Essential Phone - another false promise?

Essential Phone is old news, but it just got hot in the last few days because we continually see reports of company failure. Will Essential survive or not is still unknown, but we hope for the best. While we’re waiting to see what will happen, we will go back in time and try to figure out is Essential Phone just another false promise or is it “the one that is missing” in the smartphone world.

What makes Essential Phone different from the others?

When it first appeared in August 2017 Essential Phone was a real jewel in the smartphone world. A phone made out of titanium with ceramic back and sapphire glass protection on display is still quite impressive. If you add vanilla Android to the mix, you are getting the phone that Android users are waiting for years. Another thing that makes Essential Phone different from its competitors was the fact that a startup company built it. It was not an ordinary startup; it was a company founded by famous Andy Rubin (the man who made Android). With such backup, we had quite high expectations from the company and the team behind it. Impressive background and excellent features made Essential Phone seem like the perfect Android smartphone. Android users are waiting for something like that for years. Yes, Samsung, HTC, Huawei, Sony and everyone else are making excellent devices, but the great Android-only phone is something that is missing. Google made a significant step forward with Pixel phones, and we love them, but we wanted to see an independent manufacturer making an Android phone that we love. This is why we all had such high expectations this time.

What happened with Essential Phone?

Now, after a year in the market, we hear different reports about Essential. Just a few days ago Bloomberg published a story where we found out that there will be no Essential Phone 2 and that entire company might be on sale. On the other hand, we found out that there are new updates for Essential Phone 360 camera. This update gives us hope that the company might be able to survive all the troubles that they have at the moment. Unfortunately, even if the specs seemed perfect, Essential Phone wasn’t what we hoped it to be. Users had much higher demands, and instead of the top device, they received a half-baked robust phone with uncompleted apps and user interface. Most of the reviews in tech magazines give Essential Phone up to 3,5 points out of 5, and they only contributed to the general big picture that the product is unfinished. We all waited for v2 to make up for all the missing bits and pieces, to finally see the perfect Android phone, but that is not going to happen.

Is Essential Phone another false promise?

After all that happened in this short period, we would say that Essential Phone is not a false promise. It is an excellent example that hard work and persistence cannot always work for the best. Andy Rubin and his team give their best to deliver an excellent device, but unfortunately, they failed in this task. Essential Phone had its downfalls, but it was a great initiative and a brave step forward into the cruel world of smartphone giants. We are still hoping that this story is not over and that we will see more of Essential Phone, or at least more such bold moved and new devices from independent teams and companies. Now they have some excellent lessons to learn out of this unfortunate example.