New video shows off Essential’s long-lost long phone

A new video from Nova Launcher engineer Rob Wainwright shows off the old Essential Phone 2 prototype in all its long glory.

This phone was slated to follow the well-regarded Essential PH-1 before the company folded, partly due to a lack of sales and partly due to the reputation of its CEO and founder, Andy Rubin, who it turns out isn't a great guy.

All that to the side, before that happened, the company showed off four prototype phones dubbed Project Gem. It was a dramatic shift away from the Essential PH-1 and every other phone on the market. It was thin and ran what looked like a very stripped-down version of Android.

Now, in the new video, you can see a little more of that in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHc75hKltc&t=79s

Overall, I think this is a pretty cool-looking phone, but the OS is a mess. In theory, I like the idea of bringing back Windows Phone live tiles, but I have no idea why you'd want them on such a slender phone. At one point, Rob pulls up a YouTube video, and the player window is laughably small.

Source: Rob Wainwright 

Image Source: Essential