What The Reviews Have To Say About Essential Phone PH-1
The debut of the Essential Phone has been one of the most highly-anticipated events in the smartphone world this year, mostly due to the fact that Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, is behind it and the fact that he seems determined to make us reconsider how we use and operate technology.
But while the phone has received a lot of hype, can the Essential PH-1 really beat out the Google Pixel, the iPhone and other competitors in the crowded smartphone market? And is it really as revolutionizing as it says it is?
It Does Have A Very Distinctive Look
The first thing about the Essential Phone that grabs your attention is its design. Just look at it. The phone features a titanium frame and a ceramic backplate that the team says is significantly more durable than the aluminum and glass bodies you get on other handsets.
[Gizmodo]
And one of the most distinctive and divisive features — the front-facing camera cutout — isn't a distraction in real-life use:
There's a cutout at the top for the selfie camera (and a couple of sensors) shaped like a little U, splitting the status bar in half between notifications and your radio status icons.
That cyclops eye seems like the sort of thing that would be distracting, but in my experience it becomes invisible almost immediately. Ninety-five percent of the time Android doesn't put anything of value in that particular part of the screen anyway, and the phone is adept at keeping apps that go truly full screen (like video) letterboxed in.
The Philosophy Of The Phone Is… Just The Essentials
Essential's Phone runs stock Android and is refreshingly free of the crapware Samsung, and so many other OEMs, fill their phones with. I couldn't find a single unnecessary app — just the stock stuff you actually need.
[Mashable]
Simplicity, as it happens, was Essential's goal for the software experience too. If you were wondering what the father of Android would do with software when given the chance to build his own phone, the answer is essentially "nothing."
The Essential Phone's software is aggressively bare almost to a fault. Essential has made practically zero changes to stock Android, and while that means there's no opportunity for the company to mess things up it also means it isn't differentiated in any way.
Not Everyone Is Happy With The Phone's Dual Cameras
Essential's camera specs meet your expectations for a high-end phone, but the photos don't. The two 13-megapixel cameras on the back — one in color and one in monochrome, used mostly to bring additional clarity and depth data in your photos — occasionally take beautiful, rich photos. They also, for no apparent reason, occasionally capture well-lit, noisy, poorly focused shots.
[Wired]
In our brief time with the phone so far, pics look good, but not spectacular.
[Gizmodo]
A Few Crucial Features Are Missing
For a phone with this much froth behind it, there's actually quite a few features people might be expecting, but won't get. There's no headphone jack or any sort of substantial water resistance, and you only get a single mono speaker mounted on the bottom of the phone.
[Gizmodo]
The Phone's Strength Seems To Be The Ecosystem It Promises
Essential isn't planning to stop with a phone. The company is planning to release a new smart home hub in the future that will run a wide variety of virtual assistants and connect to different home automation gadgets.
The biggest advantage of the Essential system, however, is that these modules could work on other devices beyond phones. Not just the upcoming Essential Home smart speaker, but other gadgets too — potentially from other manufacturers.
But Is It Better Than Other Smartphones? Well… Maybe Not
I buy the notion that an excellent phone could capture the hearts of people who don't want Apple's brand or Samsung's software mess. And the Essential Phone is almost that phone.
[Wired]
[I]f you're already content with what's in your pocket, there's nothing here quite yet that screams "YOUR PHONE IS GARBAGE! THROW IT AWAY AND BUY ME INSTEAD!"
Aesthetically, it might be my favorite Android phone. But in achieving its monolithic design and in getting it to retail store shelves so quickly (presumably to beat some of its highly-anticipated competitors to market), it seems like Essential cut the one corner you just can't cut on a premium smartphone: the camera.
TL: DR
The Essential Phone is good, perhaps even great, but aside from solid hardware and clean software it doesn't bring anything particularly special to draw in customers. Its biggest strength isn't what it has, but what it doesn't: there's no bloatware, superfluous features, unnecessary hardware or even branding to get in the way of using it.
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