Andy Rubin's Essential Phone was just announced
today and it's a pretty interesting device, to say the least. Built with ease
of use and freedom of choice in mind, the handset has a few features that stand
out, its modular capabilities among them.
So, the Essential Phone rocks two tiny magnetic
connectors on its back. These allow for Essential modules to be attached to the
phone with a simple snap and provide charge and data transfers. Right now,
there are two modules available — the tiny but very promising 360 camera, and a
charging dock / mat. It seems that the company intends on keeping the connector
as a standard for years to come, as it promises that this feature is
“future-proof”. We can only assume that more modules may be in the works and
that they will be able to fit different generations of the Essential Phone,
just how Motorola's Moto Z modules are promised to be cross-generation
compatible.
The Essential 360-degree camera looks a lot like the
LG 360 Cam, only it's much, much smaller and has the proprietary magnetic
connectors on it, which latch on to the Essential Phone. The camera sports two
12 MP sensors on either side. The 360 effect is achieved thanks to the
210-degree lenses over said sensors — the imagery from both sides gets
overlapped and stitched together into a photosphere. It's capable of achieving
a 3840 x 1920 pixel resolution at 30 FPS and records audio from 4 separate
microphones for better stereo imaging.
When we said that the camera is tiny, we weren't
kidding. It measures at 2.6 x 1.25 x 0.47 inches (67 x 32 x 12 mm) and weighs a
measly 1.23 Oz (35 g). This should make it extremely easy for users to carry
the camera around without it feeling like a cumbersome accessory.