It’s been a long time since Essential went out of business. Founded by the maker of Android, Andy Rubin (who got caught up in his own scandals that led us to cut ties with the company back in the day), it was mostly known for the one-off Essential PH-1. Despite being the only product ever released by the company, it wasn’t the only one it planned to launch. A follow-up phone, the GEM, was worked on and then shelved, and Essential also looked into releasing a smart speaker to dive into the smart home segment, the Essential Home. That device, as you may have noticed, never reached the market. But if you’d like to have a taste of what the final product would’ve looked like, eBay has just what you need. We wouldn’t buy it if we were you, though.
Someone got their hands on an early prototype of Essential’s never-released smart speaker, and it looks quite unique. It sports a different design to what we’re used to see from companies like Google, coming with a round display with small bezels and beefy speakers below it. The screen seems to be taped to the speaker using masking tape, and the included power supply seems to be pretty flimsy. The build itself also looks a lot less premium than what the company showed in press renders in the days of ole’, but then again, this is an early prototype that was never meant to see store shelves, at least not in this state.
The pictures from the listing proof that it runs a build based on Android 8.1 Oreo, compiled on September 20th, 2018 — around a couple of months before the discontinuation of the Essential Phone. It’s very clear that the device wasn’t meant to run on an interface so close to stock Android. This is likely nothing but a debug AOSP build, as the actual UI Essential showed off in its press renders was vastly different.
A press render of the never-released Essential Home smart speaker with a much more finalized look
And we have other unrelated concerns about this. Starting with the fact that it’s held together with scotch tape and the seller is asking for $900. So… you know. Cool piece of tech history and all, but maybe don’t buy this. If you’re feeling nostalgic about the good old Essential days, you’d be better off buying a used PH-1 and slapping LineageOS on it.
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