Let's back up for a quick minute, because this is important, too. The Essential Phone is the first device from a new company that's spearheaded by Andy Rubin, the guy who co-created Android and, from 2005 to 2013, was the face of Android at Google. So a phone launched by Andy Rubin is a really big deal, particularly when you have a field stacked with talent from entrenched players like Samsung (Galaxy S8 and soon, Note 8), Google (Pixel and soon, Pixel 2), LG (G6 and upcoming V30), Motorola (Z2 Force and Z2 Play) and Nokia (Nokia 8), just to name a few. How does it plan to pull this off?
Rubin's team thinks that the Essential Phone's modular accessories will appeal to Android enthusiasts who want to customize a high-end Android with swappable add-ons that physically attach to the phone. Although there's only one accessory so far, a 360-degree camera, Rubin and his team envision an ecosystem that includes a bunch of accessories and powerful software to support them. Essential also plans to launch an Essential Home speaker for the living room, which will work with the phone's accessories.
Overall, I'm finding this test unit really sleek and likable, but too stripped down in the camera department, with buggy software that makes the phone feel unpolished. Essential says that it's already addressed most of the bugs I found in this prefinal version of the phone software, and will update buyers' devices, especially the native camera and 360-degree camera attachment. Therefore, we'll withhold our final assessment until the phone is completely ready -- consider this a sneak peek, not the last word.
