Essential Phone review: Maximum hardware, minimum software..

HIGHS

• Gorgeous bezel-less design
• Crisp, high-resolution screen
• Pure Android, fast updates
• Great performance
• Intuitive modular system

LOWS

• No headphone jack
• No IP-rated water resistance
• Frustrating camera experience

7.0

DT Recommended Product

Score :

GORGEOUS DESIGN, BRILLIANT DISPLAY

Without a doubt, the Essential Phone is the most beautiful smartphone of 2017 so far. The body is made of titanium; the rear utilizes ceramic, which is soft and cool to the touch, and it eliminates the need for ugly antenna lines. There isn’t a logo anywhere on the phone, and the back is minimal and sleek.

There’s a dual-camera system on the back, but it doesn’t stick out of the phone, unlike the iPhone 7 Plus. The fingerprint sensor is centered below, in an easy-to-access position, and to the right you’ll find two silver pins — more on this later. The ceramic on the back does mean it’s a fingerprint magnet, though it’s not as bad as phones with glass backs.

The Essential Phone is the most beautiful smartphone of 2017 so far.

Before diving into the screen, the Essential Phone’s power button and volume rocker are on the right edge, and they’re clicky and responsive. The SIM card slot is on the bottom, next to the USB Type-C charging port and speaker grill. Sadly, there is no headphone jack, but a 3.5mm to USB Type-C adapter is included in the box.The edge-to-edge design means you get far more screen real-estate within a reasonably sized frame. The Essential Phone is just a hair taller and a little wider than the regular iPhone 7, but you get a 5.7-inch screen instead of the iPhone’s 4.7-inch display. It feels compact, and comfortable in the hand.

The 5.71-inch screen features a 2,560 × 1,312-pixel resolution and a 19:10 aspect ratio. We would have liked to see an AMOLED screen for inkier blacks, but the LCD screen (more specifically CGS / LTPS) is incredibly vibrant and colorful. It doesn’t look overly saturated. The screen easily gets bright enough outdoors in direct sunlight, though some viewing angles are dim.

You’ll have a difficult time putting the Essential Phone down. Its crisp, large screen will make you want to keep using your phone, and the device is compact enough to not feel cumbersome. Essential got the build materials, design, and the screen right on its first try.

TOP-NOTCH SPECS, PURE ANDROID

The Essential Phone has to have specifications that match other phones in its flagship category. You’ll find Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor powering the phone — it’s the same chipset in phones like the Galaxy S8, the Note 8, and the HTC U11.

It’s paired with 4GB of RAM, which should be plenty for multitasking, and there’s only one choice of storage: 128GB. There’s no MicroSD card slot, but 128GB should be plenty for most people.

The Essential Phone runs pure Android, offering almost the same software experience found on the Google Pixel. It’s currently on Android 7.1.1 Nougat. 

Near Field Communication (NFC) is on-board, which means you can make contactless payments with Android Pay, or even share content between two Android phones via Android Beam. The phone also uses the new Bluetooth 5 standard, which offers faster data transfer speeds and improved range.

Sadly, the Essential Phone has no IP-rated water resistance. The Galaxy S8 and Note 8, LG G6, iPhone 7, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, and plenty of other phones in this price range feature IP67 or IP68 dust- and water-resistance. This should have been a feature on the PH-1. The lack of a MicroSD card is a shame, but there are plenty of other phones that do not feature one and offer less storage; and while the 3.5mm to USB-C adapter is handy, we still mourn the loss of the headphone jack.

A MODULAR SYSTEM

Like Motorola’s Moto Z smartphone series, the Essential PH-1 is also a modular phone. It’s why there are two silver pins on the back of the phone. Motorola’s approach uses 16 pogo pins on the back of its Moto Z smartphones, and Moto Mods, like a 360-degree camera, magnetically snap onto the back of the phone. Mods can enhance the capabilities of your phone. Data is transferred through these pogo pins, and they are powered by the phone.

A FRUSTRATING CAMERA

Dual rear camera setups aren’t new with high-end smartphones, and the Essential Phone doesn’t have any original features to shout about. Like Huawei’s Leica-branded P10 smartphone, one lens shoots in true black and white, while the other shoots in color. Essential said photographs are captured using both lenses as they “can capture up to 200 percent more light” than traditional phone cameras.

Both cameras have 13-megapixels each, with apertures of f/1.85. The results are surprisingly detailed, with great color accuracy. The Mono mode lets you shoot exclusively in black and white, and it’s a lot of fun. The camera can feel too barebones, because its only main features are the Mono mode and recently-added HDR. Essential says it will add a Portrait Mode later on, but there’s no manual, exposure slider, or burst mode.

While the results can be great, the camera experience is not good at all. Shutter lag is the main problem. When you tap the shutter icon the photo doesn’t capture instantaneously … it takes a second. There’s no optical image stabilization, so this makes photos incredibly blurry. You need to stay perfectly still, even after tapping the shutter icon, to make sure the photo is crisp.

The 8-megapixel front camera is solid and can take good selfies, but it’s nothing notable.

DAYLONG BATTERY LIFE

While the results can be great, the camera experience is not good at all.

Battery life has since improved significantly. The Essential Phone has a 3,040mAh battery capacity, and it lasts no more than a day. Starting at 8 a.m., with medium to heavy usage including browsing the web, taking lots of photos, watching a few YouTube videos, and playing a game, the battery reached 30 percent by 6 p.m. Thankfully, the phone supports fast-charging so it doesn’t take long to get fully recharged.

OUR TAKE

The Essential Phone is a great first phone from Andy Rubin’s company. It nails design, performance, and software, but falls short with the camera. There’s a lot unproven, too. We don’t know how good the company’s customer support will be, how reliably it will ship units, and whether or not it will indeed follow through with more mods. Essential announced it will also launch a Home product that works with its phone and accessories, but we haven’t heard much about it since the original announcement.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes, plenty. While the Essential Phone performs well in certain categories, it doesn’t have all the features you may expect in a phone of its price. There is no IP-rated waterproofing, for starters, nor do the cameras feature optical image stabilization. Phones from Samsung and LG offer MicroSD card slots and headphone jacks, but you’ll find neither here.

For a similar  price tag, the Galaxy S8 is a great alternative as it has many of the same hardware specifications. The Google Pixel is still one of the favorite Android smartphones, and it comes in a little cheaper. Finally, there’s always the OnePlus 5, which offers equally strong performance and a great camera.