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Out with the old, in with the new: LineageOS cut support for Android 9 Pie earlier this year, and to make up for the loss, the open-source project has just released version 18.1 based on Android 11. It comes with official support for about 60 phones and tablets.
For a company that laid a third of its staff off last year and whose future in smartphones seems uncertain, Essential is doing incredibly well with updates. Even though the Essential Phone has been officially discontinued, Andy Rubin & co continue to pump out security patches the same day as Google, and nothing's changed in that department for July.
Hot on the heels of Google pushing the latest update to the Pixel devices, Essential shows it still means business and has issued its February security patch for the Essential Phone PH-1.
In a move that will surprise few at this point, Essential pushed out the latest Android 9 Pie release with October security patches within minutes of Google. Perhaps more exciting is the fact that with this update, the company is bringing back notch support.
Even stock Android isn't perfect. While the lack of a heavy-handed skin is welcome, many users will find shortcomings (whether personal or widely acknowledged by the user base at large), that they'd like to tweak. Those users will be glad to know that the one and likely only Essential Phone, one of the few stock Android devices on the market, is now supported by TWRP.
Deemed just “essentially okay” by Ryan shortly after its launch, when it was still selling for $700, the Essential Phone was essentially a must-buy earlier this week, at a discounted price of $250. Bargain hunters who are only starting to get accustomed to the divisive Andy Rubin-created device may want to know the company answers questions every month on Reddit.
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Prime Day is upon us, and the deals are piling up. Essential's PH-1 is going for just $250 — that's $450 off its launch price and more than $200 off its previous price. The deal began today at noon, Pacific time, and runs until 7 a.m. tomorrow morning (or until the phones sell out).
Essential is in trouble. The PH-1 didn't do too well for a number of reasons, though it was significantly improved upon with consistent and quick updates. Even in its current situation, the company is continuing to provide excellent update support, having just pushed several fixes for its Android P Developer Preview.
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According to Bloomberg, Essential, an up-and-coming phone manufacturer, is reportedly calling it quits, canceling its second phone and putting out a "For Sale" sign. The company, founded by Android's creator Andy Rubin, has supposedly hired an outside firm to advise it on a potential sale, with one suitor allegedly showing interest.
Essential has been steadily instilling more and more features into the PH-1, many of which have concerned the camera. Most recently, the Essential Camera app has seen autoHDR and 360-degree live-streaming added. Today Essential announced via Twitter that Tiny Planet mode and "flash" for the front-facing camera (read: white burst from the screen) are bundled in the latest Essential Camera update.
Essential Phone owners can now opt in to receive beta builds via an OTA, versus having to sideload the firmware. For some, this is a godsend since it eliminates the somewhat difficult process of sideloading in order to test the latest (in this case Oreo) goodness. User nobeconobe posted this in the Essential subreddit, so kudos to that person.
By now, it should be apparent that the Essential Phone hasn't sold in the numbers that Andy Rubin and co. had thought it would. Having started at an MSRP of $699, the PH-1 dropped to $499 just two months after release (and to $650 CAD in Canada). On top of that, there have been numerous opportunities to get the phone for even more cheaply, including through a $200 friends-and-family discount and an incredible Cyber Monday Amazon deal. After all this, it looks like Essential has only sold around 50,000 units of the PH-1, if install figures from the Play Store of the Essential Camera are to be trusted. That's not very impressive.
Hot on the heels of Samsung and its Oreo beta for the Galaxy S8, for which an update has already been released, Essential has posted an Oreo beta image for owners to flash. Also now present are regular factory images, which were previously unavailable. The only caveat is that you must sideload it via ADB; there's no OTA.
The Essential Phone wasn't at the top of our list when it came out, and while there were a lot of little reasons for that, the prime determiner of its value—and our disappointment—was the price. At $700 it wasn't really worth it. But when the phone dropped down to $500 earlier this week our opinion changed drastically. And now it turns out there's even a way to get one for just $300 plus taxes. That is, if you are lucky enough to know someone that plopped down the $700 full price.
Essential Inc, created by Android co-founder Andy Rubin, launched its first smartphone earlier this year. The new company has already been subject to legal action, specifically from case manufacturer Spigen over its use for the 'Essential' brand name. Now it is being sued again, this time by Keyssa Inc, over the phone's connector for modular accessories.
Essential, the tech startup by Android co-founder Andy Rubin, released its first phone back in August. There has been exactly zero ROM development for the PH-1, but part of that is because Essential had yet to release the phone's kernel source code. Just over a month since it started shipping to customers, the PH-1's kernel source is now available to download.
Ever since the Essential phone and X were announced, do you find yourself staring longingly at your fully rectangular display (rounded corners don't count) and wish, just hope, that part of it would disappear and you'd get a black notch up top? Something to hide that ugly middle of the notification bar, something to make you feel as if only 3 or 4 icons on each side of it mattered, and anything else can go to hell? Information overload is real, you don't need to see everything your phone can display so you can just skip the middle part. Like any okay movie, it's the start and the end that will stick with you.
It's hard to deny that the Essential Phone has some good-looking hardware. Its titanium frame and ceramic back might make the phone a bit more durable, but what happens when you do break the phone? iFixit has just torn down Andy Rubin's new phone, and the results are not good.
Even before the Essential Phone was released, we knew the camera wasn't going to be very good. Sure enough, once the phone got into the hands of reviewers, the camera was by far the most disappointing aspect of the device. But most of the problem doesn't appear to be with the camera sensor, but with Essential's software.
Android co-founder Andy Rubin officially unveiled the first smartphone from his new startup, the Essential Phone, back in May of this year. With a near bezel-less design, flagship specifications, and stock Android, the phone certainly seemed like a winner. But the promised 30-day shipping period came and went, with nary a word from Essential.