In Defense Of The Essential Phone

In Defense Of The Essential Phone

- Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Like many, my initial reaction to the Essential Phone was that it was a crazy idea. I mean, where does Andy Rubin come off thinking he can come up with a device that’s better than a Google Pixel or a Samsung Galaxy? Rubin may have been the daddy of Android, but the man’s been out of the smartphone game a long time. He’s clearly lost touch with reality.

And then I saw it: the titanium and-ceramic Essential Phone. The first true bezel-less phone and still the one with the least obnoxious notch—in this case, a tiny round eye serves as a cutout to an otherwise bezel-free screen. The phone is gorgeous, the care and mix of materials plus the feature set and promise of expansion via two elegant and inconspicuous Pogo Plugs has poetry to it. I spoke to the engineers, the designers, and they were starry-eyed—in love with their creation and infatuated with the possibilities for the future.