Essential Phone release date, news and features

The Essential Phone has just been announced, and this handset by the man behind Android is looking to shake up the mobile space with a bold design, modular features and a big, bezel-free screen.

It's a flagship phone and it's not cheap, but it could do enough different to justify the price tag.

Here is everything you need to know about the Essential Phone, from when you can buy it, to why you might want to.

Cut to the chase

What is it? A flagship phone from the creator of Android
When is it out? Soon
What will it cost? $699 (around £545, AU$940)

Essential Phone release date and price

It's up for pre-order in the US
Costs $699 (around £545/AU$940)

The Essential Phone has been announced and you can already pre-order it in the US for $699 (around £545/AU$940).

There's no shipping date yet though and no news on if or when it will launch in other countries.

Essential Phone screen

An edge-to-edge screen
5.71-inch, 2560 x 1312 display

The Essential Phone has a 5.71-inch 2560 x 1312 edge-to-edge display, and when we say edge-to-edge, we really mean it, as there's almost no bezel here, with just a small sliver at the bottom and a cut-out for the front-facing camera.

Essential is calling it 'Full Display' and despite the large size the small bezels should help it comfortably fit in your hand.

It has a 19:10 aspect ratio, which means that, like the 18:9 Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6, it's more widescreen than a typical 16:9 phone.

Essential Phone design

A ceramic and titanium build

The Essential Phone is made from a combination of ceramic and titanium. Those are unusual material choices, and the titanium was apparently used because it's harder, stronger and more resilient than aluminum, so more likely to survive a scratch or a fall.

However, while it's likely to be durable there's no mention of waterproofing, so you won't want to get it wet.

It's also surprisingly compact given the size of the screen, coming in at 141.5 x 71.1 x 7.8mm and 185g. For comparison, despite having a smaller 5.5-inch screen the iPhone 7 Plus is 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3mm.

It comes in 'Black Moon' or 'Pure White' colors, with 'Stellar Grey' and 'Ocean Depths' shades launching soon. It sports a plain back, with just a fingerprint scanner and camera breaking it up - there's not even an Essential logo.

Essential Phone camera

Dual 13MP rear cameras
An 8MP front-facing one

The Essential Phone has dual 13MP f/1.85 rear cameras, with one color lens and one monochrome (black and white) one.

It's apparently the thinnest dual camera system built for a phone and the two lenses combine to capture up to 200% more light than traditional phone cameras, which could prove especially handy in low-light.

It's a similar setup to the Huawei P10, and like that phone you can also use just the monochrome lens for true black and white shots.

There's an 8MP camera on the front, and both front and rear cameras can shoot video in 4K.

Essential Phone battery

3,040mAh battery
Fast charging

There's a 3,040mAh battery in the Essential Phone, which isn't massive, but is marginally larger than the 3,000mAh one in the Samsung Galaxy S8.

It supports fast charging via a USB Type-C port, and Essential is also launching a charging dock which will connect magnetically, rather than using cables.

Essential Phone OS and power

A Snapdragon 835 chipset
4GB of RAM
128GB of storage

The Essential Phone has a flagship Snapdragon 835 chipset - the same as powers the HTC U11 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium.

It's an octa-core chip with four cores running at 2.45GHz and four at 1.9GHz. That's been paired with 4GB of RAM, so on paper this is just as powerful as other recent flagships.

The phone also has 128GB of storage (though seemingly no microSD card slot) and runs Android. It's not clear how heavily skinned Essential's take on the OS will be though.

Essential Phone other features

Hardware attachments to add extra functionality
No headphone port

One way the Essential Phone aims to stand out is through hardware attachments that click into place via a magnetic connector on the back of the phone.

So far Essential has announced a charging dock and a 360-degree camera. There's no pricing for the dock yet, but the camera costs $50 (around £40/AU$65) if you pre-order, with a standard price of $199 (roughly £155/AU$270).

One thing the Essential Phone won't have is a 3.5mm headphone port, but there will be a headphone dongle in the box.