: https://www.wired.com/2017/05/essential-andy-rubin/
 
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I think they are calling it Ambient OS. So perhaps it's not straight up Android but rather something close. It also has its own voice command program.
 
You should probably add the original source link to the list of articles. The Verge had the exclusive after all.

Thanks Chang, has been edited to list The Verge first.
 
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It's another one of the "Triad of Failure" devices nowadays, at least for me and many other people:

- no expandable storage
- no removable battery
- no headphone jack

Sorry, Andy, I'm gonna have to pass but, good luck with that thing. ;)
 
Y'all should just give up on wanting removable batteries but rather that the Goodenough battery come to the market ASAP.
 
Definitely looks like a nice phone, IMO. But not good enough to justify its price still despite its flagship specs. Esp. when you consider it doesn't seem like it's going to be available through carriers (therefore no financing), it doesn't have water resistance, stereo speakers, headphone jack,wireless charging, and will have an unknown level of software and hardware support since it's a new company. I mean, I personally don't care about most of that stuff, but if you're going to sell a phone at the same price as your competitors who do, then I think it should have it. Hopefully they realize this and will price it more aggressively before or soon after launch.

The modular aspect seems kinda cool, but not as good as Moto's implementation, which the next Moto Z2 phones are near the top of my list for replacing my 6P this year after seeing how awesome my wife's Z Play has been.
 
Big Android nerd, Nexus fan here, and sadly I see this phone as DOA.

- No carrier support, not sold in stores = super low sales, just a niche product for ultra nerds only, less than 5% of the smartphone public will even know this phone exists.
- $700 price points LIMITS larger audience ( why not get the OnePlus 3T for $400, or the OnePlus 5 with same or better specs for still cheaper than $700 )
- No IP68, No wireless charging. Today in 2017 those are standard flagship features, not gimmicks.
- It runs a stock Android OS, ok is it truly stock as in Pixel type stock, with updates at the same time Google launches a new OS update ? Or close to stock AOSP style, that still requires weeks or months wait for updates ? If it's AOSP style, I'd just as soon get the Pixel XL 2 in September, which will get the best and fastest updates and cost the same.
- 3,040mAh battery in a 5.7" screen LOL, I stopped caring right there. To have great battery life, Android phones with the SD835 need a 3,500mAh MINIMUM to be outstanding. Whereas 3,000mAh batteries, get good battery life, not bad and, not great, but just ok. This thing should have like 3,600mAh battery to really wow us.
- LCD screen not OLED display. In 2017 the flagships use OLED, like the S8 line, iPhone 8, and Pixel XL 2, and OnePlus 5.

An honest question, not being a smart guy, But for $700 what does this Essential bring to the table, over something like the Pixel XL 2 for a similar price point ? ( yeah I know the P2 is still a few months out, but not too far off ) Or compared to the OnePlus 5 with the same SD835 + 4GB RAM, but with a larger 4,000mAH battery, and rumored to cost around $500, why get this Essential phone for $700 over the $500 OnePlus 5 ?


I still think the best bang for the buck phone out for 2017 is the LG G6, selling for like $499 now, and soon with Root and official CM14.1 ( Lineage ROM ), it's the phone to beat for the price. The G6 running official Cyanogen ROM for $499, I'm all over that. Plus it's IP68 waterproof, and has wireless charging, and is also very one handed friendly for a 5.7" device. And yes root is coming next month for the G6, as is official stable builds of Lineage OS 14.1
 
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Very informative tonight watching Andy Rubin talk about the phone with Walt Mossberg at Recode. A lot of the concerns in this thread were covered.

1. The modular piece is far superior to the way Moto does it. The modular piece can include things like HiFi DACs with headphone jacks, or expandable storage, or an expandable battery. If I remember correctly Rubin said it's a wireless USB standard. The code for that RF piece for the modular devices will be completely open source so anybody can create a device. Modular devices should all be relatively cheap because most of the needed hardware is already in the phone. The 360 camera is a perfect example. It only has to be a sensor because power and OS and everything else runs from the phone already.

2. They are in talks with carriers to see if they can get it into stores. Big problem is Rubin wants it bloat free. He doesn't exactly have the clout to force that issue like Apple did all those years ago.

