Essential Phone 2 reportedly cancelled as company pivots to smart home products

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Some disconcerting news for fans of the Essential Phone. A report by Bloomberg states that the Andy Rubin backed  startup is scrapping plans for a successor to the Essential Phone and is also looking for a buyer to offload the company and assets.

The Essential Phone was one of the first devices to showcase a near bezel-less design and still has the most miniscule 'notch' housing the front-facing camera.

Made of high-grade Titanium and gorilla glass, Essential built-in a modular capability to attach accessories (it also created the smallest 360' camera as one of those accessories). Created because Android originator Andy Rubin didn't see much differentiation in the Android marketplace, Essential Phone was supposed to be the linchpin for various products including smart home accessories.

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Essential now directly sells products in Canada

Essential is taking its products and accessories beyond US soil and is expanding to five other countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK. If you’re interested in buying the Essential Phone or the 360 Camera, you can order directly from Essential.com. As expected there are special terms and conditions, which you can read at the company’s Terms of Sale page. Standard prices seem to apply, so you get the equivalent prices to how the products are priced in the US. Shipping charges will be calculated during checkout and the product is expected to arrive in around five business days. Essential wants to remind its international customers that any taxes, fees, and duties incurred will not be shouldered by the company. They are also not responsible for “risk of loss or failure to delivery due to customs or related issues.” But if you’ve been wanting to get your hands on Essential products, it has gotten much easier to do so now.

Source: Android Police

Essential wants you to embrace the notch (or not) with new update

No matter what your opinion is of the notch, it seems to be here to stay. Essential was one of the first to implement this and they’re giving their users options now on how to deal with this cut-out. When the device first launched, it was designed to fade into the background as much as possible. The phone would “crop” content like games and videos to make sure these don’t flow into where the cut-out was. But now, the latest update gives users three options on how to deal with the notch.

The first one is “Essential Recommended,” which is based on how the company thinks the notch should be made visible or not. It’s a setting that changes on an app-by-app basis. The second option completely hides the feature in landscape mode, which is for those who really don’t want to have to think about the cut-out being there. The last option lets you use the entire screen real estate, meaning you’ll include the areas around the notch.

Source: 9to5Google

Amazon LaunchPad offers One-Day deals on Essential Phones for Innovation Day

For one-day only, customers can shop exciting deals on products from select brands on Amazon Launchpad. Since its inception, Amazon Launchpad has provided countless entrepreneurs and startups the resources and expertise to help sell their products. think of it as a curated Indiegogo or Kickstarter.

With Innovation Day, you’ll not only get the chance to support a new business, but you’ll also get a great deal on some ultra-trendy products. Available during the one-day sale is the Essential Phone PH-1 whch sells at 29 per cent off or $540.99, a great deal for a flagship device. Hit jump for some of the other deals.

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