Android’s co-founder might unveil his new Essential phone next week

Andy Rubin is getting ready to unveil a phone from his new company.

Here’s the situation: Rubin is a former Google executive who once oversaw the development of Android. He left Google in 2014. In January, he started a new company, called Essential, and said it would be developing a high-end smartphone with an edge-to-edge display and minimal bezels. Then, in March, he teased what appeared to be the first smartphone – and, as he already hinted, it has almost no bezel.

Hi, welcome to our Twitter page. We’re here to let you know something big is coming May 30th! Stay tuned…

— Essential (@essential) May 25, 2017

Google’s Eric Schmidt later confirmed that the device will run Android. Now, after a couple months of silence, Essential has announced via Twitter that “something big” is coming 30 May. We’re assuming we will get a glimpse of the first Essential smartphone in five days. But that’s pretty much all we know. From a picture teased earlier this year via Twitter, we can see that the phone has a speaker cutout at the top.

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It looks like it has a volume rocker on the side, too. Essential’s Twitter page doesn’t yet offer any other clues. But we do know that Essential plan to focus on connected tablets, smartphones, mobile software, and maybe even 360-degree cameras.

Hopefully we’ll know more next week.