Evidence Essential Phone PH-2 Will Be A Penultimate Evolution

A set of images created by Essential indicate the company's intentions for a second Essential Phone. Publicly the company's seen better days – in its very short tenure on the scene, the company's released a phone, some accessories, and a chopping down of future products, (at least in the short term.) Lower key evidence shows us this week that Essential hasn't called it quits just yet – they seem instead to be working on a futuristic phone the likes of which we've never quite seen before.

SlashGear analyzed a set of drawings this morning which indicate at least a couple of interesting features the next Essential Phone may well have. One has to do with display opaqueness and transparency.

In one iteration, the Essential Phone PH-1 would have a full frontside display – the sort the first Essential Phone PH-1 had nearly achieved at launch. The first phone had a notch with a cutout of the display in a U shape. This new PH-2 device would have no such notch.

Plans in drawings show the Essential Phone PH-2 concept with at least one camera and one light sensor that are hidden behind a display which can become semitransparent on command. Versions of this device have either LCD or OLED displays, but will most likely utilize the advanced features of the OLED panel in the end.

Another set of drawings from Essential shows a device with a fingerprint sensor under a display. This sort of embodiment of a sensor is quickly becoming the de-facto way to go for said sensor – while midrange smartphones are left to use the sensors set on the back or the sides of the smartphone. It's clear here that Essential is planning on at least attempting to create another smartphone in the future.

BELOW: From a recent patent from Essential, an iteration with a fingerprint sensor in-display, bottom center of said display. This version shows a single front-facing camera centered at the top – no mention of the transparency here because the patent is about the fingerprint sensor.

There's also the appearance of the name PH-2 earlier this week in support documents at one US smartphone carrier. We've taken a stab at interpreting earlier public plans to make a device that'd change our perception of what a smartphone should be. Now it might well be time to make that device a reality.

But why do I say penultimate in the title of this article, you might be saying. Because the ultimate smartphone is one in which the form no longer matters. It's an operating system that can exist on a variety of machines. One that works with your own, personal data storage and does not require that you upgrade every couple of years to a new piece of hardware. You'll do it when you're good and ready.