have had the essential phone for over a week now. pros: -build is fantastic. heavy and feels premium. titanium and ceramic. best looking phone out there imo. -stock android. makes coming from a nexus or pixel easy. smooth, but not as smooth as google's own stuff. smoother than anything else i've used though. -screen is huge and is bigger than the pixel XL, but in the body of the smaller pixel. -lcd. don't get the dark blacks like oled, but it's dark enough to not notice the front-facing cam. less prone to burn-in and whites are better in LCD. -still no reason to root. no junk or useless features to freeze. familiarity with adb helps for other stuff. -even though it had one standard mono speaker, it is really loud. nice since there's not front-facing speakers. cons: -coming from a pixel, the camera is only serviceable. not good, but not bad either. they touted the camera as being great, but it needs a lot of work because of freezing and sluggishness. monochrome camera is nice though -support from the company is terrible. really terrible. i'm definitely keeping it. don't mind being a beta tester for a start-up. not bad for a first phone, but photographers beware. if you can get past that, you won't be disappointed. first time skipping the nexus/pixel lineup in years. will likely continue to do so until they develop their own silicon as rumored.
Thanks for the review @OmegaSupreme Been wondering when you were going to upgrade. It's been 2-3 months Just upgraded to the new Oreo. Damn do I hate the new icons within the white square ⬜ Anyone has any icon pack they want to recommend?
everything from mowmo seems to be gold. mix, xim, minimale. iphone-ish type pack from vertimus called alos is an old fav due to having almost several thousand supported apps.
A couple of android one phones coming up for those who don't want to pay pixel price. Motorola x4 Android one and xiaomi mi A1
I've had the samsung s8 since it's release, and its a perfect phone other than the position of the fingerprint sensor. It just works and behaves like it should. Everyone else in the family has an iphone and they are always jealous of the screen and camera. Gear VR is pretty darn cool also.
Samsung is giving $300 credit for the trade in of the Note 5...just in case it was something that interested you.
My only concern with the Note 8 is the Bixby button...do you accidentally hit on a regular basis or is it a non-issue? Also, have you experienced any decline with the performance of the phone? My previous Samsung phones have always had a little bit of a slow down over time, but I know Samsung has lightened their software a bit and Samsung Experience no longer as much of a strain as Touchwiz, from what Ive heard.
You can turn the bixby button off if you don't use bixby. There are also apps that allow you to remap the button with varying degrees of success. For transparency, I hate the stock android interface. I usually install a different launcher or use touchwiz.
Apparently these Android ones do retain some apps from their makers that's needed for certain hardware of the phone. Like for the xiaomi, it uses xiaomis photo app to make use of the dual camera feature. On the moto x4, it has both Google assistant and Alexa built in. No mention of whether they will retain Alexa. But the x4 seems a bit overpriced. Almost the cost of one plus 5 but only with a sd630.
https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Essential-Phone-Review_id4409 The Essential phone is a beautifully crafted piece of technology. Despite the bugs, the device feels really, really good in the hand. The phone’s design works. The screen’s design works too, regardless of concerns one might have had with the front facing cameraplacement. Unfortunately, that is where the allure begins, and ends. The beautiful ceramic backplate is a fingerprint magnet of monumental proportions. The display has that annoying twitch of not always being responsive. Lightning fast performance runs into simply weird hiccups that escape explanation given the silicon inside, and the stock UI outside. We have probably said enough about the cameras, but even if that is not your primary feature concern, you should probably avoid the Essential phone anyway. The same monochrome photo features can be found on equally attractive hardware, like the Honor 9, or last year’s Honor 8, each of which can be purchased for a fraction of the price, and a fraction of the headache. Between the disjointed customer experience, funky logistics of broken shipping deadlines, and half-baked execution of some of the software, the Essential PH-1 commands a $699 price tag on good looks alone. Based on that, every other flagship, be it the HTC U11, LG V30, any of the Samsung Galaxies, even last year’s Google Pixel, are a better value with no real sacrifices, and offer practical gains in features. For a device whose mission was to handle the “essentials,” it gets some of the “basics” right, and misses some of the “fundamentals” altogether. The Essential phone is beautiful though, unfortunately, beauty is only skin deep. PROS Build quality that is a step above everything else Stock Android and the desirable Google features that come with it Plenty of storage CONS High price reflects cost of materials, and little else Stunted and wonky performance during basic user interactions Screen responsiveness not consistent Picture quality does not measure up The Essential camera app is a disaster Hit-or-miss customer experience No wireless charging No water or dust resistance They scored it a 4 out of 10.
A little disappointed with the S8 after 5 months with it. Battery life is still an issue with Samsung phones. The Bixby thing hasn't been a problem either, I've even played with it a bit, and it is nice to be able to speak some commands. Responsiveness has been an issue lately. Fingerprint sensor used to unlock very fast, now a slight lag. Still a great design and screen. I'm an android fan at heart, so I still want a top of the line flagship handset and the others don't appeal to me as much. Have to admit the IPhone X looks great, but I can't do iOS. Facial recognition seems dumb, but I wouldn't mind the realiability and efficiency of Apple chips.
@OmegaSupreme Would love it if you could get your hands on a IPhone X and see which one has the better design and build. From pictures, I think I prefer the Essential front design but I do love glass-backed phones. Essential has absolutely no logos on it correct? Thats a big plus in my books
meh. probably the lowest review after bgr. you'd find the verge and engadget with different takes. truth is that the reviews for it are all over the place. feel comfortable saying it's definitely not the best phone out there though. mentioned early adopters kinda being "beta-testers" in my previous post. it's not google pixel flawless, but it does everything mostly right except for the camera software... which is a huge mistake. you have to work for a good shot. there's been progress with three updates for it since i've gotten the phone over a week ago, but still has a ways to go. zero logos on essential and back is ceramic. harder to scratch than glass. titanium sides. harder to scratch than aluminum. i dunno man. s8+, ipx, and essential could all be considered for design and build. as far as software being configured for the notch/minimal bezels... i'd say samsung first, essential, then ipx.