3. Appears to be pretty much pure AOSP.

4. There is no framework changes for the camera in the center. It was a design decision and the notification bar truly does go behind. This may bother some but I look at it is if you have that many icons in your notification shade you have bigger problems. ;)

5. Videos don't run into the FFC. The aspect ratio of the screen takes care of that.

6. Rubin touched on updates briefly. There was talk about fragmentation with Android and Rubin basically said they have an idea for that and it's something backend but he couldn't say anymore. Time will tell.

7. It isn't wireless charging with anything like Qi because they're charging through the part where the modular piece goes. So again open source so 3rd party manufacturers can create the charging docks.

8. The back being ceramic was a design decision. Being ceramic means RF can go through it. The titanium ring is one solid piece that doesn't have the occasional "band-aid" looking thing like all other phones have.

Overall after watching the interview my interest has been piqued especially if Rubin can get into carrier stores. I can easily see myself getting one if I can simply walk into T-Mobile.
 
Ok, watched the Recode event and came to these conclusions:

- I get what Rubin is attempting to do, I just think it's too late "in the game" meaning with smartphones to do something new that's going to make a difference of any kind, especially at the $699 price point

- I like the idea of using NFC 3.0 with the 60 GHz band frequencies for short range high bandwidth (10 Gbps) wireless connectivity for the modular aspects, that's a great use of that technology instead of just another way to make a payment

- the center notched front facing cam though, I'm not digging that at all - if they had a found a way to put it under the LCD panel itself and also a way to say keep it hidden behind the LCD when the LCD is functional and then unhide it only at the times when the front facing camera is actually in use would have been cool as hell but, I suppose the "hundreds of millions of dollars" in investment venture capital couldn't make that happen

- the lack of a headphone jack is a massive deal breaker for many people, myself included, and I don't care how much bandwidth a wireless headset can offer me, that just means more parts and more batteries that need to be charged more often and so on so, if they do get a headphone jack mod that means the phone powers the headphone jack mod which means the phone will need to be charged more to accommodate that functionality, the piece could be lost/misplaced like any other such add-ons and mods, and as Mossberg snapped back "I have to pay for a headphone jack? It was free before, now I have to pay for it..." which is on-point as far as I'm concerned

- didn't really care much for whatever the home thing is since I have no use for such things, would never own an Alexa, or Google Home, or Apple Siri-based what-the-fuck ever but I guess some people do and want such things, I'm just not one of 'em

- I don't think Rubin or his company will have any sway over carriers at all, and it's safe to presume that we'll see carrier bloat on the phone (since he neglects to give it an actual name, he just calls it "phone" which is pretty lackluster and I expected better from him this time around) - carriers simply aren't going to get into any kind of device position without them stamping their names on it for such a small start-up regardless of who started it or how much backing it has

Mossberg needs to retire, really, his mannerisms during interviews is pretty grating on the ears at least to me but I've been putting up with him for decades now, hope he just moves on at some point and becomes irrelevant which he already is to me and has been for some time.

As for Rubin, I wish him well in his efforts but I don't think based on what he was able to present (which really wasn't all that much at all 'cause Mossberg, Mossberg, Mossberg) that Essential is going to be around for any extended period of time, maybe Playground will with other ventures but I'm not too hopeful for Essential. This just doesn't strike me as a groundbreaking product which it needs to be, especially at the $700 price point. The 360 degree camera thing is neat, and for $50 I suppose people will want it (not a fan of VR stuff myself), but overall I am simply not impressed with anything I've seen, read, or now heard today about this company or this out-of-the-gate first product.
 
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"Bezel-less" with a significant bezel on the bottom, just like the years-old Sharp AQUOS Crystal? Don't call it bezel-less when that's clearly not the case.

Also, that center cam cutting into the top of the screen looks downright UGLY, and I thought rounded edges and corners like we're seeing all over the place this year looked bad enough as is.

No headphone jack? If you're gonna pull that off, at least provide dual USB-C ports for simultaneous charging and listening with an adapter in one of those ports, or get outta here.

No microSD and a sealed battery for $700 also sealed this phone's fate; I'm not buying. If I was willing to deal with that crap, I'd go OnePlus (now that I'm no longer on Sprint and that's an option) and save a few hundred bucks. If you're gonna charge $700+, I better start seeing something that makes me want it over the yearly Galaxy Note, and that's not happening so long as no competitor bears the Note's most notable feature. "No Wacom, no sale," as I like to say.

