Essential Phone is not essential anymore. Essential will shut down on April 30, 2020, even though it was launched with much hype among tech enthusiasts. The interesting fact is that the company hasn’t launched any new devices after the launch of the Essential PH-1 smartphone.
Founded by Android creator Andy Rubin, the Telus customers, and open market clients had received the February Security Update, which happens to be the final one according to the blog post. The company took to Twitter and revealed that customers should check their Essential Phone for the update.
Our latest security update is now available for Telus customers and for all Open Market. Check your Essential Phone! pic.twitter.com/VZ8XoYdPFy
— Essential (@essential) February 3, 2020
Going forward, Essential Phone users won’t receive any new updates and bug fixes. Moreover, the company will terminate all staff from its Playground.global office in CA, USA, and Bangalore. The company recently rolled out the Gem phone concept back in October 2019 but the company didn’t found any clear path for the production and delivery of the handset. The company termed the device as Gem and was touted to be different in terms of form factor and narrow profile. The product team to Twitter and revealed that they have made a difficult decision to cease operations and shutdown Essential.
In a statement released to the press, Essential added that the startup doesn’t have any clear path to deliver the Essential Gem to customers. We don’t have any clear indication as to whether the company faced problems with the design, production or funding. The company will cease to exist after April 30 and there will be no future Essential Phone.
The stocks are selling out fast on Amazon with just 6 units left for sale. It remains to be seen as to whether Essential will add more smartphones for sale. The chances are bleak because of the closure of factories in China due to the deadly Coronvirus scare. The company will find it tough to deal with the situation because of the lack of production.
The Essential Gem Phone was supposed to be the affordable handset and was rumored to sell at around $199. The dreams and hopes were dashed when the company announced the closure. The Redmi Note 8 Pro and OnePlus 7T are the major alternatives to the phone that was not essential.
According to the company sources, the Essential PH-1 will continue to work but the company will not provide any additional updates or customer support. If you work with Newton Mail, you can continue to work until April 30, 2020. The company will provide a prebuilt of the PH-1 vendor image to the developers via GitHub. The company thanked the employees, staff members and other community members for showing passion for our vision.
Essential Phone Specifications
Talking about the specifications, the Essential Phone features a 5.71-inch LTPS IPS (2560×1312, 504PPI) Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protected display, Snapdragon 835 processor, Adreno 540 graphics processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB internal storage loaded with Android 7.1 Nougat. The company has closed down and you won’t receive any new updates.
The rear side flaunts a dual camera comprising of 13MP sensors with f/1.9 aperture respectively. The phone provides support for PDAF, Laser AF, LED Flash and HDR. The front camera offers an 8 MP sensor with support for shooting 2160P videos at 30fps. The handset borrows power via the 3040mAh battery.
The company removed the specifications from the official website. The device is available on Amazon in limited quantities. You should note that the phone will not receive any new updates and bug fixes. The Essential Phone is dead and we have to wait and watch for the next startup smartphone.
