Essential shuts down, teases what the Project GEM phone could have been

Pocketnow

By Nadeem Sarwar

Published Feb 13, 2020

Essential launched just one Android phone in its lifetime, but its shutdown means the Project GEM phone will never be released.

Essential, the startup founded by Android creator Andy Rubin, is bringing down the curtains on its brief career. After releasing just one phone – the Essential Phone PH-1 – in its lifetime, the company has announced that it is shutting down.

The Essential Phone PH-1 will no longer receive any updatesafter getting the February Android security patch. Additionally, the NewtonMail service owned by the company will be accessible through April 30, 2020.

In its goodbye statement, Essential has shared a series of videos that showcase the unreleased Project GEM phone. The videos give us our first detailed look at the doomed phone’s card-based UI, voice-based interactions, camera features, and the overall design.

Essential says it couldn’t find any viable path to release the Project GEM phone as a mass market device. Take a look at what it could have been here.