Essential Phone Will Be Shipped in a 'Few Weeks', Says Andy Rubin

Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone was unveiled in June this year, and it attracted a lot of hype on launch. At the time of launch, the father of Android had promised the smartphone to reach its customers in 30 days. However, the 30-day limit has come and gone, and now, Rubin has finally acknowledged the delay, and has claimed that the Essential Phone will be in the hands of the customers ‘in a few weeks’.

Rubin has released an official statement on Twitter acknowledging the delay of the smartphone. The Essential Phone is now going through certification and testing with multiple US and international carriers, Rubin says. Furthermore, he confirmed that the smartphone will be shipped in a few weeks. Here’s Rubin’s full statement:

“I personally wanted to thank you for putting your name down for our first smartphone. We’ve been hard at work getting everything ready and the good news is that we’re now going through certification and testing with multiple US and international carriers.

You might be getting impatient to get your hands on your new Essential Phone (and I’m also impatient to get it to you!) but rest assured that you will have a device in your hands in a few weeks.

In the meantime, give us a shout out using #thisisessential to show the team that sweating the details and working long hours to get this device shipped is worth it.” Andy

Essential Phone price and release date

The Essential Phone is available in Black Moon, Stellar Grey, Pure White, and Ocean Depths colour options. The price of the smartphone starts at $699 (roughly Rs. 45,200), but you can buy it with a 360-degree camera for $749 (roughly Rs. 48,400). Design-wise, the Essential Phone boasts of a futuristic aesthetic with an almost edge to edge display, a dual camera setup, and a fingerprint scanner situated at the back, and no visible signs of a logo. As we mentioned, the display is worth noting as it is edge-to-edge, with only a thin bottom bezel. The flushed camera design keeps the phone free of any unsightly bumps. The metal edges house the volume keys and power button on the right side of the smartphone. The Essential Phone is made of titanium and ceramic. There’s also a pair of magnetic pins at the back for a modular accessory system that is expected to "keep your phone cord-free, future-proof, and always up-to-date."

Essential Phone specifications

Coming to the specifications, the Android 7.1.1 Nougat based Essential Phone sports a 5.7-inch edge-to-edge QHD (1312x2560 pixels) display with 19:10 aspect ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. It is powered by the 64-bit Snapdragon 835 octa-core (2.45GHz Quad + 1.9GHz Quad) processor with Adreno 540 GPU and 4GB RAM. Internal storage is limited to 128GB. There’s a 13-megapixel dual camera setup at the back with RGB and monochrome capabilities in each lens, with hybrid autofocus, phase detect, IR Laser Assist Focus, and 4K video support. At the front there is an 8-megapixel selfie sensor with f/2.2 aperture, 16:9 aspect ratio, and 4K video support here as well. The battery is at 3040mAh with fast charging support. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Bluetooth v5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, NFC, GPS, USB Type-C port, Nano-SIM support, and GLONASS. The dimensions of the Essential Phone are at 141.5x72.2x7.8mm, and the smartphone weighs less than 185 grams.