TL;DR
- Important teased its “Gem” smartphone {hardware} again in 2019 as a follow-up to the PH-1.
- When Important shut down in 2020, work on the Gem shut down with it.
- Sometimes the uncommon prototype {hardware} surfaces on eBay, resulting in hands-on encounters like we get in the present day.
Are smartphones too boring today? Certain, foldable telephones are actually a actuality, however even these have been round for sufficient generations that they’re beginning to really feel acquainted. When’s the final time you discovered your self excited by a extremely “bizarre” cellphone? At the moment we’re taking a stroll down reminiscence lane as we take into consideration one of the distinctive cellphone designs of the previous decade, whereas attending to see some newly launched video of this promising {hardware}, doomed to by no means see the business gentle of day.
Smartphone critics typically lament the dearth of gamers within the fashionable market, with solely a handful of corporations competing in any significant vogue. Whereas true, sometimes we do see somebody courageous sufficient to step up as a brand new voice, as we did again in 2017 when Android co-founder Andy Rubin and his firm Important launched the PH-1 handset. It obtained a good reception, and followers questioned what may come subsequent for the corporate… all the way in which up till it folded in 2020.
However earlier than it did, again in 2019, Important teased what will be the most pronounced departure from mainstream cellphone design we’ve seen an organization take so critically: the just about remote-control-shaped “Venture Gem”.
For anybody tired of run-of-the-mill slabs, this sort of form for a smartphone felt contemporary and filled with prospects — how splendidly pocketable! However our enjoyable wouldn’t final, and with Important closing its doorways the next yr, our possibilities of ever proudly owning a Gem cellphone closed with them. Whereas we’ll need to reside with that disappointment, this week we get to consider what might have been, upon the publication of a uncommon Gem hands-on video.
Nova Launcher engineer Rob Wainwright just lately shared the information of their profitable eBay buy of a Gem prototype (by way of 9to5Google). And since he likes all of us a lot, we get an up-close take a look at this {hardware} and its in-development software program.
With its 2160 × 560 display, the cellphone’s show has a facet ratio of practically 4:1 — a stable twice as broad (or tall, orientation however) as essentially the most excessive smartphone screens you’ll discover in the present day. As you may see within the video, the {hardware} is certainly purposeful, whilst some options are usually not energetic on this explicit prototype. Understandably, the cellphone runs a fairly customized launcher, making the most of this very vertical display. This video coming to us from the supply it does, we additionally get to see the Gem operating Nova Launcher, which appears to be like fairly good contemplating it was by no means optimized for screens like this.
It appears to be like like many apps have been nonetheless in growth when this prototype existed, and a whole lot of spots within the launcher are simply holding house for future apps, however we do get a peek at some, just like the cellphone’s digicam software program — and it’s simply as bizarre as you may anticipate from a display this form. Test all of it out within the video above.