NFC 3.0 is cool, though, kinda like IrDA beaming at LUDICROUS SPEED!, and I find NFC file transfers between phones surprisingly sluggish as it is at the moment. Perhaps it's because they're trying to do it over Bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi Direct for all I know.
 
We are a long ways from seeing final version. Best case scenario is we get cutting edge hardware with clean, efficient Android (like on Pixel). Pixel seems to be selling well, so perhaps this will also. On the other hand lots of competition there and probably there won't be a massive ad budget.
 
We are a long ways from seeing final version.

Seeing a final version of what? This isn't DBZ (final forms and whatnot), man, come on, the Essential "phone" will be shipping within a month or so - I'm not sure there will be an Essential "phone" v2 at this point and I don't really see this thing selling in mass quantities like Rubin and his cohorts are really hoping.
 
Well if you're going the nuts and bolts route sure, it's quite visible in that Recode video when Rubin show's off the handset(s) he's brought with him that they are even labeled as engineering samples aka prototypes so yeah, there could be some changes in the software at this point in the game but as he - meaning Rubin - stated rather emphatically he would not have put up the pre-orders page if they weren't going to be shipping within about 30 days. He had to be pressed to say that and it was almost missed but he did say it, then Mossberg followed up and said it too and Rubin didn't dismiss it or try to pull it back at that point. Even so, I doubt they could be doing any major hardware changes from this point, it would have to be all software alterations of various kinds from now on unless they discover a showstopper on the hardware side that just can't be resolved soon enough.
 
Well, no, not exactly. The two pogo pin holes on the back of the "phone" are what hold it in place and provide the power (there are more than likely some magnets surrounding them but they appear to be either gold plated or potentially made of brass) and mate with whatever device you're attaching but the actual connectivity with the phone's operating system is done wirelessly using - and I'm going by what Rubin said in the Recode interview - NFC 3.0 which operates at a max speed of 10 Gbps and in the 60 GHz frequency range or what's also referred to as wireless USB. The phone provides the power to the mod, so I don't suspect we'll be seeing any mods that are like big extended batteries but I don't know the full details of the entire mod subsystem yet.

It could actually be combination of those technologies but it's pretty obvious that the pogo pins are for power only and not data connectivity of any kind so, again as Rubin pointed out in the interview, that frees them from being limited to some kind of proprietary pin-out or connectors like the Moto Mods do and obviously can be designed in different form factors that will work - as I'm about to describe - with other devices from Essential.

The benefit of that is that anybody - once the spec is out there because Rubin also pointed out that info and the design specs and other aspects would be open source - will be able to create mods that can be used with the "phone" but also he mentioned that the home device(s) that Essential will be introducing would make use of the same mods so that's a big plus for interchangeability overall. So if you have that 360 degree camera you can use it with the phone or perhaps when you're not at home you could attach it to their home device (if you had it) and provide yourself with a 360 degree view of your living room or whatever from wherever you happen to be, like a simple home security setup. For $50 that's a pretty damned good thing I'd say.

There are some cool aspects to what Essential has planned, and that's a good thing overall but I just don't think it's enough to get it going with this phone, they could prove me wrong but I suppose it depends on what happens. Hopefully at some point in the coming weeks Rubin will at least hint at how the pre-orders are going - I doubt they'll say a word at all if it's not meeting what their expectations are so again let's hope things go well.
 
What do you think of this?

Left vs Right

Which one would you pick?

camera-cutouts.jpg
 
With people doing video conferencing and selfies, the front-facing cameras are here to stay. The thing about this one is that it just looks odd poking into your desktop. It just looks odd to me. Even having a larger bezel might be preferable just from an aesthetic point of view. That's one of the only things I truly don't like about the phone.

For those people complaining about a non-replaceable battery - which newer phones DO allow that? That seems to be something that has gone the way of the buffalo. Not saying I like it, but it doesn't seem like that's going to come back.
 
What do you think of this?

Left vs Right

Which one would you pick?

