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Essential Phone, available now

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Re: Essential Phone, available now

#281

Post by dforrestwilson »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #260
foobaw wrote: 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?

^ Same question! I love Google Fi, but am considering rolling off if I can't get a decent phone on-network (without doing the iPhone hack).

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#283

Post by kuschku »

Shank wrote: post #251
kuschku wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> but you can build and run your own apps outside of the store with a free developer account as of a couple years ago.

That doesn’t really help when you want to use the apps with a few friends. Honestly, Apple and Google can have whatever they requirements they want for their stores, but they should be forced by law to allow alternative stores.

And you’re right, the cheapest MacBook at 1499 EUR is around 1800 USD. That’s not nearly 3000 bucks, but an entirely different story than the 600€ I paid for my thinkpad or the 700€ I paid for my desktop. And I don’t want it anyway, I’d only use it for Apple development. And I’d already have to pay extra for the iPhone.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#284

Post by framebit »

feld wrote: post #157
git-pull wrote: post #85

I admire the gumption of making a new phone. But controlled obsolescence kills me. The real feature that improves in phones the past few years for me is the software and apps, not the hardware . My wishlist: - Give me a lighter, snappier OS. Not something clunkier and slower and uses more ram, gpu/cpu (aka battery life). - Actually support updates to the things for longer than 2-3 years. - (Not related to this phone)…

> - And physical keyboards. Something for SSH'ing with. There is no market for this product. Nobody wants it except a tiny fraction of the market who work in IT.

Blind, partially sighted, and arthritic folks can all benefit from physical keyboards. Blind and partially sighted might be a smaller niche, but older folks with arthritic hands are a huge population. It's hard to be exact on a virtual keyboard when your eyes and fingers don't work the same as younger, able-bodied person.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#286

Post by ariofrio »

Give me software updates for 7+ years, then we'll talk about buying your $700 phone. Lasting hardware means nothing without lasting software.

In the meanwhile, I'll keep buying $120 phones (Moto G4 with Amazon Ads FTW) and keeping them for ~2 years until they break or software updates stop. Even though as a Catholic (Laudato Si, Rerum Novarum) it kills me to waste all those materials every couple of years and be part of the environmental degradation of our planet.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#287

Post by astrobase_go »

emef wrote: post #218
soperj wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally after 2 years the updates seem to make the Apple product less useable, rather than more.

This used to be the case, but I'd argue not as much anymore. I had the 3gs for ~4 years and by the end it was nearly unusable due to updates (noticeably worse every time). I'm now nearly at the 5 year mark on my 5s and on the latest ios, no problems. It's not as snappy as my wife's new phone but completely usable.

i would agree here. both of my parents and the wife have just as much time logged on their full-updated 5s' as well and, save for foreseeable decrements in battery performance, they think their system performance is generally indistinguishable from new.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#288

Post by jancsika »

epicide wrote: post #262
as1mov wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Manufacturers just stopped making phones with PKB because since Apple wasn't making them, they weren't worth it. It hard to estimate the demand for PKB phones when no one is making them. I'd buy one in heartbeat if one launched with low-mid end specs and less than $400. We've constantly chosen form over functionality. Larger sized phones, fragile build materials(glass over plastic), lesser battery just so…

Decent specs, niche audience, cheap. Pick two.

That applies for niche audience laptops-- for example the gluglug laptop serves a small free-software fanbase but doesn't have decent specs.

But for cellphones, lots of values of "niche audience" end up with, "pick zero." Here are some examples:

1. Hook up a keyboard to ssh into the device. 2. Hardware switch to turn off the baseband OS. 3. Software toggle to turn off the baseband OS. 4. Sandboxed baseband OS that isn't proof-of-concept or impossible to buy and use in the U.S. 5. Free software baseband OS. 6. Open source "tivo-ized" baseband OS. I.e., user can read the source but cannot run modified version. 7. Just glue together a damned RPI with a baseband OS and ship it to me in working order.

Those are just the niches that interest me. Only #8 looks feasible in the near future and its apparently still in the planning stage:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/arsenijs/zerophone

So I think your "niche audience" needs an asterisk that says, "most niches not yet supported."

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#289

Post by baddox »

as1mov wrote: post #248
feld wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - And physical keyboards. Something for SSH'ing with. There is no market for this product. Nobody wants it except a tiny fraction of the market who work in IT.

Not really. Manufacturers just stopped making phones with PKB because since Apple wasn't making them, they weren't worth it. It hard to estimate the demand for PKB phones when no one is making them. I'd buy one in heartbeat if one launched with low-mid end specs and less than $400. We've constantly chosen form over functionality. Larger sized phones, fragile build materials(glass over plastic), lesser battery just so…

What is the draw of a tiny physical keyboard? I can type much faster on an iPhone than with any similarly-sized physical keyboard. The only advantage I can think of is the ability to touch type without paying attention to the screen as closely, but for a phone that doesn't seem like a very big deal.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#290

Post by balls187 »

I found it off-putting that on the home page, the 2nd section about the phone was an interview with the founder with exposition on his intentions.

Seems unnecessarily narcissistic--tell me about the phone and it's features first and sell me on your product.

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