Essential Phone Will Ship Next Week, Shortly After Breaking $1 Billion Valuation (9to5google.com)

New submitter cloud.pt writes: Andy Rubin's Essential Phone will be released next week according to 9to5Google, just shy from its initial June mark. The company has been speculated to be worth around $1.2 billion, after giant Foxconn filed yesterday for a 0.25% acquisition at around $3 million -- clearing unicorn status as it hasn't shipped a single unit at the time. According to Engadget, future and existing pre-orders will have a chance to switch to the Pure White version of the slab, despite initial shipments being scheduled to be of the Black Moon variety. Essential's storefront orders will get the device unlocked, while the only parties offering the device will initially be Sprint. Rumor has it Amazon plans to sell the device as it invested in the company through its Alexa fund. No matter the contract attached, it will come with the full range of network capabilities unlocked.

Comments

I just don't care anymore

[Hadlock]

Halo phones were good enough in 2013 with the advent of the Nexus 4, I don't see a whole lot of improvements over this compared to the Nexus 5. The Nexus 5 was so good that the Nexus 5x was a bit of a downgrade, and now my Pixel... well i still don't like it as much as the Nexus 5.
 
Maybe I'm getting too old, but the only reason I buy a new halo phone is because my old halo phone died a horrible death or was stolen.
 
Who are they marketing to? Is it the 20-something group? There's no brand on this, and the brand, if it were branded is so small nobody will have heard of it to be impressed. Or you can buy an existing Halo Phone like a samsung or an apple and get a great phone.... I have yet to see a phone released in a couple of years that won't do everything from snapchat to games to netflix. The Moto G4 I had while I was waiting for my Pixel to arrive (after the 5X did the bootloop thing over Christmas) feels just as fast as the Pixel, and it's less slippery to hold.
 
Other than the quality of the camera, I just don't see the point of buying a halo phone anymore. It's just not worth it. It's like, what brand socks do you wear? Do you care? Are your feet warm and dry, or not? It's hard to tell from minute to minute exactly how warm your feet are under normal circumstances. Will it text, call, facebook and netflix? Ok, great. I don't care who makes it or what it's made out of as long as the battery will last until morning for my alarm to go off.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[kamapuaa]

People use their phones hours a day. If they hold on to them for a couple years, which is normal, they come out to maybe $1/day.

So why not? It's a minor expense, and while cheap phones may be decent, there is a quality difference. Even if they're really not much better, why cheap out on something you use all the time and isn't that expensive in the first place?

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Hadlock]

Unless you're in the Northeast, $600 will buy you a ticket to anywhere in central america, anywhere in the northern half of south america, and most of southeast asia. If you're on the east coast, you can sometimes fly to Spain for that.
 
If there's a 2% noticeable difference between the $150 phone, and the $650 phone, is that $500 difference going to be worth the opportunity cost of traveling somewhere new and interesting for a weekend? Or getting that cavity filled? Sending your kids to summer camp for two weeks? Maybe you're 23 with a college degree, no responsibilities and unlimited disposable income, but that's a boat payment for me. I have hobbies and uses for $500. A phone is a phone, and the quality difference is almost impossible to tell the difference; my pixel next to my moto G4 requires knowledge of which one has a textured power button. Don't let marketing delude you.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[kamapuaa]

23 year olds don't come to Slashdot. It's all old white men with established careers, and $1/day really isn't much to me. I make that much in about a minute.

That said, of course for a hypothetically small quality difference, even $1/day is too much money. I don't think the difference is that small yet - if I'm taking pictures of my kids, I want something that looks good, not just OK.

If you're one of those old men who just wants to make phone calls, sure just get whatever's cheapest.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[zippthorne]

...if I'm taking pictures of my kids, I want something that looks good, not just OK.

Then get a cheap phone and spend the rest of the money on a camera with a good lens. dpreview 2017 compact enthusiast round-up is probably a good place to start for things that will fit in your pocket and still take great pictures. Here are some side-by-side examples by what admittedly looks like a probably camera-biased site smartphone vs camera

Re: I just don't care anymore

[Thundercat007]

But they don't last a "couple" years. My first Android was an Acer that didn't even make it to a year. 6mths board shot, then repair Depot lost it. Moved to Samsung, Every Samsung I owned died at 14mths. I owned 3, all did same thing. Mind you my Nexus did 3 years. And my Nexus 5x is closing in on 2 years and my $80 BLU is around a year. You're paying for the name, that BLU phone is every bit as good as any Samshit on the market. Plz don't complain they "come with viruses" it took about 4 minutes to remove Adups manually (for any competent computer person that doesn't use Win10 or Mac)

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not going to walk around with a dedicated camera waiting to take pictures. None of those recommend cameras will fit in my pants pockets when I already carry a wallet, keys, and a phone. The standalone camera market is dead unless you are a professional working a job or an enthusiast looking for a certain shot.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

You use your phone every day for every important task. Are you really going to settle for a subpar phone for the next three years so you could have some experiential purchase that was over in less than a week?

