In January, Andy Rubin was said to have been working on a high-end, modular, Android smartphone that focussed on artificial intelligence. Fast forward two months and the co-founder of Android OS has tweeted out what seems to be an image of the smartphone itself.
In the image, we can see super thin bezels and a rounded-edge display. On the display we can see icons for cellular connectivity, battery, and clock. It seems like Xiaomi’s Mi Mix is going to have a competitor real soon, and from the creator of Android no less.
https://twitter.com/Arubin/status/846396881668210688
No other solid details around the specifications was revealed.
From what we heard in the past, Rubin has created a new company called ‘Essential’ which has a 40-member team made of former Apple and Alphabet Inc (Google) employees. They will be working on consumer hardware such as smartphones, smart home accessories and more. Their star product will be this high-end smartphone with an edge-to-edge, bezel-less display.
Other rumours suggest that the phone will support a pressure-sensitive display, like the iPhone, and will feature an industrial design with metal edges and a ceramic back. It will also feature a proprietary connector, which will charge the device and could be used for expanding the phone’s future functionality, like adding modules.
This phone is expected to arrive by mid-2017 and could have a price tag of about $649 (around Rs 44,500).