The phone from the creator of Android received 1 point out of 10 on the scale of maintainability iFixit

About phone Essential Phone , designed by the creator of the Android system Andy Rubin , said for several years. Rubin decided to create a new type of phone after he became disillusioned with all the devices currently available on the market. He founded the company Essential, in which he recruited ex-employees from Google, Apple, Samsung and other well-known technology corporations. All this star team began to construct a new phone, the architecture of which was called modular.

True, modules can only be external - it is not possible to change something in the phone (more on that below). In particular, the device works with a 360-degree camera or docking station. The phone display is almost devoid of frames - it was decided to get rid of them at the very beginning, at the first stage of the device creation.

To understand the capabilities of the device, you should look at its characteristics:
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• Display: 5.71 inches, resolution 2560x1312 pixels, LTPS;
• Processor: 8-core Snapdragon 835. 4 cores from 2.45 GHz + 4 from 1.9 GHz;
• Memory: 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of integrated UFS 2.1;
• Camera: main dual 13 megapixel, f / 1.85 and 8 megapixel front, f / 2.2;
• Battery: 3040 mAh, fast charging;
• Dimensions: 141.571.17.8 mm, 185 g.

Together with the phone was presented a docking station that allows you to charge the phone without wires. It is equipped with magnetic connectors.

In general, everything is not bad, there are some unusual functions, although the phone itself is hardly revolutionary. Its disadvantages are the lack of a headphone port, problems with the camera, plus no protection against water.

Well, what about repair?

And here everything is really bad. The maintainability of the phone was checked by the iFixit resource team . So, the difficulties began at the very beginning, when the masters tried to separate the display. It turned out to be glued, and so firmly that to separate the screen, the phone had to freeze the phone with a special spray.



Usually screens that are glued can be easily separated from the base after heating. But not in this case. Heating did not help, so the freeze went into play. Only with its help the screen was able to be separated from the case, although not without difficulty. The guys from iFixit say that they did not have to freeze the whole phone, it is not necessary, it is enough just to cool the surface.

The screen could not be removed without damage - Gorilla Glass 5 tempered glass cramped. So, most likely, any attempt to open the phone will cause the situation to repeat. Under the screen was a metal plate with a heat pipe. It also serves as a screen (in the sense of shielding the radiation) and a heat sink.



Another problem is the pinout of the USB-C port on the motherboard. If something happens to him, you will have to change it with a qualified master. Not in the sense that this can usually be done in a sharashka, but in the fact that in the current situation this is a really difficult task that requires very fine work. In this case, there is always a chance not to cope, so then you have to change the entire board.

The experts noted that the battery is not soldered, but is attached with a special adhesive tape. True, it was also not easy to separate the battery. But not as difficult as in the case of glass.



The camera with a speaker (spoken) also turned out to be modular. Experts noted that the smartphone used mainly components manufactured by Samsung (in the first place, it is the RAM and flash memory chips). Expected, LTE module, WiFi, audio codec released by Qualcomm.

A few points on the phone gave the fact that, firstly, his accessories are really modular. Secondly, some components can still be separated from the case without much difficulty. And the third is the use of standard screws, all of them are Phillips / JIS. This is a big plus compared to the iPhone, where different types of fasteners are used.



But all these three advantages did not help - Essential Phone received an overall low score. 1 out of 10 - this means that the phone is almost unsuitable for repair. Deal with him can only professionals of the highest standard, and then not without problems. There are too many implicit fixings, adhesive tape, glue and strips, which in any opportunity tend to tear. In general, buying a phone for $ 699 you need to be very careful - most likely, in the near future no one will undertake to repair it.