Category: Essential Phone

Today’s Deal is on the Essential Phone, the PH-1.  As readers will know, this is the first phone from Andy Rubin’s company and after a few software updates that have come out for it, the PH-1 has proven to be a solid performer.  Right now you can pick on up for $434 on Amazon, a savings of $264.  That price is for either the Black Moon or Pure White colors.

The Essential Phone has a titanium body with a ceramic back, a 5.7″ 2560 x 1320 Quad-HD display, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage built-in.  It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.  This octa-core processor has four cores running at 2.45GHz and the remaining four clocked at 1.9GHz.

The Essential Phone has a new update rolling out that owners will want to install as soon as it is available for their device.  The update is build NMJ88C and it brings fixes for both the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities as well as the January Android Security Update patch.  The update is small so you can download it via your mobile data connection but WiFi is always recommended.

The update means that the Essential Phone will be one of the first phones outside of Google’s own devices to have the January security update.

For those that haven’t kept up, the Spectre and Meltdown security flaws were announced last week and are a fundamental issue with Intel, AMD and ARM processors.  If exploited, these vulnerabilities would allow for sensitive data to be stolen from the phone via memory that is normally off limits to the kernel.  It is a big deal and software developers like Google, Microsoft and Apple are having to address it quickly.  Phone manufactures, like Essential, will need to build fixes into their particular Android builds too.

If you have been wanting to get your hands on the Pure White edition of the Essential Phone, you can get one at Amazon right now at a great price.  Featuring all of the same specs, the Pure White version is down to $499 on Amazon, a savings of $200.

The phone got off to a bit of a rough start but through multiple software updates, it has become one of the best out there.  As I posted earlier this morning, the December Android Security Update is already rolling out for the phone.

The Essential Phone has a titanium body with a ceramic back, a 5.7″ 2560 x 1320 Quad-HD display, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage built-in.  It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.  This octa-core processor has four cores running at 2.45GHz and the remaining four clocked at 1.9GHz.

Good news this morning for those of you who have an unlocked Essential Phone.  The company has begun rolling out an update that brings the December Android Security Update to the device.  It will make Essential one of the first beyond Google themselves to get the December update out to end users.

The update is build NMJ51B for those keeping score at home and, based on Essential’s twitter post about the update, it appears that the update contains only this security patch.

We’re currently rolling out a software update (build NMJ51B) with December security patches.

— Essential (@essential) December 5, 2017

It is possible (likely) that there are some other minor updates in the build but clearly the main focus is on the December security update.

Essential Phone owners, you have a small but important update rolling out to you today.  The company Tweeted earlier today that build NMJ20D is rolling out to owners that fixes some vulnerabilities as well as adding a few new features.

First, before you get all excited, no, this is not bringing you Oreo.  The update is only 75MB in size so this is truly an incremental update.

As for what is fixed, a fair amount.  First, this build patches the KRACK WiFi vulnerability and brings the October Android Security Update patches to the phone.  There are also improvements in the touch screen performance as well as overall system improvements for performance.

The big new feature, fingerprint scanner gestures.

Today’s Deal is on the Essential Phone, the PH-1.  As readers will know, this is the first phone from Andy Rubin’s company and after a few software updates that have come out for it, the PH-1 has proven to be a solid performer.  Right now you can pick on up for $599 on Amazon, a savings of $100.  That price is for either the Black Moon or Pure White colors.

The Essential Phone has a titanium body with a ceramic back, a 5.7″ 2560 x 1320 Quad-HD display, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage built-in.  It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.  This octa-core processor has four cores running at 2.45GHz and the remaining four clocked at 1.9GHz.