Re:I just don't care anymore

[kamapuaa]

Funny you say that, because recently dpreview had an article that high-end smartphones are good enough to replace SLR cameras for most users. I do have an SLR camera, but that becomes an issue of, sometimes you would rather have a capable swiss army knife in your pocket than lug around an 18 knife set plus a can opener.

Re: I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

My Motorola Droid X (2010) lasted 6 years with a battery replacement. It started slowing down in 2014 and finally died in 2016. That phone was a work horse, it went through hell and back. My Apple iPhone 4S (2010) is still working with a replaced battery, but I only use it as a music player these days. Unfortunately, the current battery is near its end of life and rather then get a new one I will stop using the 4S. I currently use a Pixel (2016) for personal use and an iPhone SE (2016) for business. I also had an iPhone 5C (2014) as a backup but gave it to a friend in 2016, and he still uses it although with a new battery.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

"subpar" - but that's the point. His current phone is par. The fact that there exists a better one doesn't stop his current one from meeting the requirements.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[irrational_design]

So I must be out of it. I'm assuming from context that a Halo phone is a flagship smartphone. Is this a new term or one you just made up?

Re: I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Boat payment? Don't talk frugality to me then. If it floats, flies, or fucks; it's cheaper to rent.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

I just bought another Nexus 5 off ebay... so I hear ya man

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

My $80 Acer phone from Costco does everything I need. My eyes aren't good enough anymore to tell if it's 720p, 1080p on a 5.5" screen.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

This per-day calculation is just stupid feel-goodism.
Why not calculate it per microsecond? It will be even less.
Per month would at least make sense because you get paid and pay lots of other things per day, so it can be compared.
Or you could say it's about $30000 a lifetime, in case you REALLY care to see what you could get instead.
That said, I still bought a LG G4 because I wanted a better camera that I have always with me. But if it wasn't for the camera, I recently realized how good a sub $100 (90 Euro, but including 25% tax) phone like the Moto G4 Play is - honestly I think a LOT of people have no real use for anything better.

Re: I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Galaxy S2: Still in use and running, though passed on to someone else
Galaxy S3 mini: still in use as backup/work phone
Galaxy mini: found it on the trash, so slow I can only use it to test performance of my apps, but also still working fine
LG G4: had to send it in for warranty repair just under 2 years old, and the display shows discoloration and stuck images (seems that contrary to what people claim LCD is actually a lot less robust against burn-in than OLED). So that one's a bit of a disappointment but I'd still expect it to last another 2 years.
I'd say you are either really unlucky or you are really mistreating your phones.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[dAzED1]

that makes no sense. Back in the day there were cheap point-and-click cameras, and then there were SLR. The film (analogue to "resolution" or MP) was the same, but the stuff that brought the image to the film (sensors) was different. There's nothing you can do electronically that reproduces real depth of field - a single lens pointed directly onto a sensor a millimeter away can't...do lots of things, no matter what software filter tricks you try.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Paradise Pete]

You're old, but you're probably comfortable financially. Why skimp on a phone, something that you presumably use many times per day? Get whatever you think the best phone is. I'm fairly frugal overall, but not on things I use often. I don't have a cheap phone or a cheap mattress, but my car is more than ten years old because I don't need to drive more than once or twice per week.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Just get a proper phone from Apple and get it over with.

Re: I just don't care anymore

[iampiti]

I'd really like to see a study on the reliability of different smartphone brands/models.
I've personally been pretty lucky with Samsung and by my friends know that if you buy cheap chinese phones they will often break in a few months.
I've heard bad stories about LGs.
Of course YMMV

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Greystripe]

The difference here is those cheap point-and-click cameras only took photos. They did not do the dozens of things a smartphone can do. So if you are going to carry around a device that can only take photos, you may as well get a good one. If however you are already carrying around something that can also take decent photos, why spend the money to also carry something that can only take photos?

Re:I just don't care anymore

[drinkypoo]

My N4's digitizer just stopped working properly one day. I never got it wet and I dropped it probably an order of magnitude less than my Moto G 2nd, which is still chugging on. Death to LG.

Re: I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. My $100 phone is totally adequate for my needs and I spend a lot of time with it. As phones get larger they become more impractical to carry around too. Fancier, more expensive phones tend to be impractical for me and I assume most people by then as a status symbol, maybe a replacement for a (much better for the price) tablet, laptop, or TV.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read the article, there's actually cool software tricks that replicates depth-of-field - and the software is getting better. Maybe it will never be as authentic as an SLR, but good enough that even people who own an SLR don't feel compelled to bring a big heavy camera along with them if they want a good picture.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Rob Y.]

For less than a high-end smartphone, though, you can probably get a digital camera that will last you 10 years. That smartphone needs to be replaced every 2 years - if only to get security updates.

What's needed is a new class of digital cameras that are as good as (or better than) the ones in high-end smartphones and have basic uploading capabilities - maybe just the ability to NFC sync to the smartphone in your pocket. Then you have the nice convenient form factor in a device that you don't have to replace nearly as often - and without the expensive additional costs of phone-related patents.

