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A long-delayed hands-on with Essential’s skinny Android phone

They found one on eBay.

Rob Wainwright, a software engineer who works on the Nova Launcher, says he bought the phone on eBay, and in his video, you can see the mostly operational PH-2 with card-style widgets for apps like Spotify and Uber, along with a smartwatch-style clock at the top. Plans for the second phone were canceled, and in early 2020, Essential shut down, saying it had “no clear path to deliver” the device to customers. While the UI is not fully complete, the video shows off the custom Android launcher that has swipe-up gestures on the bottom corners to go home or back.

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