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Essential Phone, available now

essential.com

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Re: Essential Phone, available now

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trying to be snarky, I swear, but iOS checks all your boxes except "be android" along with dual sim and removable battery. And iOS hardware is still top of the pack when it comes to raw power in the majority of real use cases.

And you pay at least thrice as much, get far worse app support outside of the US (for example, in Germany > 85% of users are on Android, so that’s where the apps are), and you basically can’t develop at all for iOS (who’s gonna pay 3000$ to get a Mac and stuff AND 99$ a year just to build apps in their free time? Yeah, me neither).

> who’s gonna pay 3000$ to get a Mac and stuff AND 99$ a year just to build apps in their free time? Yeah, me neither

The Mac complaint is fair, but you can build and run your own apps outside of the store with a free developer account as of a couple years ago.

Edit: Also, a capable Mac development machine is closer to $1500 than $3k.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The refrain 'not everyone lives in SF' has become so overused I suspect you forgot to append /s

I live nowhere near SF.

Again, it's a referential catch-all for people inside tech echo chambers.

The vast vast majority of people with access to mobile phones do not have the way or means to replace them at the rate you suggest.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#253
While this is truly an impressive project, both in engineering and vision, I'm probably not going to buy one. The main reason being that they chose to go with Android.

They had an opportunity to experiment with offering a FOSS mobile OS, but instead they chose to go with design-by-committee's poster child.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#254
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it more like 4 years, at least on the Phones? I wouldn't mind getting an additional Android device, but two years of upgrades really isn't enough. It's nice to get a new OS upgrade every year.

It can be around 5 years, the iPhone 4S technically had the latest version of iOS from October 2011 to June 2016.

iOS 10 launched in September 2016, and I think the 4s was kept current up until then.

Also five years for the iPhone 5 (2012-2017). since iOS 11 supports the iPhone 5s, it will also get its fifth years of updates. (Hopefully more! Mine is still going strong, the arm64 processor was revolutionary.)

Five years does not seem to be an outlier for iPhones anymore.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#257
post #25

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?

Premium materials and true craftsmanship shouldn’t just be for the few, but for everyone (who has $700+ to spend on a phone).

Ignoring the battery stuff isn't Samsung's build quality on Galaxy devices considered close to/as good as Apple's?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#258
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Phone HAS to have a headphone jack.

Any of these should work: https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywo...

Or I could buy a phone that doesn't require an audio adapter, which is easily lost and prevents you from charging the phone and listening to music at the same time.

Removing the headphone jack is a rediculous and unnecessary regression. We have plenty of choice among phones, and I won't compromise on something that could have so easily been included -- and is included by almost every competitor.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#259
post #230

I'm sure it's a nice phone, but I cannot unsee that stubby chubby. Probably a really nice camera though. Other than the look of the camera I would consider this phone. Edit: Oh, it's an add-on. So it's like we're going back to the old Danger Sidekick days when they had that little camera dongle.

Motorola has been pushing their 'MotoMods' as add-on sleds recently too.

'Our phone is so thin! And has a projector and a great camera and a huge battery! You just need to carry a hand bag of accessories!'

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#260
post #43

As someone who worked in a large OEM company releasing tons of smartphones, I'm actually impressed it only took 100 people to getting this out. I presume there was an incredible amount of sleepless nights, as this is no easy task. To be fair though, Sprint is one of the easier carriers to work with after T-Mobile. I can't imagine them releasing a phone on AT&T or Verizon, as their process is grueling. I guess since t…

Any idea if they are planning to get this work with Project Fi service? I've always wondered what changes in hardware are required to get it compatible with Google's Fi service. Anyone knows?
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