Or... have that new digital camera be the touch screen device you carry around and interact with - and locate the smarts in a 'smartphone fob' that you simply leave in your pocket. Kind of like the way an iWatch uses the phone as its brain - except in this case, the brain is a small, cheap headless device that you replace now and then to keep up with smartphone OS advances - if you care to. And your smart screen, which is just a good camera and display, lasts you as long as the hardware holds up - while still costing less than a new iPhone or Galaxy.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

No shit. You're obviously the kind of guy who thinks a phone is a great way to take great pictures. You either don't know how to spend your money - or you don't understand the comment.

Suit yourself.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

They can't - not unless the sensors become an order of magnitude smaller. But to get a decent amount of low light in, you'd require a better aperture to get qualitative pictures

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Yea your to old and slow to understand gramp's.

It's about customizing stock android, toss in a new boot loader a new splash screen and set it up the way you want with that big ass screen.
O and then do it all over again in a month when you change your mind.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

That only applies IF you leave it stock and load what like three apps ever.

I'm old and I can glance at a G4 and Pixel and tell them apart.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Read the article, it makes sense to me.

But getting into basic DLSRs - 90% of SLR shoorters uses a zoom that has maybe a 3.5-5.6 aperture lens. Most flagship camera have a fixed lens that is F 1.8-2.0.

So as long as you're OK with the wide FOV (and I prefer it), the camera sensor is 10 times as small, but it also lets in 5 or more times as much light. Then iPhones use crazy ISOs like ISO 16.

So except for limited-depth-of-field photos and low-light photos, iPhones are already capable of competing on a technical and empirical level with SLR camera.

I think we're going to see more and more cool stuff with combining the input from multiple sensors to effectively imitate the limited depth-of-field and even night capabilities of a larger SLR camera.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[guacamole]

Who are they marketing to? Is it the 20-something group?

I think it's more like 20-something group plus the teens. In my extended family and the circle of friends, most of whom have good education and jobs to be able to afford halo phones, I am seeing people sticking to their old phones for something like 3 years. On the other hand, for some reason, the high school kids who are manning the cash counters at the grocery stores or who are clerks at my gym often working for the minimum wage usually boast the latest iphones, or a Samsung Galaxy with a ginormous screen.

As others have pointed out, if there is a plan where you pay 1 dollar a day (like AT&T Next) to always use the latest phone, there will be people who will sign for it. If you offer enough credit or installment placements, there will always be people taking such an offer.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[zippthorne]

Pretty sure the powershot series has wifi support, and some of those are under $100.

Ok, not sub $100, but the Powershot S120 has been out for a while and it has wifi support.

Re:I just don't care anymore

[dAzED1]

it's a single lens resting on a sensor. You can't get non-flat pictures with that. Ever. You can't get things that look real. You can try, with digital tricks, but in the end...no. There's no reason to have better and better sensors on the stupid phones. It would be like putting $5000 wheels on a honda civic - the sensor has not been the limiting factor for the "quality" of the pictures in a long while. I mean for fark's sake, with dozens and dozens of major phone options, can you even name a single one that doesn't tout its bloody camera? The camera is mildly useful for taking a picture of something at a store, so it can be identified later - that sort of thing. But for the love of all that is holy, have duck faces improved our lives in any way at all?

they must bring something to the table.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would I want one, over any other phone out there? I can only think of one way to get me on board.

If it avoids the data-harvesting of Google (must have NO google apps nor connection t Play Store!!) and also avoids the control-freakism and lock-in of the Apple ecosystem, then maybe I can consider.

Also should have uSD and user replacable batttery.

Otherwise, not an improvement on my present phone, sorry. You have to bring something new and valuable to the table. then I buy.

Re:they must bring something to the table.

[Entrope]

It has an optional 360-degree camera that you won't want to lug around, and an optional dock. (Woo, how trendy.) And no microSD slot.

Re:they must bring something to the table.

[ShanghaiBill]

They also courageously left out the headphone jack.

Re:Andy Rubin

[aliquis]

Can't be.
I've heard they were all killed of by the Germans?!

In a related not: People don't get what the genocide of Swedes mean. "But you are still around?!" So are the Jews. The Jews will likely outlive the Swedes too ..

$1b in value

[hsmith]

Haven't sold a single thing. Rofl. World has gone fucking insane.

Re:$1b in value

[cheesybagel]

Remind me to sell a micro-percent of my shares to my best friends for $1000 USD so I can beat their valuation.

Re:$1b in value

[cloud.pt]

exactly my thoughts when I read it. I bet a purchase, by none other than their obvious principal manufacturing partner, is just part of some side-deal where purchasing that stock was the best way to dodge taxation. And get the valuation hype as a perk xD

Re:$1b in value

[Big Hairy Ian]

Haven't sold a single thing. Rofl. World has gone fucking insane.

Mate the Middle East is now considered more stable than the US

Re: Andy Rubin

[Anonymous Coward]

Gesundheit. Du Schwein.

overrated

[WindBourne]

Rubin should have built the google phone that he was backing when there. Basically, it IS possible to make a phone out of components, but, Rubin approached it wrong. Really too bad. In the end, I think that Android will lose out simply because overseas will decide to no longer carry android, even on the phones sold here. And at that time, it will be too late.

