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The first Essential Phones will begin shipping in June

The first Essential Phones will begin shipping in June

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That’s fast

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Playground and Essential CEO Andy Rubin announced this evening that his new company’s premium Android smartphone, the Essential Phone, will ship within the next 30 days. Rubin made the announcement onstage at Recode’s Code Conference in a conversation with Walt Mossberg, who inquired about Essential’s timeline for getting the device to consumers.

The company announced its new phone, alongside a smart home platform called Ambient OS and a new Amazon Echo competitor called Essential Home, earlier today with a splashy website launch and blog post. Essential also opened up a waiting list at the time for anyone to pick out a phone in white or black for $699 with the option of an additional 360-degree camera attachment for $50.

Photo: Essential

Even if you did register to purchase the device, you didn’t get any info on when it would actually ship. (Essential doesn’t take your credit card information just yet.) Now, however, we know that Rubin is moving about as fast from launch to ship date as the biggest smartphone players. Good news for those who want to know whether the device lives up to the hype.