Essential Phone to Roll Out in Late Summer as Sprint Exclusive
Android founder Andy Rubin has just announced a partnership with Sprint, the fourth largest carrier in terms of subscribers in the United States for the launch of the Essential smartphone. The phone is set to be available sometime in late summer.
The highly anticipated phone will work for other networks, though, as the Essential phone is equipped to handle networks other than Sprint. Essential will also be sold unlocked as well, according to The Verge.
According to Rubin, the team behind Essential has made the phone as carrier neutral as they can when it comes to carrier apps. It's a common practice for carriers to add their own apps and branding to Android phones that they partner up with, even those from companies as large as Samsung, for example.
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Niccolo de Masi, speaking to USA Today, explained the reasoning behind partnering with the telco to make Essential a Sprint exclusive handset. "We like to bet where we think the market is going as opposed to where the market was," Masi said, referring to the fact that Sprint currently trails Verizon, At&T and T-Mobile.
"I feel like we are a new brand and a new consumer electronics company and we are partnering with the network of the future," Masi added, expressing hope that the partnership between Sprint and Essential will bring an influx of subscribers.
The Essential phone was unveiled at the end of May, with a price range starting at around $700. Industry observers, however, are concerned if the Essential phone will hit enough volume in sales following their decision to become a Sprint exclusive, according to Tech Crunch.
The phone has a body made up of titanium and ceramic, a choice that Essential claims will make the handset more resistant to drops and scratches. It will have a 5.6-inch display with the requisite thin bezels.
Camera-wise, the device will have an 8-megapixel front camera and a 13-megapixel rear camera, both of which can record video at a 4K resolution.
Essential will be powered by a Qualcomm 835 chip with 4 GB of memory and 128 GB of built-in storage.