Re:overrated

[cheesybagel]

The phone design looks horrible to me and the widgets like the 360 degree camera are lame as heck.

People forget that Rubin's original Android OS design sucked donkey balls and that Android phones back then looked a lot different than what they do today. It took quite a lot of iterations before Android got decent. I wonder if Rubin still has however fixed his design still around to clean this shit up.

Re:overrated

[Anonymous Coward]

I still miss Andy's Spies in the Wire. And Tom Dell's Dark Side of the Moon. Waffle forever!

The phoneputer

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the long term vision for this is to turn it into a modular computer that can attach and therefore do pretty much anything. Like for example it would seamlessly connect to a screen ,keyboard and mouse and boot into a full fledged operating system for example. Or it could magnetically hook up to an infra red sensor and be used by the TSA maybe

No way Tencent and Foxconn would invest in a soso, happy go lucky, lets make a new flavor for Android kind of company!

Re:The phoneputer

[cloud.pt]

You might actually be on to something. Something like the Elon master plan - "make a perfect phone, necessarily expensive; use money to develop the perfect drone, even more expensive; use THAT money to make a UFO and GTFO" :D

Hmm.

[Presence Eternal]

The stated philosophy of no crapware is all well and good, but let's see what I can google for specs. Hmm. Screen is not amoled. Fingerprint sensor on the damn back. No audio jack. No microsd. Not waterproof. Seven hundred bucks. Not to be nasty, but a lack of crapware on a crap phone is not much of a selling point.

Re:Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

I see your point, but marketability and appeal for phones doesn't have to catter only to your specific needs on a phone. Dropping the AMOLED and a microSD tells me you're in the Samsung bandwagon, which I can understand (not relate) having used the previous 2 Galaxys as my personal device for 3 years now, continuously. But it has actually been scientifically and practically proven that AMOLED is not better - not in battery, not in color accurate representation, and contrast is a pet peeve when basically most use a phone gets is around bright environments. It's personal preference, and for Samsung it's actually financial preference as it's what they invest in. I'm sure the sense of ownership kicks in while watching movies in your dark bedroom, when black screens pop up and everything gets pitch-black, and looking at your iridescently dark phone when screen is off face up on a table. but that's really it. I've learned the latest and greatest LCDs perform MUCH better in the sun which is where I need my phone.

Now, microSD is a bummer but who carries around more than half an hour of 4k content let alone an entire library of TV shows and/or FLAC. People don't have the time to consume or film a ~100GB sinkhole. They don't even have the time to wait for 100GB-orders of magnitude transfers with UHC-2 at 150MBs theoretycal (which is what most would get unless they're dirty rich). What people have is a latent sense of insecurity for non-expansion, yet completely neglect UFS 2.1 is a godsend. It's like having range anxiety on a 2.3s 0-60 Model S - it's pathological. Google knew their shyt when they pitched cloud storage would be the future for entertainment media, they were just a little too early with their push back in the Nexus 4 and now everybody got a piece of the pie while we geeks all cry for "expansionism" (no pun intended).

When I look at this phone I see an updated, improved Mi Mix that actually gets the attention it deserves from its manufacturer (in this case for obvious reasons: it's their only device). I see a beautifully design titanium build, a material which has pretty much been neglected by everyone other OEM for cost; I see an actually usable accessory paradigm - simple, cheap('ish); I see a screen that doesn't use a stupid form factor that will suit nothing but your own damn useless OS modifications (*wink wink* S8). And that doesn't need to be LCD to wow me.

I also see Apple price tags on a newcomer - rookie mistake really (but they are already riding the hype in the seed funding market, it's only a small jump to consumers); like the S8, an underwhelming amount of RAM for a 2017 flagship - big NO-NO, clearly based on too much trust in system-based management by none other than the OS creator. This is a mistake everybody else seems to make but OnePlus I might add - I mean, is ram that costly or is it really so hard to understand Java is a HUGE memory hog and garbage collection really sucks because most app devs simply can't cope with day-to-day use usage patterns. This won't improve with time, trust me, Android rarely gets better on RAM management in magnitudes that have visible effects?

And obviously I see no analog jack, but if you're the type to walk around with audiophile-priced and/or sized headphones, a super-duper small USB-C adapter isn't a problem - it's not like it's a Macbook Pro needing 3 of 4 of those at once because "MOST MY HARDWARE IS JUST FINE WITH USB non-C". It's one small dongle, which is gonna be used either once per year or 24/7 and never detach from it's peripheral cable. And in different ways that Apple sells their jack-less world, I actually believe there IS a future for a "last-link" analog conversion strategy, where audio is continually digital until it reaches the very electronics that reverberate analogically to your eardrums, but it will take its time to come like all audio technologies do (Atmos anyone?). Audio quality is a speculative commodity - it is only worth as much as the people whose ears you trust brag about it, and when you take a plunge it's mu

Re: Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

You must have your own Apple like distortion field if you would prefer the essential over the s7 or s8 or any other android for that matter.