Neither of them, but it has actually has nothing to do with the camera aspects of either, I just think both devices suck ass all around. :D
 
Seeing a final version of what? This isn't DBZ (final forms and whatnot), man, come on, the Essential "phone" will be shipping within a month or so - I'm not sure there will be an Essential "phone" v2 at this point and I don't really see this thing selling in mass quantities like Rubin and his cohorts are really hoping.
Right, we do not know how the camera will perform. I am optimistic on durability but want to see evidence on that. And regarding software whether we get a Nexus/Pixel experience or something more like OnePlus. After that, we do not know if software updates will be timely or not. Then there is the issue of hardware reliability on a new company. We will get impressions with first reviews and also longer term reviews. Perhaps by year end we will know if the device will be a contender or just a pretender.
 
People hating on a lack of microSD when the Phone comes with 128GB...
People hating on a lack of removable batteries when no other flagship device has a removable battery...

People hating on that camera cutout and that bottom bezel... well, this is actually legit!
 
The Essential Phone was designed to flop
http://www.phonearena.com/news/The-Essential-Phone-was-designed-to-flop_id94630

After reading this article again, this phone does come across strange, and just a weird sort of meh, nothing of a release. I see this phone being a major dud, on par with the Amazon Fire Phone disaster of a release, well maybe not that bad LOL.

None of the main tech geek YouTube stars had a real hands on with the phone yet. The big Android sites like Android Police and Android Central, also didn't have real world hands on reviews or used it yet. It was just sort of released, with a statement, and that's it. No big event, no auditorium showing. Or at least not even a small room conference with the tech review star there to look it over and hype it online. Nothing. Just seems very strange.

I have been a smartphone fan for years now, and I think I have a good pulse of what's hot, what will or will not sell, or be a hit or a dud. And this Essential Phone, just gives off vibes of a dud and non seller. Yeah it has the typical 2017 flagship specs, but that's a given, all 2017 Android phones have very similar specs, the Galaxy S8, the HTC U11, the OnePlus 5, the Pixel 2, etc...at the end of the day they all share very similar hardware specs, and screen resolution, and high end builds. So what's so big about this Essential Phone then ? Ok the Titanium tough build quality is cool. The thin almost non exiting bezels is cool. Stock like Android OS is cool. But I don't know, it's not ground breaking, or has some super duper fancy cool new feature I am lusting for. It seems like a nice enough phone, but does not have me drooling.

If you like stock Android and want fast updates, the Pixel line has that going better for it. High end build quality and super cool features, the Galaxy S8+ has you covered. You want a great off contract phone, but still flagship specs at a bargain price, get the OnePlus 3T for $439, or the soon to be released OnePlus 5. So where does this Essential Phone come in then ?
 
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People hating on a lack of microSD when the Phone comes with 128GB...
People hating on a lack of removable batteries when no other flagship device has a removable battery...

People hating on that camera cutout and that bottom bezel... well, this is actually legit!
Just because every phone manufacturer seems to have taken up removing useful features on their flagships doesn't mean it's a good thing. It just means that sometimes, we get stupid trends forced on us that we have to find workarounds for.

Yeah, there's 128 GB of internal NAND and I like that, but microSD's pretty handy for things like multiple Nandroid backups and photo/video storage that can be easily retrieved if anything goes wrong with the phone itself. I suppose there's USB host functionality for that, but it's a bit kludgy and often blocks off the one port you need to CHARGE with, hence my suggestion for dual USB-C ports.

Lithium batteries still die after a few years, and then you get to put up with having to disassemble your phone (sometimes needing a heat gun to loosen the adhesive on glass backs, and heat kills batteries!) and install a new replacement yourself. Then there's the few occasions where actually having a spare battery for my Galaxy Note 4 paid off, no need to awkwardly tether an external battery to the phone for a while.

Also, now that I think about the ugly camera cutout some more, the Sharp AQUOS Crystal got around that by simply moving the front camera to the bottom bezel. It's hardly practical down there, but kept the clean design... on the other hand, modern smartphones are becoming too much like fashion products where function follows form, and function should NEVER follow form.
 
So you're attacking it's battery replacibility score when it doesn't exist yet...

this phone is also supposed to be design for you to root and do nandroid backups, instead of some nice cloud backup mechanism that doesn't requIre root.

Why not just built your own handheld laptop with Linux and PBX software?
 
It's a disposable device, plain and simple, like most everything that's being produced nowadays. Manufacturers can't make money and survive over time if you just buy one product from them over time and not much else so, yeah, disposable, forced obsolescence from the gitgo in a nice shiny package once again.

