Android Inc. cofounder and former CEO Andy Rubin has taken to Twitter to tease a new slim-bezeled smartphone. This is the first device we've seen from Rubin's new startup, called "Essential."

The details on Essential came out in a January report from Bloomberg. The report said Rubin is currently building consumer hardware company, starting with a "40-person team, filled with recruits from Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google." The company is still in stealth mode, but when it goes public, Rubin will be announced as the CEO, according to the report.

Bloomberg described Rubin's company as "A platform company designed to tie multiple devices together," and in addition to a smart home product, "the centerpiece of the system is a high-end smartphone with a large edge-to-edge screen that lacks a surrounding bezel." The phone part certainly seems spot on after this picture. The report claimed the device would leverage "artificial intelligence" somehow, and said it would come with a magnetic modular connector.

Thereport was unclear on which OS the phone would run, but the icons and clock font in the picture are both an exact match for Android. We can't say we're surprised, given Rubin's involvement. Like most of the slim-bezel devices we've seen lately, this device opts for rounded display corners. One surprise is the earpiece, which seems to actually be crammed into that tiny top bezel. Other devices like the Xiaomi Mi Mix opted for a crazy internal speaker arrangement. Like the Mi Mix, we'd guess the front-facing camera is on the bottom of the device.

Rubin cofounded Android Inc. before it was bought by Google in 2005. He led the division at Google until 2013, overseeing the release of every new version up to and including Android 4.0. After building a failed robotics division inside Google, Rubin left the company and started a tech incubator called "Playground Global." While Rubin's most recent history has dealt with software, he has a ton of experience building phone hardware. Prior to Android and Google he was the cofounder and CEO of Danger Inc. the company that created the Danger Hiptop/T-Mobile Sidekick, a line of devices that was all the rage in the 2000s.

In the tweet, Rubin said, "I'm really excited about how this is shaping up. Eager to get it in more people's hands." According to Bloomberg, the device is planned to launch "around the middle of this year."