My 2 main phones are galaxy note 4 because dock, s pen, headphone jack, sd, removeable battery, good spectrum and

BlackBerry priv because capacitive physical qwerty, headphone jack and sd

With the priv I made a huge compromise by buying a phone that was high cost and no removeable battery

Re:Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can scientifically prove anything you like, but an AMOLED screen just looks better. It just does.

I could never go back. Never.

Re:Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Also unfortunately LCD displays show serious burn-in in under 2 years, while AMOLED works fine for 5 years or longer. Ironic, given how people have been claiming the opposite...

Re:Hmm.

[Presence Eternal]

Amoled for me is about reading, yes in a darkened room. Reading white text on a black background for four hours straight makes amoled non-optional.

I am very much NOT in any Samsung products. I hate their guts. Blocking cases with their lameassed curved screens, flooding their phone bodies with glue, Bixby...just everything about Bixby. Spyware televisions. My Note 4 is the last Samsung phone I plan to own.

The shell materials? Ceramic can describe anything from flower pots to shuttle reentry tiles. It's a fancy sounding replacement for a glass backing to enable the wireless charging. I'm...almost lazy enough to be interested in that, but not quite. Titanium sure...if it's good quality nitinol it would certainly prevent frame warping if you drop it hard enough to shatter it. Just nip on down to your local mall and they'll replace the...oh, right. No one is replacing the damn screen. Fancy material names that do nothing.

Audio jacks let one charge the phone while watching video when one is sick in bed. This has come up for me.

Fingerprint sensor is about how one holds a phone. I hold mine in one hand resting on my pinky. Pushing toward myself to hit a sensor is going to lead to bad times. I'm clumsy, and I have shaky hands. I admit it, best to head that one off at the pass. Fingerprint sensor goes on the front or I don't buy your phone.

If this came across as hostile, sorry, I just haaaate the current phone market. Only thing that is even close to good on the market right now is the moto z play and it is....inelegant.

Re:Hmm.

[iampiti]

Cloud? Yeah, why would I have my data locally on a fast MicroSD card, usable where there's no network access for free when I could pay a cloud provider for the privilege of renting some storage and which if I used would kill my data cap in hours?
I just can't understand how some people can't see how useful plentiful local storage is. You may not need it but MicroSds are useful for many people.

Re:Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

I do see the advantages, I just think that with high-speed 128GB, sometimes even 256GB being standard in flagship devices, and most of the media consumption, by a large sum being streaming these days (even on mobile plans), it stops making sense to expect microSD. Embedded components just have an undeniable speed advantage. MicroSD availability gained nice to have status in my book along the years and I believe it did for most too.

I have experienced first-hand the availability and use of a microSD yet speed+portability takes precedence, and that's why I would never use a card as extended storage for my Android phone as opposed to it just being a backup drive when I would have the need for massive storage - something I can just pop a USB-OTG adapter in if needs be. It's been long since people "fetished" iPod-like freedom to have entire media libraries on the go, while it's become more and more unnecessary, sometimes even inconvenient to rely on extra storage when you have stuff like Google Photos and a whole lot of sync options for the stuff you mostly consume sitting on a chair or couch at home. Oh and 128GB. I mean, it's getting close to what a laptop ships with these days.

I would leave it at YMMV but everyone can agree 128GB or more pretty much destroys the "I need lots of space" argument when we are talking about Smartphones these days. What those who deny it want is intrinsically unlimited space, and that's an offer already present with the Cloud and streaming.

Re:Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

Burn in no longer seems a problem in recent LCDs but with the average life expectancy of Smartphones being at or around 3 years use I don't even need to make an argument for that. And let's level here - do you see burn-in in your television, PC monitor or whatever devices you keep around the house, some of them even on for a large part of the day? The only phones I have had burn-in are my developer phones at work with more than 4 years, which biasedly have sat for hours, plugged to ADB with "keep screen on", and even those swiftly lose ghost images after some time fiddling with a small session of movement-heavy playback.

Re: Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

I have purchased a total of 0 Apple devices my entire life, but I can appreciate some of their ideas and intents and acknowledge the novelty they have brought to the table over decades of innovation. Apple is a gold standard for many people in many areas. Sorry if it sounds harsh, but dock, s pen and physical qwerty sound to me like someone stuck in a pre-2012 samsung+blackberry world.

When qwerty lost traction, people saw big on-screen typing as a compromise. Now those people are the same that would never go back to qwerty on smartphones even if the qwerty device had better specs. Well, at least those with normal-sized hands and not craving for genuine tactile feedback. If that's not your case, you certainly have an argument to dislike on-screen keyboards.

The s pen is a great device for the niche market of portable designer work, just like the Nvidia tablets that had something a lot better using only software and even that was dropped. As for everything else you mention you make a far point, yet I have never seen anyone carrying an extra battery for a phone for the so-called "freedom to pop in a new, full source of juice" which has been making the rounds in every replaceable battery device review ever - it's just a niche or even fake use case, much like microSD.

Re:Hmm.

[ConfusedVorlon]

> Fingerprint sensor on the damn back.

For me, that's the best place for a fingerprint sensor. I massively perfer the Nexus 5x back sensor to the various iPhone front sensors I have used.

