The Essential Phone is boring hardware that may one day rule your smart home

If Huawei released a phone with the specs of the Essential's hype-driven debut, no one would have paid much attention. It really is a nice phone, but "nice" isn't blowing any minds. As it happens, though, the Essential Phone--the first product from a company started by Android creator Andy Rubin and the gadget line it flagships--is more mission than material. Now, that's not to say the handset is gonna free the masses from the fractured bloatware that plagues handsets from LG, Samsung, and others. Wrapped up in Rubin's penance, however, isn't salvation for the cluttered smartphone landscape, but for the ever-splintering smart home.