One of the co-founders of Android left Google a few years ago. But earlier this year it was reported that he had a new startup called Essential Products that was developing a new phone.
Now we have the first peek at that phone… or at least part of it.
Andy Rubin posted this image to Twitter today:
About all we know from the picture is that the phone has very slim bezels, and seems to be small enough to hold comfortably in one hand.
Given the slim bezel on the top of the phone, it’s unclear where the camera would go. Maybe the phone will take a page out of the Dell XPS laptop playbook and put the camera on the bottom? Or maybe this isn’t a phone for folks who do things like snap selfies or make video calls.
Or maybe… it’s designed to work with external cameras. In January we heard that the phone would have a “proprietary connector that serves double duty for charging the battery and expanding the phone’s functionality over time” with things like 360-degree camera add-ons.
Maybe the Essential Products phone is more like a Moto Z modular phone than an XPS 13 laptop. The phone might just be a screen, processor, and other basic features… while add-on accessories would let you choose the features you want.
I’m betting it’s modular. But will it be stable? Up to date? Getting kind of sick of my Android experience being sorta buggy all the time
love rubins with mustard
Or maybe you can push up a front camera from the back, like a tiny slider? That’s one valid solution I’m surprised Dell didn’t do yet with the XPS13.