When the device launched in May, the Essential Phone was showcased in four colors. Only two of them, however, are currently available. The Essential Phone was released in Black Moon first followed by Pure White several weeks later. There are two more colors still to come, and Essential says it still plans to offer them.
Essential hosted an Ask Me Anything on Reddit this week where the company revealed what color will arrive next, why the phone doesn’t have water and dust resistance, and other design-related pieces of information.
Right now you can purchase the Essential Phone in Black Moon and Pure White, and in the coming weeks (or months) we’ll see Stellar Gray join the mix. Ocean Depths, the final color option, continues to face production issues. So there’s no estimated time of arrival for either of them; however, Essential did confirm Stellar Gray will beat Ocean Depths to the market.
The company also explained why there isn’t IP67 or IP68 rating for its device. Essential says it would’ve had to utilize “larger display borders, a thicker product, much larger receiver opening, to name a few.” Customers have been very focal about the Essential Phone missing water and dust resistance, to which Essential responds by saying the team is working hard to bring that to the device’s successor. A successor to the Essential Phone was mentioned again when a Reddit user asked Essential what it’d do differently. Of course Essential expressed no regrets, though it did admit “nothing is ever perfect.”
If you were hoping for first-party cases from Essential, you should probably give up. Third-party cases from brands like Incipio are going to be your only choices. Essential, though, did say it works closely with the popular brands to “ensure they have all the data they need to build nice product.”
Essential said the following about the dock, which was meant to be be released alongside the Essential Phone:
“The engineering hardware team is actively working on getting the dock ready for production. Keep an eye on our social channels for updates!”
It’s nice to see Essential provide some transparency now, but this is what the company should’ve been doing for the last six months. Then maybe everyone would’ve had a better understanding of the company’s struggles to get its phone out. Instead, the company decided to leave out details and ended up falling well short of expectations.
