Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

essential.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 255 posts

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#221

Post by richardboegli »

prodmerc wrote: post #198
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Lasts a full day Many phones do this. Both my iPhone 6 and my iPhone 6s do this and more (usually two days). The issue here is that your use case is likely different than mine. It isn't enough to just say, "full day" without specifying full day doing what.

12 hours with the screen and WiFi or 3g always on. That would be amazing, and it doesn't sound that unachievable. I don't need ultraquadHD resolutions, even 720p is enough.

Have a look at this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14448309

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#222

Post by nailer »

avar wrote: post #74
nailer wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want a phone that: - Lasts a full day - Looks nice That's all. Currently I can buy various 8mm phones with various bad-to-OK cases. Give me a beautiful 16mm phone and software updates and I'll give you my 700 bucks.

You can buy an external case for the iPhone which fits this description, e.g. at http://mophie.com (I have no relation to that site). I'd be happy to sell you one for 700 bucks. Looks like an easy way to make a few hundred dollar profit :)

Yes. I own two. Hence:

> Currently I can buy various 8mm phones with various bad-to-OK cases.

In the post you're replying to.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#223

Post by niho »

jjoonathan wrote: post #85
niho wrote: post #50

There are very good reasons that aluminum is the best option for a mobile phone, rather than titanium. The most important is environmental. Aluminum is more abundant than titanium, it is easier and friendlier to extract/process. It can be recycled (very important!) and it is cheaper. Aluminum also has much better technical qualities. It is much lighter weight and easier to machine. It is softer, which means the casin…

Of the 8 reasons you listed why Al is allegedly superior, 7 are reasons that it's actually the lower-grade product and the 8th (drop resistance) is simply incorrect. To a first approximation, overall acceleration doesn't kill glass or batteries, it's the uneven application of force that kills them. I'd imagine that increasing the rigidity of the frame improves drop resistance a great deal.

Are you trying to argue that being cheaper, lighter weight and recyclable makes aluminum a worse choice for a mass produced mobile device? Are you insane?

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#224

Post by noir_lord »

joatmon-snoo wrote: post #119
Jdam wrote: post #43

> Your phone is your personal property. It’s a public expression of who you are and what you stand for. Just no. It's just a tool that I use to communicate.

> Just no. It's just a tool that I use to communicate. And your treatment of your smartphone as such is a public expression of who you are and what you stand for ;)

I have a nexus 4 that is battered, the back glass got broken a couple of years after I got it and I just taped up the back with black electrical tape.

My gf says I'm the worst geek she's ever known since I use a nearly 7 year old PC, 4 year old laptop and a 4 year old trashed phone.

So if my phone is an expression of anything it's that I don't replace things that still work.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#225

Post by devopsproject »

mrinterweb wrote: post #215
asafira wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think the same about being "good enough", but unfortunately my nexus 5x still struggles to give me a day of battery life, despite the fact that I only check e-mail and chat on it. It's slowness is a little annoying, but definitely good enough.

I don't have battery problems with my 5x. If I'm not using mine much, it will last two days on a charge. Sounds to me like you may want to consider replacing your battery. A $5-10 new battery and ~15 minutes of your time, may be worth it.

If he has a bad cell signal, replacing the battery won't make any difference. He needs to look at his stats.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#226

Post by devopsproject »

Eridrus wrote: post #160
shubhamjain wrote: post #62

It doesn't seem premium Android phones have something spectacular to differentiate. Sure, you can spice up the camera, make the body more glossy, and add a beautiful screen. But the software is just another commodity that would be available for 1/3rd the price. That's why Google Pixel would always feel exorbitant even when the price is almost close to Apple iPhone. Seeing Essential's price tag, I have the same viscer…

I've come to the conclusion that neither I, nor the majority of HN, have any clue what sorts of consumer electronics will actually succeed. I was annoyed when Google killed the Nexus line and replaced them with Pixels and hoped it would fail so that we would get the Nexus line back, but they've been unable to keep up with demand. Similarly this page spends a lot of time talking about cameras, which I have zero intere…

> but they've been unable to keep up with demand

They sold out early and had long periods where no stock was available. This seems to point to a supply side issue, not a demand side problem

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#227

Post by Steko »

apexalpha wrote: post #71

What is it with these companies putting the latest SnapDragon CPUs in their mobile devices? No one cares about CPU performance. I've got a SD820 now in my Axon 7, and I can tell you there is 0 difference with a SD625 in daily use. Except that the SD625 is cheaper and has an incredible battery life. The only company realising that people care about UX in stead of specs seems to be Xiaomi. Consistently choosing SD625 a…

> No one cares about CPU performance.

Huh, everyone cares how fast they browse the web. 835 trounces the 625 in JS/web benchmarks by a factor of 2-3 or more:

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph11201/Snapdragon_835...

That's Mozilla's benchmark. The Moto Z Play on the bottom is the only phone on the list with a 625. Its score would have been good in 2013.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#228

Post by nojvek »

Animats wrote: post #204

First-world problem: what business to start when you have too much money and no really good ideas. - Private space program? Everybody's done that. - Sports team? Not into sports enough. - Museum? Boring. - Supercar company? IC engines are so last-cen and electrics mean competing with Elon. - Super high end phone? Yeah!

I still think a robotics company for the masses is something waiting for a billionare to indulge in.

Its 2017 and where is my "Rosie the maid" from jetsons? It should be here by now. I hate doing house chores.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#229

Post by zmix »

jvzr wrote: post #123
zmix wrote: post #102

I want: - 4 buttons on the finger's side, one jogwheel/microswitch at the thumb. Buttons are configurable/contextual. Of course, also touch-screen - expandable flash - best mobile camera to date - Android (no bloat, unlocked, easily rootable) - no bezel - great battery - size of Xperia Compact Z3 but thinner - withstands rain and beach - upperclass CPU/GFX/RAM/Flash

“Et cent balles et un mars,” as we delicately put it in France.

Hehe. As you get older you don't have time to wait for things to evolve, which long time ago already have evolved. Technically it's possible, because we have seen it. Now all should go into one device. What's so difficult about it? I would have thought, that an engineer comes up with something better than the marketing team.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#230

Post by ReverseCold »

mrinterweb wrote: post #215
asafira wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think the same about being "good enough", but unfortunately my nexus 5x still struggles to give me a day of battery life, despite the fact that I only check e-mail and chat on it. It's slowness is a little annoying, but definitely good enough.

I don't have battery problems with my 5x. If I'm not using mine much, it will last two days on a charge. Sounds to me like you may want to consider replacing your battery. A $5-10 new battery and ~15 minutes of your time, may be worth it.

If you get more apps (even if you don't always use them), those apps are allowed to drain all your battery. I'm pretty sure that's not the case on iOS.

(No, nothing is in my notification tray or scheduled.)

Post reply on HN