Essential Phone PH-1 Reviews: First Phone from Android Founder's Startup Rolls Out
The Essential Phone, also called the Essential PH-1, is now shipping out for early adopters anxious to see what Android founder Andy Rubin has achieved with his startup. Early impressions so far have been positive, with reviewers marveling at the stark design of the new phone.
Essential took to social media to announce that the first Essential Phone is now shipping out to buyers. According to their Twitter posts, customers can watch out for an e-mail with the tracking information, and sign up at their official website for more details.
Early reviews of the device call attention to its design, with Digital Trends even going as far as to say that the Essential PH-1 "is the most beautiful smartphone of 2017 so far." The handset is slim yet weighty to the feel, being built with a titanium body and a ceramic back.
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Everything in the phone is minimal, from the very narrow bezels to the lack of any logo or labels on the handset's body. The front features a notch for the front camera, a design compromise that reviewers find to work out well, for the most part.
The Essential PH-1 has a 5.7-inch screen with a 2,560 by 1,312-pixel resolution, and the company opted for a Low Temperature PolySilicon (LTPS) display for its first model. Inside, it comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset with 4 GB of memory and 128 GB of storage. Essential chose to omit the microSD card slot.
For software, the Essential runs pure Android, much like the Google Pixel, as expected from a company helmed by Android's founder. The current version out of the box is the Android 7.1.1 Nougat, and it's been confirmed that Android 8.0 Oreo is coming to the phone as well.
Minimalism extends to the specs, which not only does away with a MicroSD slot, but the headphone jack as well. The Essential phone does include a dual-camera setup, but it deviates from the usual practice in terms of this feature, too.
At the rear is a 13-megapixel color sensor and a 13-megapixel monochrome sensor. These produce photos that come close to the detail that the Galaxy S8 or Google Pixel provides, but not quite on their level yet, as Engadget notes.
The Essential PH-1 is now available direct from its website, unlocked, for $699. It's also available via its partner Sprint in the U.S. or Telus in Canada.
