It’s been quite a while since the upstarts at Essential released any new hardware. That could change in the very near future, based on a series of tweets from CEO Andy Rubin.
Rubin, the former Android head honcho, posted a handful of photos and a short video clip of the device you see here: Project GEM. It may not fold, but it’s definitely a radical departure from the subdued glass rectangles we’ve grown accustomed to.
If you find phones with a cinematic 21:9 display a bit odd, then Essential’s next phone probably won’t be your cup of tea. Rubin didn’t reveal any dimensions, but it’s safe to say that these long, skinny things have been stretched well beyond that aspect ratio.
Essential is also clearly not afraid of the camera hump. They’re embracing it wholeheartedly, with a sizeable flare-out. Below the camera: a small divot that marks the location of the phone’s fingerprint sensor.
Naturally you can’t build a phone with these dimensions and expect an interface that was primarily designed for use on devices with a more traditional shape. Essential’s solution looks like this:
It’s definitely a different user experience… and seeing that long, skinny phone in a human hand almost makes it look as though Essential is working toward some kind of a flexible, wrist-worn device. Display technology isn’t quite there yet, of course, which is precisely why Microsoft opted for a dual-panel configuration for the Surface Duo and Surface Neo.
Totally unrelated, but let’s give Essential some bonus geek points for the Spot robot quietly being a good boy in the background of these pics.
Totally related, we should also mention in any story about Andy Rubin that the father of Android has been credibly accused of sexual misconduct, which is why he “resigned” from Google in the first place.
Now, how about those colors? No monochrome options here, folks. All four of the samples Rubin showed off are coated with interference paint. Here’s a short video that shows how the colors shift:
GEM Colorshift material pic.twitter.com/QJStoiDleH
— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) October 8, 2019
Essential’s first phone, the PH1, was anything but flashy. It was one of the first devices with a notch, but the real reason it stood out — and continues to stand out — is that Essential has been very good about delivering OS and security updates in a timely fashion.
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