Essential's Project Gem Presents A Wild Vision For The Future Of Smartphones

Rubin tweeted a number of images of the elongated smartphone, which is not quite like anything that we've seen before. The display has an especially tall and narrow display, which Rubin admits is a "radically different form-factor". Looking at the various images and video of the smartphone, we can see there is a rather large camera bump on the back along with a fingerprint sensor. Interestingly, the device looks more like a fancy remote control for your TV than a smartphone given its "dainty" appearance.

...still dialing in the colors pic.twitter.com/4gEpFU7mpZ

— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) October 8, 2019

With that being said, we have to add that this isn't just some fancy design concept; this is actually Essential's follow-up to the PH-1. “We’ve been working on a new device that’s now in early testing with our team outside the lab. We look forward to sharing more in the near future," said an Essential spokesperson in a statement to The Verge.

It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to Project Gem, or whatever it will be called when it reaches production. The form-factor is intriguing, and the color shifting finishes on the back of the smartphone are definitely cool (and would lend itself well to the Gem name).

According to previous reports, Project Gem will reportedly place a heavy emphasis on artificial intelligence, with the ability to automatically respond to messages for the user and even make phone calls on its own. Further digging by XDA-Developers has revealed that the smartphone could be running a Snapdragon 730 SoC.

With devices like the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Project Gem, it's nice to see that "boring" iterations of smartphones year-over-year may be coming to an end.