We don't know anything about the potential for customization on this device yet - the assumption is that because it's Rubin and because of his history with Android and Google products that owners will probably be able to unlock the bootloader (which will more than likely void the warranty immediately) and then install custom recoveries and ROMs and whatever else such freedom entails but we don't know any of the particulars at this time. Would be nice to see a device that supports such experimentation out of the box, and perhaps even the potential for not voiding the warranty with a bootloader unlock but until we know absolutely for sure it's all just speculation once more.
 
So *do* any flagship phones from the last 2 years allow you to replace the battery? I'm still curious about that because I always read people complaining about it as though there are new phones that have that feature.
 
LG V20 is pretty much the only one left that's currently still available, and it could very well be the last LG flagship of any kind with a removable battery - some of the rumored leaks (with no confirmation) are showing renders of what could be the V30 coming in a few months and it has some ridiculous slider style design like a BlackBerry Priv (which itself is a great device actually) but with such a design LG would probably not be able to get a removable cell in there.

Can't speak about other companies but once LG stops making devices with removable batteries it's going to be a problem for me, and I'm positive that I won't be alone in that respect. I suppose I and many others will then have to resort to using extended battery cases of various kinds which I don't actually have any problem with to be honest.

I don't give a fuck about if a phone is pretty or sleek or any of that, I really don't, because if it's dead in my hand then it's about as useful as having a Renoir worth $100 million on my wall - in other words, useless and just something to look at. :D
 
I wonder how much y'all are willing to pay for a phone with removable batteries if the phone is not waterproof and has big bezels. Would you kickstart one right now?
 
Phones are water-resistant, not water-proof, just for the record. :D

If someone created a Kickstarter project for a device that matched my wants and needs, I'd donate to it, absolutely, but that's not going to happen unfortunately. Maybe someday in the future we'll be able to literally 3D print entire devices on spec in a matter of minutes, but I'm sure that'll be long after I've shuffled off this mortal coil as the saying goes. I know what my ideal device would be, I already own it: the LG G4. Yes I know it suffers from a manufacturing defect that could render it dead at any moment but that's ok, I can buy another one, and then another if needed, and then another and so on. The difference with the Kickstarter version of a G4 might be nothing at all in terms of a difference, I wish the G4 had a Snapdragon 820 in it, wish it had a 1920x1080 IPS LCD panel in it (because QHD is a waste of power for no good reason), but aside from those two aspects this is the perfect smartphone for me and I have no complaints about it at all and there's nothing on the market today or coming in the near future that's been announced that I'd rather have - except maybe for a G4 that would never ever bootloop, of course.

And yes, I have a G4 that offers an unlockable bootloader so I can muck around with custom recoveries/kernels/ROMs and rooting and all of that but I still run it pure stock (the T-Mobile variant, latest update from about 2 weeks ago with the April 2017 security patches so it's pretty much good to go). I've run Lineage OS on it and it was ok I suppose, had some issues with Bluetooth but that's what happens with custom ROMs: something is always broken, always (except on OnePlus devices it seems but that's because they publish the spec of the hardware top to bottom) and I require a device that actually works so, again, for me function is like 95% of the form vs function situation: the 5% relegated to form isn't all that important to me as long as the device does what I require it to do.

Bezels are irrelevant to me, big, small, it doesn't matter, I don't spend my time staring at the damned bezels, I spend my time staring at the display like most folks. Anyone that focuses on the bezels and the form of most modern smartphones is, IMO, doing it fucking wrong. Sure smartphones can be really interesting in terms of industrial design nowadays but honestly, as I've mentioned before, a pretty shiny object that doesn't do anything or do what I require it to do other than be pretty and shiny is useless to me personally.

I get why some folks love an edge to edge display, more power to 'em I suppose, I just don't find it appealing or useful and more of a gimmick to boost the retail price than anything else.

