Essential admit that the PH-1 wasn’t great but there will be a second generation and it will be better

When Essential announced last year that they would be making a pure Android smartphone we were all excited — after all the father of all things Android, Andy Rubin was at the helm of the company. What could go wrong? Unfortunately for Essential, the camera went very wrong but that has not put them out of business — they will be back for another crack this year.

Today in an interview with Business Insider Essential have admitted that the camera in their first phone was sub-standard. All reviewers have commented on how bad it was although they have made significant improvements over the 8 months it has been available — it speaks volumes when the Google camera app installation on a phone takes better pictures than the stock manufacturer’s camera.

In general, one thing that we got hit hard with was the quality of our camera, and we’re really looking forward to improving that with our next-gen, making sure that we’re listening to our customers and their pain points. Linda Jiang, Essential’s Head of Industrial Design

It was very unfortunate for Essential. The phone had some impressive specs. It was the first to push the notch, something that it seems everyone (except Samsung) is adopting and the build was a thing of beauty.

There was not much revealed about the next generation of Essential smartphones although it was revealed that they are looking into different coatings that will make the phone less slippery and less of a fingerprint magnet. Also revealed was that the next generation will still include the accessory prongs on the back of the phone: “Once you spend money on accessories, you’ll be able to use them on future phones”.

Although we have not seen nor heard much of this next generation Essential phone you get the feeling it must be coming soon for them to speak publicly like this. The first Essential phone was announced at the end of May last year so we expect the second generation to arrive at around the same time this year. You would hope that they have learnt from their mistakes of last year and bring something better to the table.

We will be watching closely in the next couple of months and with some other big names set to announce their flagships soon Essential will have a tough time competing. One thing for sure though, with Andy Rubin in charge and involved we, and all Android fans, will continue to pay close attention to them.

Anyone here buy an Essential PH-1? Like it? Love it?