Gadgetory

it's a question you're probably thinking when it comes to the smartphone what exactly is essential well its structure of agarra what's going on everybody and this is our full review of the essential phone at first glance and first hold it's obvious that the movement of minimalism is really coursing through the design of this device the blocky design does away with overtures and fancy curves in favor of a phone that is easy to hold and highly accessible and the titanium frame with the ceramic covering it all provides a heft that makes this phone really feel premium now the glossy materials are going to get smudged with fingerprints quite easily but the sheen and symmetry definitely help keep the phone I caching without trying too hard that symmetry is achieved by the fact that the essential has basically no branding on it it's as if the phone is not trying to pick sides it just simply is the dual camera setup sits directly opposite the connector pins providing that symmetry below it is a fingerprint reader and then pretty much nothing else a central really did put their minds to the design of this device and they have succeeded in making what might be the cleanest phone we've seen in recent memory and most of the reason for that design is because the whole phone was made with the screen in mind and to do that they used a quad HD 19 by 10 aspect ratio screen that sprawls throughout the majority of the front cut only by a respectable chin and a small little dip at the top made for the front-facing camera the feeling of actually gripping basically an entire screen hasn't actually gotten old yet and it's definitely a huge drawing point for the essential there are a few quirks to this IPS display however elements have to reach all the way to the top and sometimes they don't quite blend in and in one other case like in snapchat is actually hard to press certain elements because the app hasn't adapted to the kind of screen that the essential provides but overall using the actual screen for jumping around the Spartan software has been great thanks to plenty of the other essentials that the company kept in mind the Snapdragon 835 keeps the phone up-to-date and it includes four gigabytes of RAM there is no SD card slot here but 128 gigabytes of internal storage is standard unlike the Xiaomi me mix that tried to use bone induction this phone still has a phone speaker it's just tucked away in a very thin slit at the very top and it works well enough for calls providing good enough sound and loudness and even has a notification LED right beside it unfortunately this beautiful hardware had to make some sacrifices and this is where things get iffy look around the minimalistic build and you'll notice the main sacrifice the headphone jack I don't blame anyone for calling out the name essential for this as the company opts for a USBC adapter in order to plug in your favorite wired headphones or earphones that said the USBC audio experience is actually above average this phone can drive headphones pretty well leading to some of the fuller and louder experiences that I've had recently unfortunately this positivity can't be applied to the speaker it gets really loud but is almost piercing at its highest levels I would be happier with a lower volume unit that provided a richer sound now the battery is a 3040 milliamp hour unit which is kind of standard maybe a little bit average for a phone of this size and though my tests were mostly based on very heavy usage as I used the phone as a vlogging rig I was able to get three and a half hours of screen on time during those really heavy days so with some frugality I don't see why anyone wouldn't be able to get another hour of SOT out of the essential and charging is easy and quick with a high-quality braided cable and high wattage output from the included charger the connector pins are another facet of the hardware but we can't really talk too much about them yet because there are no mods available the 360 camera is still on its way and it's at that point that we'll be able to talk about what could be one of the better portions of this phone essential promises that the connector pins will be made available in future devices and be backwards compatible so that is certainly exciting now speaking of cameras essential made sure to be part of the pack when it comes to dual and setups for their first smartphone attempt they have put together a RGB and monochrome sensor combo meanwhile the front-facing camera is an 8 megapixel shooter that actually the cords 4k video which is pretty cool and all of this is supported by a camera app that is decidedly bare-bones and has actually been updated three times since we got our hands on this unit those updates add in an HDR mode which was kind of weird and a bit more speed when taking pictures shooting what the essential has gotten better in terms of these shutter to file speed but it does still have some glaring holes for example it's still a little bit slow at changing from the regular lens to the mono lens and furthermore the update still don't address the issue that the camera is still just a little bit too basic now users will be able to fire up the camera and start taking pictures pretty easily but aside from a slow motion there's very little else by way of extra shooting modes or even a manual mode now this is not a bad thing when the phone is a good automatic shooter but unfortunately it kind of falls short photos from the essentials seems to like a lot of proper processing as pictures are rather flat and pale in comparison to other phones like the Google pixel dynamic range is lacking even when HDR's turned on and it's not even HDR auto pressing HDR for some reason turns the flash back onto Auto which is again kind of weird and while pictures can certainly be decent in really bright situations it tapers off pretty quickly as a light dims colors don't really get a big punch in or out of HDR which is evident in the pictures compared to the pixel look at this photo with the Sun blurring straight into the lens the essentials simply doesn't have an answer when HDR's turned on while the pixel manages to make the best of a poor scene holding all the RGB photos aside and just using the monochromatic sensor leads to very detailed and dramatic black-and-white photos but that really wasn't the point here I even used the essential as my vlogging camera for a couple of days while in New York City but you can see in these clips already that the phone is a bit flat in its color profile and it just lacks dynamic range even for video we are certainly going to get more updates from essential after all it was a promise of theirs but if history is any indication updates don't actually really make the camera quality that much better nonetheless we will be there to report any major changes should they come for this decidedly average camera speaking of the promise of software updates that is one of the main draws of the essential as a father of Android is at the helm of this phone it should be no surprise that the essential trims the software down to the well bare essentials anyone that has opined for a pixel because of the overwhelming amounts of features baked into other user interfaces will feel the joy of simplicity here but I can also see where that might work users who are not diehard Android purists after all a lot of features that might go otherwise unused and let's say a Samsung or a Motorola device were conceived for a reason and when those features actually work the convenience and usability of those phones goes up this just isn't the case for the essential and that's kind of where the essential really finds itself in a weird place for 699 dollars it seems like you're paying for a beautifully crafted piece of hardware with very little value added into the software aside from the fact that it's well there again this is a polarizing topic Android purists are going to view what is lacking and view that as value which is fine but that's just the reason why the essential phone is so interestingly frustrating the essential is locked in a tug of war between its software and hardware both polar opposites of each other every bit of the hardware the pleasing screen the high quality build great specs in the dual camera effectively reel you in however what is supposed to drive it all the software and it fails to truly take advantage of that excitement you're given carte blanche to customize the essential with third-party apps and in the future the promise of the phone's modularity but without that effort put in what essentially seems delectable eventually reveals itself as decidedly vanilla now don't get me wrong vanilla is not a bad flavor but there's a reason why it's tucked in the corner of the ice cream cooler it might sound like I'm being a bit defeatist about this device but it's because I love using it so much and then I get really disappointed when I run into one of the huge stumbling blocks mainly that camera it's a great first attempt that makes us excited for what comes next but of course what comes next is the modularity and we will be here to review those once we get our hands on future mods for the essential phone keep it tuned to Android authority for more about the essential phone including some comparisons more from us because there's a lot to come here and Android Authority so subscribe to the channel if you haven't already because we are your source for all things Android