"your phone will always be secure and have the latest features."
Until 2 years passes...Apple supports their devices much longer than 2 years.
Essential Phone, available now
331–340 of 695 posts
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#332I 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.
Well, the guy founded Android so it would be interesting to know what he has to say.
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#333Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously, my phone should just work, it is not an expression of anything.
Playing devil's advocate, is that not itself a statement of sorts?
I'd say so, I have the same mentality and only buy Sony Xperias & ThinkPads.
I like functional black slabs that don't try to be "trendy"
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#334I 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)…
You should consider eSIM. SIM data will be stored on your smartphone without any SIM card and you can use multiple SIMs at the same time. Much better than Dual SIM.
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#335Random but, whenever a new company comes with a dot com that is a standard word, I wonder how much it cost them. I remember color.com going for something like a quarter of a mill. Essential.com has to be in that ballpark.
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Security update for one. Idk about 1-2 years, but if it doesn't get security updates I'm not getting email/sms/etc on it
But your email app will still get updates right? (I guess I'm using Gmail and assuming you are using something like it that gets updates too, but maybe I'm wrong.) Same with SMS - lots of apps that get updates. What's the exact issue?
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#337Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the entire blog post is meant to address that question. It is trying to differentiate from the cheap Android phones. For me this is the most interesting point: > Devices shouldn’t become outdated every year. They should evolve with you. Also the design looks much nicer than average cheap Android phones.
> Devices shouldn’t become outdated every year. They only promised 3 years of security updates.
Which is basically what any other Android phone manufacturer would offer for their flagship phones, except for the fact that they don't guarantee it. Samsung, HTC, Sony, Google, even LG, all have similar track records with the margin of error within half a year or so.
Make me a $200 phone with 3 years of updates and I'll be impressed, or an Android flagship with 5 years.
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#338You want fixable and well designed, long software updates, and a good price?
Buy an (old) iPhone.
I've got a 5S -- still perfectly fast for what I use it for (email, youtube, brokerage account, general internet, some small games), and is getting OS updates and security patches until IOS11. It's $120 on eBay; a new screen can be had for $13, a new battery for $11. it's solidly designed and there's a gigantic field of accessories and apps.
Maybe titanium and no bezels are worth a price premium, but there's no way it's worth a 5x increase in price.
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#339Earlier 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.
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 ridic…
Have you tried swiping keyboards ? I don't think it's for everyone, there's only a few that do it well, and afaik none open-source which does it all (though I believe the functionality is in development for ASK); however I find that the GBoard with swiping and multiple languages is a very decent way to type text for most usage.
If you have a heavy use of the symbols we find on common keyboards, sure a physical keyboard might be better... But then once again good luck if it's not the layout of your heart.
I don't there's an easy solution for these glass slabs but I think that software keyboards have gone quite a decent way from what they were 4 or 5 years ago.
Re: Essential Phone, available now
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does it have a floppydrive?
This is not a really fair comparison. For a device whose primary purpose is generally media consumption, a headphone jack is a real feature. To me it's currently a must as I don't want to buy more head phones when I already have a few really good pairs.
I know you say generally, but I usually use my phone for communication, not media consumption. It may be an age bracket thing, as the folks I associate with seem to be much the same. At most, I browse the web.