The Essential Phone vs Apple iPhone 7 Specs Comparison: Does Newcomer Stand a Chance?
The Essential Phone is one of the newcomers in the premium smartphone market. However, the device holds several promising specifications and features that lets it have a good chance against bigger brands and models such as Apple's iPhone 7.
What adds to people's curiosity over the Essential Phone is probably the fact that it is the first device manufactured by the company of Andy Rubin — one of the makers of the Android mobile software.
However, whether or not it has what it takes to tackle other smartphones in the market still depends on its specs and performance.
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Display and Design
The Essential Phone's dimensions measure 5.57 inches in length, 2.80 inches wide and 0.31 inches in height (or thickness), whereas, the iPhone 7's corresponding figures are 5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 inches.
The Essential Phone's body is mainly made out of titanium which is believed to be more durable than the ones created with aluminum such as the iPhone 7.
Meanwhile, the Essential Phone's display is not only bigger, but its screen-to-body ratio also dominates in this comparative review. Its future owners can enjoy about 85 percent of actual viewing space compared to Apple's nearly 67 percent display.
In terms of screen resolution, the Essential Phone gets the advantage as well as it sports a display resolution of 1,312 x 2,560 (about 504 ppi), while the iPhone 7 has a 750 x 1,334 (about 326 pixels per inch) resolution.
Processor, Memory and Storage
In the CPU department, both devices are powered with the latest chips available for their brands. The iPhone 7 runs with the quad-core A10 Fusion (2.34 gigahertz) while the Essential Phone is built with the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (2.45 GHz).
Both do not have options for storage expansion but Apple wins in terms of variety. The iPhone 7 comes in 32 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB variants, while the Essential Phone only offers 128 GB storage.
However, the Essential Phone takes another point as it has a 4 GB random access memory which is double of what iPhone 7 has.
Battery, Camera, Security and Protection
The iPhone 7 falls behind with a 1,096 milliampere hour battery compared to the Essential Phone's 3,040 mAh. Because of the Snapdragon chip, the latter also supports the Fast Charging feature.
However, the real test for batteries still lies in the device's actual day-to-day performance, which can be hard to tell for now since the Essential Phone has yet to hit the market.
The Essential Phone sports a 13-megapixel dual camera setup at the rear versus the iPhone 7's single-lens 12 MP sensor. Meanwhile, as for their security features, both devices sport fingerprint readers. The iPhone 7 gets the advantage of the IP67 dust and water resistance feature that is missing on the Essential Phone.
The iPhone 7 has been out in the market since late 2016 with the price of the 128 GB variant set at $749. Meanwhile, the Essential Phone costs $699 and is expected to be released later this year.
