Everything we know about the Essential PH-1, the phone made by one of Android's founders

Most premium flagship smartphones are dressed in aluminum. But the Essential PH-1's case has titanium edges and a ceramic back.

The titanium is scratch, dent, and bend-proof, according to Essential. Those are traits that aluminum phones can't boast. If Essential's claims hold up, you might not have to cover the PH-1 with a protective plastic case.

Essential didn't make any claims about the durability of the PH-1's ceramic back. Meanwhile, its display, like that of other smartphones, is made of breakable glass. The PH-1 uses Gorilla Glass 5, but it could still shatter if you drop it.

Overall, the PH-1 is smaller and thinner than Samsung's Galaxy S8. But it weighs more than the jumbo-sized Galaxy S8+, and it's just a tad lighter than Apple's extra-large iPhone 7 Plus.

The PH-1's ceramic back could be weighing it down, given that titanium is a light metal.

Here's how the PH-1's measurements compare with those of its rivals from Apple and Samsung: 

- Essential PH-1: 141.5 x 71.1 x 7.8 mm, 185g

- iPhone 7: 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm, 138g

- iPhone 7 Plus: 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm, 188g

- Samsung Galaxy S8: 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm, 155g

- Samsung Galaxy S8+:159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm, 173g

By "full display," Essential means that the PH-1 has a large display that covers the nearly all of the phone's front. Like the Galaxy S8, the borders around the display are very narrow, which allows for both a larger screen and a relatively manageable phone size.

The display's corners are rounded, which is more of an aesthetic choice than a functional one. 

The PH-1 has a 5.71-inch display with a very unusual 19:10 aspect ratio. That makes it taller than the screens on other phones, most of which have a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Since most apps are meant to be used vertically – by swiping up and down – taller phone screens can show you more information at once. LG's G6 and the Galaxy S8 also have taller screens than usual, with 18:9 and 18.5:9 aspect ratios, respectively. 

The PH-1 has a quad-HD (four times 720p) screen, which means it's very sharp. But that kind of screen resolution is more or less standard these days for premium flagship phones. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the only current flagship phones with screen resolutions of 1080p or below. 

Dubbed "Click," the two magnetic connectors will let you attach accessories to the phone. They remind me of the magnetic connectors on the back of Motorola's Moto Z.

So far, Essential has only announced two accessories that will use the phone's Click connectors: a 360-degree camera and a wireless charging dock.

Essential has designed the Click connectors to be future-proof, which suggests we should expect more accessories down the line. But the connectors appear to be proprietary, so accessories will have to be made specifically for the PH-1.

The PH-1 will run on Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon processor, the 835, and will come with  4GB of RAM. That should make it speedy and powerful.

One of the PH-1's cameras views the world in full color, while the other sees it in black-and-white. 

The PH-1 can use both cameras at the same time to take pictures. Together, they can capture "200% more light than traditional phone cameras," Essential says, allowing them to take better shots in low-light situations.

For video, the PH-1 can record in 4K resolution at 30 frames-per-second (fps), in 1080p at 60 fps, or in 720p at 120 fps.

Essential says that using a dual-sensor camera setup allowed it to make the cameras sit flush and flat against the PH-1's back without affecting image quality.

That should be plenty for most people, especially now that users can store pictures in the cloud with services like Google Photos or stream music from the internet with services like Spotify.

USB-C has become the standard for flagship Android phones, so that's to be expected.

The PH-1 will have a 3,040mAh battery, but it's impossible to know from just that whether the phone will have good battery life. We'll surely test when we get our hands on the device.

It'll come with an adapter that will allow you to connect older wired headphones to its USB-C port. 

With the PH-1's narrow bezels, Essential might not have been able put the phone's fingerprint scanner on its front side. Regardless, users can expect the PH-1 will have "fastest available technology" for its fingerprint sensor, the company says. 

The color options include Black Moon, Stellar Grey, Pure White, and "Ocean Depths," which is a sort of teal color. Only the Black Moon and Pure White options are currently available for pre-order.

You can reserve a PH-1 from Essential's web site. For now, it's shipping to US customers later in June. Essential hasn't said if or when it will ship the PH-1 outside the US. 

We won't know what version of Android the PH-1 will ship with until Essential releases more details. However, Rubin did mention that it'll run "stock Android," which could be similar to the Android OS running on Google's Pixel. Still, it's not clear if the PH-1's version of Android will have any added features.

It'll be interesting to see if one of Android's co-founders added or removed any features from Google's version of Android as it is today.