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Essential Phone, available now

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Re: Essential Phone, available now

#301

Post by balls187 »

fiatjaf wrote: post #173
0xbear wrote: post #46

Now we'll know exactly how many Andy Rubin fanboys there are in the world. Why would anyone else buy a $700+ phone from a startup which might not even be there next year? My prediction: a few tens of thousand units will be sold mostly in the US, darn near zero anywhere else.

"Mostly in the US"? Of course, it's only being sold in the US. Do you know how awful it is for a single customer to try to buy something from another country?

> Do you know how awful it is for a single customer to try to buy something from another country?

Would you mind elaborating?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#302

Post by throwaway613834 »

framebit wrote: post #284
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.

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.

Does "they can all benefit" mean "I think they would benefit" or does it mean "they have actually been demanding this due to the benefit"?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#303

Post by [deleted] »

nradov wrote: post #226
ProAm wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Batteries don't last that long still, last I heard you get about 1000 charges before you need to do serious maintenance to a phone, in which case you'll probably want the latest and greatest anyhow.

This is just another example of consumer hostile planned obsolescence. Rechargeable batteries are consumables. Most cell phones used to have removable batteries so when it wouldn't hold a charge any more you could easily replace. Now most phones have integrated batteries which can only be replaced with an expensive and inconvenient visit to a repair center.

[deleted]

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#304

Post by jads »

framebit wrote: post #284
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.

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.

but one could also make the argument that a tiny, cramped, physical QWERTY keyboard is not going to be of benefit to elderly users with arthritis?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#305

Post by afandian »

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.

I just can't type on screens. I have tried so many times. My current phone is a Blackberry Passport, previous one was an HTC Desire Z, and my next one (fingers crossed) will be this: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini-pda-android-linux-...

I'd like to ssh sometimes, but mostly I want to send text and emails like everyone else.

Shame that few companies have the guts to break the monoculture. It is vaguely ridiculous that most phones look identical.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#306

Post by bagacrap »

"Premium materials and true craftsmanship shouldn’t just be for the few. [...] we've tried to make our phone as affordable as possible [...] you can get an unlocked Essential Phone for just $699"

By what standard is this affordable?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#307

Post by the_common_man »

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.

you are no longer required to have a developer account in order to test your apps on your Mac and/or iOS device. to publish apps you still need the account.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#308

Post by CaptSpify »

collyw wrote: post #270
CaptSpify wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hazard to say Ubuntu didn't try it, they just looked like they were going to try it, but never did. Releasing only a handful of phones, not making a fully functional 1.0 release isn't trying, it's just testing the waters.

I bought an Ubunutu phone. It had potential but it was too late to the game. It didn't get any developer momentum behind it, so it was lacking in apps, while Android got way better in the year and a half that I owned one.

I kind of agree. The Ubuntu phone was the first phone I've had that I didn't hate. That being said, it wasn't ever stable enough to get developers behind it, so it didn't have very many apps.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#309

Post by throwaway613834 »

ariofrio wrote: post #286

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…

I'm on Android 4 as I'm typing this and the only reason I'm even considering a new phone is that apps have gotten a bit more demanding of the CPU, i.e. my hardware is too slow for a handful of apps now. What do you find so critical about OS/OEM software updates that you find a need to buy a new phone every 1-2 years?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#310

Post by davemp »

tjoff wrote: post #193
davemp wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And physical keyboards. Something for SSH'ing with. Biggest thing I want is no aux port but __two__ (or more) usb-c ports instead. That way you can do stuff like plug in a keyboard/monitor or other standalone usb devices. I don't want to be forced to use weird all in one hubs for specific use cases. I want the UNIX philosophy with my hardware.

Just buy a usb hub instead?

That's kind of clunky and may cause issues with multiplexing high bandwidth protocols like monitors.
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