Essential Phone 2 will have a better camera and hardware, confirms Andy Rubin

Essential has accepted the fact that its first Essential phone failed to impress the Android enthusiasts and general smartphone buyers, according to Business Insider. Essential's design lead, Linda Jiang said in an interview, "In general, one thing that we got hit hard with was the quality of our camera. We can say, we heard you and we're going to do it better on the second-gen for sure."

Founder, Andy Rubin has also promised that the next smartphone will have a cleaner and toned down version of Android complemented with a top-end hardware.

The Essential Phone sure did show some potential with its innovative design but failed miserably at the camera front, missing out on basic features such as HDR and below par low-light performance. The device despite having support from US carriers such as Sprint and huge price slashes failed to attract customers and reviewers alike.

The company also failed to build an ecosystem of modules like a detachable 360-camera and a smart speaker that never saw sunlight. While the company did roll out updates for its camera, it failed to fix some of the serious issues with its low-light performance and autofocus speed.

Besides, a patent filed by the company also surfaced weeks ago. The patent is said to be granted to the company in 2017 after having filed it in 2016.

The patent shows a pop-up camera with depict diagrams and how the phone will shape up. The documents also describe how the new camera design will operate. The concept looks similar to what Vivo showcased at the MWC 2018 dubbed as the Apex.

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Interestingly, the pop-up camera isn't the only common thing between the two. Essential's patent also shows a near bezel-less display with a notch on top of the screen. The patent is labeled as a method to maximize the screen size by removing the front camera from the panel and place it within the unit which extends out from the inside.

The only difference between Vivo Apex's camera and Essential's concept is that the camera pops up from different sides of the frame. Essential's focus is on saving the screen real estate and enable users to make use of the bigger display in a small form factor. The new camera design will help the company achieve what they have been aiming for.

(source)