I think this comes down to personal usage style. My friend uses his phone on the desk/table. He prefers the front sensor. I use my phone in my hand - the back sensor is much more comfortable for me.

Re: Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with most of what you're saying, but the removable battery has different significance for me. What I need to be able to do is when the battery starts losing charge after 3 years of usage I'd like to pop in a new one. I have had my phone for 5 years now and as others have commented, I do not feel it would really make a difference to get a new one, plus I feel I don't want to pollute the environment unnecessarily by getting rid of it. No replaceable battery - and the phone is guaranteed to have an end-of-life date.

Re: Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have SD cards in both my Note 4 and my Priv.

They are both filled with everything from music, movies, music video, own pictures, own videos, Amiga ADF games, Dos games, PSX Games etc etc

For my Note 4 I carry a spare battery... It normally uses one of my 8000 mAh unoriginal batteries while I have one extra with me, fully charged.
The Note 4 also has a BT slideout keyboard attached to its back...

The reason I got the Priv is that a fully integrated keyboard is so much nicer, also the ability to use the keyboard as a trackpad rocks!

I will struggle to use the 8000 mAh battery during a single day on the Note 4 even with heavy use, but if I am out an about without access to electricity in longer periods of time, then I have had good use for spare batteries and portable powerbanks

Also.. when one of my Note 4 batteries die, then I can still use the Note 4, unlike my Priv... when its battery dies, then the phone is garbage

Re:Hmm.

[drinkypoo]

It doesn't matter which phone you come from, the lack of a uSD slot and a headphone jack are both shit, and if you are making defences for them you should probably think about putting down the corporate cock (maybe even take it out of your mouth) before posting.

Re:Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

(didn't came as hostile ^_^ I hope my long post didn't either. Internet these days will take any tongue-in-cheek as offense which is kind of a lost art clearly lost in the transition from the real world - quite a shame for light-hearted talkers like me)

OLED is tantalizing, everybody gets it. The guys at GSMArena had this to say 7 years ago in their GS1 review: "...And the majestic Super OLED display is a great reason on its own to buy the Galaxy. Be warned though, you're unlikely to ever go back to TFT again. Meaning that at this point, the question to ask yourself is whether you're ready for a long-term affair with Samsung.".

I have a power-user family member who got an unwanted S2 for free about 2 years ago, and now that it's become faulty he can't grasp the possibility of shelling out big money for the OLED experience, yet he feels he has to. I have tried to make him understand that OLED is an illusion of quality and a big trade-off for either performance or cost (low-end Samsung devices, or expensive Samsung and Moto devices. Oh and that Samsung bloat that doesn't seem to go away). I usually go about like this to him - "look , I have used countless phones as daily drivers, switching from OLED to LCD multiple times - GS2->Nexus 4->Moto X->OPO->GS6->Xiaomi RN3->GS7, and I constantly play around at work with new devices - and every time I switch, I see benefits both sides. The one thing I don't see is actual OLED improvement other than resolution. OLED is just visually ticking your senses with a wow factor on over-saturated colors and, granted, infinite contrast" - thing is he, like most, doesn't care much, so did I in my first year or so with OLED. Now I have to hunt around for a used GS4+ for him... Why submit yourself to this necessity. But enough with evangelizing something clearly personal preference for just about anyone.

Ceramic is great for scratches. It's a no brainer for people that roll without a case. Shatter-proof-wise, I don't know really. And screens are always glass. I'm not sure how any corner protection can save a screen shattering without some sort of cushioning/elasticity like the one provided by rubber cases, and that's why I rarely use a phone without one (even cheap chinese 2 buck variety have saved me many flagship phone falls multiple times).

I would argue that with fast charge you will rarely have a scenario when u run out of juice mid-movie. I would also argue that you're forgetting the point of jack-less phones - use Bluetooth, you can still charge.

FP-reader is definitely about how one holds it, but I have found that 99% of my screen-on + unlock combo comes from taking out of pocket "maneuvering", and just practicing the best way to do so is enough for the most seamless experience. With back FP readers, usually a one-move action works best, since unlock is done at the same time as power on.

On Motorola, I love them but I feel they've fallen out of shape on the top-tier since Lenovo acquired them. I am, nonetheless very confident with Moto and Lenovo partnership going forward, as management seems to have caught the hint of light software tweaks from vanilla droid being the way to roll. I am hoping for vanilla-droid sensibly priced Lenovo devices, with the (not Moto premium, yet) very decent build quality and superb battery life they provide.

Re:Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

I'm not making a case for anyone but me, but hey, logic seems to be out of stock on that keyboard so I'm gonna proudly agree that we have different opinions and leave it at that. Send my regards to Nelson Mandela back there in stuck-in-2013-vile.

Re: Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

The best way to protect the environment, and this is gonna sound corporate, is to have the battery serviced so they can discard of the old one with care, something 99% of the people replacing batteries neglect, be it replaceable or tinkering non-replaceable ones.

