Android founder Andy Rubin shows teaser of smartphone with rounded screen

Andy Rubin, the founder of Android and founder of Google’s current mobile operating system, has shown a first teaser of his company’s upcoming smartphone. The company makes a high-end model with a rounded screen and thin bezels.

The teaser that Rubin on Twitter placed, shows a smartphone with minimal bezels and little space for, for example, a speaker and front camera above the screen. The status bar shows icons reminiscent of a standard release of Android, but the “lte+” designation for lte-advanced or 4g+ near the network indicator is unusual. On the right is a button, presumably to turn the device on and off.

Rubin’s company is called Essential. With a team of forty people, partly from Apple and Google, the Android founder wants to develop various devices. The smartphone plays a central role in this, together with artificial intelligence. The phone may have a screen larger than 5.5″. For the outside of the phone, Rubin’s team would conduct tests using materials such as metal for the edges and ceramic for the back.

In addition, the Essential team is developing its own connection, which serves both to charge the phone and to expand its functionality. For example, various extensions can be added to the device via a magnetic system, for example a 360-degree camera that Essential develops itself. The device under development should be priced close to that of an iPhone 7, although that could change. The iPhone 7 cost at release 769 euros for the cheapest variant.