Smartphones: Meet The ‘Essential Phone'

“The father of Android has a new baby,” said Roger Cheng and Richard Nieva on CNET.com.

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Andy Rubin, the pioneering technologist who created the Android operating system that now runs on 2 billion devices, is out to reinvent the smartphone category yet again – with a new handset dubbed the Essential Phone. At first glance, the $699 device “looks like a typical premium phone.” What makes it “essential” is that it runs a pure version of Android, without the unnecessary apps and other “bloatware” that manufacturers and wireless carriers have crammed in over the years. Nor is it slathered with logos and other branding. Rubin, who sold Android to Google in 2005, also “promises a phone that evolves with you.” The Essential Phone can be upgraded with accessories that magnetically snap on to the back of the device. The first accessory, which will ship with the phone when it goes