But the removable battery situation, I can actually live with a device that doesn't have a removable or replaceable battery, I've owned many of them over the years and they just require me to plug in more often than I'd like and in some instances find myself with a dead device because I couldn't. Yes nowadays there are external batteries that so many people own and I myself have a 5000 mAh external pack that I take with me but I also carry a 1.2A charger and a 24 gauge microUSB cable too for times when I can plug in if needed. I've also got 3 stock batteries for my G4 as well as 5000 mAh internal TQTHL battery too just in case. Can never be too careful, you know. :)

I won't budge on a microSD slot, however, that's a deal breaker. Sure I've owned some devices that didn't have them (Droid Turbo, the LG G2 sadly but that one was a paradigm shift in smartphone design so it got a pass on the expandable storage issue for me) but I didn't own them for long (except the G2 of course, that one is special even today) but if I can I avoid devices without the microSD slot, it's a personal preference more than anything else. If I have a shitload of internal storage and a lot of data of various kinds on it and the phone gets destroyed well, you can see the issue with that but there's always a chance that a microSD card might survive some pretty severe damage and have data that can be retrieved from it after such an event.

Anyway, the Efficient phone looks to be a loss-leader device so they can judge interest so we'll see what happens. I don't suspect they'll consider it a success when it's available but that too remains to be seen, I'm betting we won't see another smartphone from Efficient, however.
 
I'm not an Android user, but I think they got a lot right with this phone.

Great design.
Plenty of internal storage.
Nice Size.
Nice Cameras.
Made from Titanium/ceramic, which seems excessive but may be a phone that can truly be caseless for those that aren't frequent droppers (perhaps with a tempered glass screen protector).
Resolution seems nice for the size. Not excessive with 4k, and should use less battery. LCD screens can also have excellent quality. The iPhone 7 dominates most tests (contrast, color space, brightness, just not resolution of course) and it's still not OLED/AMOLED.

Battery and efficiency comes down to "good enough" in my mind. I'm not sure how efficient the battery vs OS vs processors will be/are. But, my iPhone 6S Plus has "only" a 2915 mAH battery, and I have yet to kill this thing. I don't charge it at night (to help keep the battery in shape). And I let it cycle. I charge it when I'm at my desk or in my car, and thats it. Hasn't been 100% for a long long time (as I intentionally do not charge it up to 100%). 3040 would be enough on iOS, not sure if this phone is just a battery hog, if Android has that big a problem with batter management, if you guys just stare at your phones and play games all day trying to kill batteries, or are just complaining because no size would be enough.

The face looks fine to me. The cutout for the camera doesn't really bother me at all. Not sure why everyone is flipping about that. If anything, I think having the 'chin' on the bottom is more annoying. I'd rather have that cut off than change the camera. Have the face be all screen, and just allow the notch to be a visual cue on phone orientation (in addition to side buttons of course).

Headphone jack is probably the only real annoyance. But it's almost assured that on day one manufacturers will have a headphone/usb splitter.

===

So the real question is the build quality and fluidity of OS and usage. It won't have carrier bloat. It should be way more optimized than anything coming out of Samsung (whose phones I would never buy if I switched to Android). And if this phone is more available than the Pixel 1/2, then I think it has a chance as a contender for people who want a hyper-fast phone, that is built well, and is basically running stock. Granted OnePlus phones cost less, but they're aren't going to be built like this. The Pixel and this costs what it does because it's just built better.

2 cents.
 
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When they can't even photoshop the first 'edgeless' phone in pic 2 (it still has edges and is off centre ffs you marketing wankers) it does not lead me much confidence. A simple oversight but something that makes me wary. I mean this is the first time you show that to the world and you fuck the photoshopping up?! Really?

I'm more interested in the dual screen e-ink phones e.g. Yotaphone and Highsense. E-ink - Now that is a useful gimmick, as long as I can get at the battery. That said it also means if the battery runs out, I can still see information on the screen. The amount of times I've been close to a location or needing a note on the phone and it has run dry... fggggggghhhrrrrrrggg!


It would be interesting to see an 'edgeless' ahem smaller edged design like this, which made the camera/ir sensor/CIAperve module/front facing bs a 'nub' on the top of the phone (protected with additional material around it).

Problem solved, no weird screen size and full use edge to edge.
 
Sprint is the exclusive carrier. Phone is DOA. Makes me sad. I am actually very intrigued by this phone.
 
Sprint is the exclusive carrier. Phone is DOA. Makes me sad. I am actually very intrigued by this phone.

Wow. So it won't even work with other carriers or do you just have to purchase the phone via Sprint?
 
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