I like to service my own phones too, I have replaced countless LCD assemblies, batteries, power/volume clickers, even cameras and SIM slots. But the end-of-life argument is kinda moot when obsolescence has gotten to a point it's not even planned by the manufacturer, but by OS support and actual use patterns inducing people to upgrade. The smartphone has achieved guaranteed obsolescence status much like the PC, by its own nature and not by capitalist conspiracy. Why do you think every company renews flagship every 365 days? The "new phone" market is going nowhere even when every human owns a moderately recent smartphone.

Re: Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

You definitely seem like the kind of user that has the right to request those features to be on a phone, and I honestly hope there is a market for manufacturers to keep supporting the features you need. I wish that I had the time and mental capacity to still care about the amazing emulation scene but unfortunately life caught up to a point I mostly consume 2-3h hours of media per day, the rest being work, kids and sleep. Let alone time to chat around so much I need the luxury of a physical qwerty on a phone. All I got are these long slashdot comments during work-breaks.

Re:Hmm.

[Presence Eternal]

For many activities I won't argue that amoled is nothing valuable. When one is out and about checking messages and consulting websites for product reviews, what's the point? For long term media consumption, especially of text, it's a balm for the eyes. I tried out an iphone 6+ for a while, but reading on that thing...I went right back to my Note 4.

I loved that fingerprint sensor though. Being able to unlock financial apps with a touch was delightful, and is a highly desirable feature for me now. Maybe placement is more of an issue if you use it for more than just waking up the phone.

Re:Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now, microSD is a bummer but who carries around more than half an hour of 4k content let alone an entire library of TV shows and/or FLAC.

FLAC, or more to the point: music.

If phones' storage didn't totally suck, they would make perfectly good music players. But none of them can hold much. At least with a microSD you can sort of get into the ballpark of "mostly enough for most people" whereas no microSD-lacking phone can.

(I wish someone sold a 7" tablet that could hold a few 2.5" drives. That'd be the perfect car player. But until then, phones with microSD cards are the best you can do unless you get a laptop/notebook or something.)

"Cloud storage" is a total loser. When I tried out Amazon Music I blew through my monthly cap in a week and started getting warnings. Fuck cloud storage.

Re:Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

You sort of make sense until the very end...

What those who deny it want is intrinsically unlimited space

With you so far, but then you go absolutely unmitigated bonkers:

and that's an offer already present with the Cloud and streaming.

Cloud and streaming are about as limited as you can get. There is simply nothing worse. I'd rather do without music than rack up shockingly-large wireless ISP charges. There's also the problem of not a single streaming provider has very good selection. Sure, collectively if you use them all and are willing to switch apps between every fucking album, it's .. well, sort of ok but still actually pretty pathetic. Self storage is critical for basic operation of a music player, and for a portable music player, it needs to be local.

For non-portable, like maybe you're listening to music on your patio and getting it over the wifi from your server or even from the Internet (but using a cheaper wired ISP) I can see it. But for portable usage, no way.

And on top of that, if it's your own copies of music (as it pretty much has to be if you need wide selection), then you still need to store it somewhere anyway, to serve from. Why go to all the trouble to set up VPNs and shit when you can just do an rsync every night when you plug it in to recharge?

You live on a different planet than I do. And that's ok, but daaamm, just goes to show how there is no one-size-fits-all.

Re:Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

1.) All fingerprint sensors are on the back that tech won't be released to manufactures until next year so the new iPhone 8 and Samsung S8 won't have it ether.

2.) I don't need waterproof as I never take it to the toilet with me and I sure as hell don't take it to the pool.

3.) Don't care about the god damn 3.5 audio jack it was always worthless there's better ways to do it gramp's.

4.) The SD card does bother me a bit I will admit.

Re:Hmm.

[guacamole]

Screen is not amoled.

Amoled screens are terrible for battery life under pretty much all usage scenarios except for watching movies 24/7.

Fingerprint sensor on the damn back.

That's where it _should_ be. That's perfect for one handed operation. As you reach out for the phone in your pocket, tap the back sensor as you pull it out. It should unlock before you even look at it. The Nexus 5X/6P and the Pixel line got this bit right. There is no need to change it.

The lack of audio jack is indeed a problem.

Re:Hmm.

[cloud.pt]

When I mentioned cloud storage I actually meant storage, streaming subscription services and stuff like social media and Google Photos, meaning to argue that people would eventually drop the need for huge local storage, since much of the data would either ORIGINATE or END UP in the internet - and these 2 words are key here:

Stuff that "originate" 's in the cloud - music, video and gaming streaming services
The use pattern today, for media consumption, is people wanting new stuff but still have a big library of old stuff - this is spotify, netflix and steam for you (for obvious reasons I mentioned the big players' triad). Sadly enough, the gaming part is quite lacking in Android, and I find that most games I don't like are ones that need periodic downloads for every "chapter" or stages - a pattern in graphic-intensive store-bound games (e.g. Final Fantasy Mobius and many Square-Enix games).

Stuff that "ends up" in the cloud
Photos and movies you capture, where do they usually end up these days? Either forever forgotten in your local storage, shared on social media or uploaded automatically to your cloud-based sync platform (e.g. Google Photos). The first place is one I and most would rather no longer need unless its something time-critical or that one really feels should always be with you.

