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Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

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

#81

Post by piyush_soni »

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…

- "And let's be honest. No one cares about a camera phone"

- "And let's be honest. No one cares about having 2 GB RAM on a phone"

- "And let's be honest. No one cares about "

New processors are not only 'faster' but also more energy efficient, which is an equally (or more) important thing especially now when we've reached high speeds even in basic (/cheap) smartphones. As long as they're not going backwards, I don't see a reason why these companies should not go with them.

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

#83

Post by raverbashing »

raesene6 wrote: post #39

I like the idea of tougher phones, but to me it misses the mark to talk about the titanium phone case surviving corner drop tests, it's the glass that's the problem. The number of people I've seen wandering around with cracked phone screens from drops is quite high, and is the reason I put a case which covers the front on every phone I buy. So having no phone case here just means you get the usual after market screen…

Correct

Apart from major damage I care much less about damage to the shell than I care about damage to the glass

But their drop test conveniently misses that

Drop it face down and we'll talk

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

#84

Post by homero »

nailer wrote: post #68
homero wrote: post #64

All I want is the best processor, most ram, micro sd, replaceable battery and root. Why can't anyone deliver this? I'm here cracking a v20 when I could be happier.

Because more people want to consume DRM content than who want root. Not saying this is good or bad, it just is.

Drm mostly works on root now and root can still be a choice. Just made easier, I had to use dirtycow on this phone.

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

#85

Post by jjoonathan »

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.

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

#86

Post by canuckintime »

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…

> 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.

... you so realize that your hot take is the minority opinion, right? The vast majority of customers consistently choose phones based on hardware features.

> 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.

Google's phones always launch with the cutting edge version of Android and receives consistent updates. Isn't that the experience exclusivity you're clamoring for?

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

#88

Post by pawadu »

vog wrote: post #46
whisdol wrote: post #36

They seem to avoid mentioning the version of Android they are running - the specs only say "Android". I'd like to be exited about this, but this uncertainty combined with the fact that their security personnel is a team of dogs[1] makes it quite hard for me. [1] https://www.essential.com/about

Moreover, their whole website is not accessible when JavaScript is blocked, leaving the impression that security-minded people are not their target audience at all - which is really a pity!

Do you think the guy that designs their web site and the guy that works on phone security are even remotely related?

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

#89

Post by clouddrover »

hbbio wrote: post #9

Ok, a new phone made by the creator of Android which claims to be extremely well built. However, since most phones now tend to reach the "good enough" level, my main question is about software and left unanswered. What version/flavour of Android does it run? How will updates be planned? For how many years will updates be provided? What's the size of the security team at Essential? Providing an up-to-date Android with…

> What version/flavour of Android

I hope they offer a Windows 10 option in the future. Full Windows 10 on ARM with x86 Win32 emulation offers capability not available on Android or iOS. Being able to run Win32 software on the device would be very useful for a lot of people.

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

#90

Post by jjoonathan »

raesene6 wrote: post #39

I like the idea of tougher phones, but to me it misses the mark to talk about the titanium phone case surviving corner drop tests, it's the glass that's the problem. The number of people I've seen wandering around with cracked phone screens from drops is quite high, and is the reason I put a case which covers the front on every phone I buy. So having no phone case here just means you get the usual after market screen…

My intuition says that it's very difficult to get a phone to impact glass-first and that 99% of all drops are going to see it dance on the corners, if only for an invisible fraction of a second, before flopping/sliding down on the glass. My intuition also says that those corner impacts are going to be a much greater threat to the hardened glass than the final face-first flop/slide.

The universe doesn't necessarily obey my intuition, of course, but since it differs quite dramatically from yours I thought I'd mention that there's an alternative model of the problem which supports the actions Essential Products is taking.

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