Essential Phone, available now • Hacker News Board

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#21

Post by Analemma_ » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

free_everybody wrote: post #2

Maybe I'm just buying into the marketing hype, but this actually seems pretty cool and I'm curious what the OS feels like.

I think the general feeling among people/reviewers who have got their hands on one is that it is cool; the question is whether it's $700 cool. That's a lot of money to give a company without a proven track record.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#22

Post by coolsunglasses » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

eggpy wrote: post #10

tahw wrote: post #7

Does anyone know if these phones will work with Project Fi?

From the Project Fi FAQs: >Project Fi is available on the Pixel, Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, and Nexus 6. Currently these are the only smartphones to support our network of networks. You must have the North American model of the above devices in order to use it on the Project Fi network.

That's for official support. Project Fi worked fine on my iPhone SE.

However, I had problems with Project Fi sending my calls to random other peoples' phones across the country even when I was using my sim in my Nexus so I went back to T-Mobile.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#23

Post by infinitone » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

briandear wrote: post #14

The comment about FaceTime made no sense. On iPhone you can use all the apps he mentioned. In terms of security, I trust FaceTime far more than I trust What’s App who, in their policies, make it clear some data is shared with Facebook. Using What’s App as a counterargument to FaceTime is rather strange to me. Signal maybe, but you can run that on iPhone just fine as well.

Yeah, i was confused about that... that whole 'closed system' section was much weaker than i thought. I thought somehow they were going to build a standardized app that can interface with all these closed apps- but then again, how would they do that to begin with?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#24

Post by whipoodle » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

That's cool... it looks like an Android phone.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#25

Post by maxaf » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

Why would I spend $700+ on a phone with a dubious fate when I can spend $230 on a Moto G5 Plus and have Lineage OS running on it in no time, for a long time?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#26

Post by astrobase_go » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

at a $700 price point for two years of os updates and three years of security updates, it seems runner-up to iphones with four year (or more) timelines on os updates, maybe longer for security updates, for a comparable price point.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#27

Post by sabujp » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

too expensive

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#28

Post by agumonkey » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

acover wrote: post #20

agnsaft wrote: post #11

At this point, the only thing I care about is whether or not they plan on releasing quality software updates in a timely manner for a reasonable amount of time...

It is still end of life after 3 years.

Too short IMO, I personally would value having a 5yo device still useful, above that I can accept limitations in terms of new; below it's just pushing for renewal for no reason.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#29

Post by whipoodle » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:36 PM UTC

free_everybody wrote: post #2

Maybe I'm just buying into the marketing hype, but this actually seems pretty cool and I'm curious what the OS feels like.

The sub-sections underneath the "Phone" menu are Accessories, Materials, Colors, Screen, Camera, Specifications, Order. OS doesn't seem like something they want to discuss much. (They are all about this whizzy 360º camera though!)

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#30

Post by moondev » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 4:37 PM UTC

tahw wrote: post #7

Does anyone know if these phones will work with Project Fi?

Since FI is GSM won't it work in any GSM phone? I think it just defaults to tmobile so you won't get any fi features like switching to sprint dynamically or wifi calling/texting. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.