Final note: the data plan or lack of internet argument
There are still massive amounts of local storage in today's smartphones - you can still have a lot, maybe not your entire library but hell, enough FLAC for A WEEK of listening without a single repeat, or 1080p shows/movies for 24h consumption. "Oh but I want freedom to have everything" - you will get access to everything as soon as you get a connection, so in all honesty, if you are living your life without planning ahead of the availability (or lack) of internet connection, especially when going on stretches of leisure-designated time, you are likely also not taking the full advantage of the connected world. Even data caps are getting better with time, at least around here in Europe.

Re:Hmm.

[Blue787]

LOL LOL I am loving the absolute hate for this device, that's why I'm getting one: 1. If you need your phone to be waterproof, you're clumsy and should not be handling a phone. 2. I didn't realize you need an AMOLED screen to make phone calls, check email, or the do the ever popular intellectually dumbing snap chat. 3. No crapware is an high selling point for me, more than water proofing, I'll keep my device form water. 4. Let's count the number of high end smartphones with FPID on the back....hmmmmm...oh yes the Google Pixel has it doesn't it ? 5. No audio jack- didn't Apple sell a boatload of phones without it, don't see the fans keeping noise about it, why should anyone else ? 6. Last time I checked iPhones don't have headphone jacks either, but hey it's Apple right, they can do anything. 7. Please name another brand with titanium and ceramic body, so good, if my phone drops my life doesn't flash before my eyes. Well I'm getting one, to hell with reviewers and their paid anti-anything-not-samsung-or-Apple rhetoric. Cheers !

A fool and his money ...

[Anonymous Coward]

The company has been speculated to be worth around $1.2 billion

You know, I dearly love to see the idiots who hype themselves up about products which don't exist and which have yet to prove they have a market.

The continual validation of the fact that VCs are fucking idiots is gratifying.

I predict this speculation is pure and utter bullshit. This is yet another startup con-job.

Re:A fool and his money ...

[cloud.pt]

The good thing about Sillicon Valley VC and seed funding is you get to keep the tech even if the company fails miserably. And that tech, be it code, schematics, but usually mostly patents will usually mitigate most of the risk. I personally think rich people spending money on a smart dude that buys a Porsche with his first stock sale, but then happens to make the next Facebook or Zune (kidding), is the least of our problems. I mean, I'm in IT and if I had that money I would probably go to the casino and burn it in a day, because, you know, human nature.

a real google phone

[deathguppie]

This is what the next pixel should have been. Everything is there to make a great modern phone, resolution, dual camera, no bezel. The only weird feature is the ability to use addons, and that is only if you opt to do so. A great phone for VR if you are into that. the new pixel is being made by HTC and the whole idea of a squeeze phone to activate things annoys me to no end. As if I didn't have enough problems with phone activation in my pocket. The home button on my Samsung galaxyX phones would turn my phone on in my pocket and even bought me a German pickle helmet once (before I disabled one click purchase on Amazon). I recently had to buy a cheap phone temporarily to replace my broken note5. I ended up buying an LG stylo2. It's awesome feature is that if you tap the screen three times it turns on. Like that can never happen in your pocket. So the idea of a squeeze activated phone just ends the entire conversation for me.

yeah but...

[supernova87a]

Some things that I can pretty much guarantee will not be "essential" with this phone:

• 1) privacy protections,
• 2) bug fixes and legacy support after 1 year,
• 3) people, software, and hardware, and infrastructure to help you when it turns out to be a phone that doesn't work for any reason...

Re:yeah but...

[supernova87a]

To be a serious player in the consumer phone market, with the functionality and support that you need to do a good job with security, features, apps, etc. you need a big team. And a big team is only supportable by selling millions and millions of phones. Anything less and they'll start to cheap out on these things.

As much as you may hate Google, Apple, Samsung, etc, they have the people they need to do the necessary jobs. A small player like this -- what odds do you put on that being true? Do you want to be the early adopter for them who is their beta tester?

Re:yeah but...

[Anonymous Coward]

if you are worried about this go and buy a https://www.silentcircle.com/, they cover all you need and the phone is pretty awesome

Re: yeah but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatâ(TM)s amusing is both the Blackphone and Essential phone were developed by Apple engineers. Jon Callas worked for Apple early in his career and currently works for Apple, and Jason Keats left a successful career at Apple to work on Essential.

Re:yeah but...

[Anonymous Coward]

So just like every US carrier on the market?

Re:yeah but...

[cloud.pt]

I guess that's why so many people still cling onto their 3year old OnePlus One devices - you know, that phone made by a small company that decided to build a top-spec'd, cheap and pretty much fail-proof device, and to boot use an open-source version of Android (well, back then at least). Even with the loss of CyanogenMod official support, the community is still alive and kicking for the device and it will likely get Android O closely after launch date.

Re:Trump bought two

[davester666]

Oops, he accidentally smashed the black one.

just shy from its initial June mark

Not sure why they are minimizing the delay. This is a high-end phone that will be lucky to have a 3-6 month span for sales, and they've blown 2 of those months.