- [Voiceover] I normally like to wait at least a year
to re-review a phone,
but Essential changed everything when it slashed the price
of its namesake flagship by $200,
barely two months after launch,
transforming an overpriced smartphone with a terrible camera
into a genuine bargain with a terrible camera.
Let's find out if the deep discount
makes the picture more palatable,
in Mr. Mobile's review re-do of the Essential phone,
brought to you by Thrifter.
(lively pop music)
Since I first reviewed the Essential phone in August,
the company has swapped out my review unit
for a final retail version.
There's no detectable difference here,
this is the same hunk of ceramic and titanium,
pleasantly free of logos and quite heavy in the hand.
That's a compliment.
To say it feels expensive is an understatement.
It reminds me of those oversized poker plaques
casinos reserve for the high stakes tables.
And because of its durable materials,
it seems likely to age a lot more gracefully
than its aluminum and glass competition.
Its 16 by nine LCD is not very fashionable,
doesn't get nearly bright enough in sunlight,
but the rest of the phone makes up for it.
And just like with the iPhone X, I love the notch!
Fight me.
I don't love the myth that sprung up around this phone
with regard to the camera, though.
Since literally the week of release,
people have been saying, "Those camera problems are no more,
"they got fixed by a software update!"
Now, to Essential's credit,
this phone has received a great many updates since launch,
and I'll talk more about those in a second,
but the camera app is still sluggish and unreliable.
What's worse is this app is the only way to control
Essential's 360 camera add-on, which, like the phone,
is an exquisite little piece of hardware brilliance.
It takes up almost no space in a pocket,
snaps on magnetically,
it even has a tiny internal fan
to protect its insides from overheating.
But, since it depends on that camera app to work,
(sighs) I mean, sometimes it won't even
take a photo on the first attempt,
and if you make the mistake of quitting
back to the home screen before it's done saving,
you lose the photo.
Again, it's not the 360 camera's fault,
these are the same problems I experience using
the built-in camera alongside the old issue
of turning the flash on for no reason when you turn HDR on,
and occasionally just saving a wall of green
instead of the photo you took.
If this were the only camera app available,
I'd say pack it in right here,
because no amount of discount is worth this frustration,
but, fortunately, two things save this phone
from the scrap heap.
First, there's nothing wrong with the camera hardware.
And second, there are smart people on the internet,
some of whom figured out how to run Google's HDR+ camera app
on the Essential phone.
The results are night and day.
Literally every picture I've taken with Google's app
has been superior to the Essential app's.
It was so obvious after such a short time
that I very quickly stopped taking side by side photos
and began to rely exclusively on the Google camera app,
which you can map to a double-click of the power button,
just like on other Android phones.
Now remember, this is a hack, so it's a little hanky,
and also the camera doesn't have optical stabilization,
so your videos aren't gonna be as smooth
as on better-equipped phones.
But now that the Essential phone isn't priced
the same as those high-end phones,
and now that I don't have to use its terrible camera app,
these shortcomings are forgivable.
It's no exaggeration to say that, for me,
the Google camera app single-handedly saves this device.
I mentioned frequent updates before,
and Essential really does deserve a lot of credit here.
Since launch,
I've lost count of the number of OTAs I've gotten.
Some of them have enabled features like
using the fingerprint sensor as a notification track pad,
while others have kept the phone up-to-date
with latest security fixes.
No sign of either Android Oreo or a proper night mode yet,
but Essential maintains that it's working on both
for release in the coming weeks.
Also, I have noticed apps crashing on this phone
more often than on others, which is annoying.
Even the excellent hardware isn't immune to defects.
Reddit has stories about
some early fabric speaker grills popping out,
so Essential is apparently fitting some units
with metal mesh instead.
I'm more concerned with an issue I don't often
see in phones anymore: weak reception.
My testing on T-Mobile has shown that
this phone is more likely to drop calls,
and less able to maintain a connection in fringe areas.
My comparison devices were a Moto X4 and an iPhone X.
I'm not really able to diagnose this problem very well,
but others have also reported it,
so if you live in a fringe area,
you might wanna give this a pass.
Also, my unit has some electronic interference
in the earpiece.
It's very slight, but once you notice it,
it's annoying in a quiet room.
In my official review,
I said using this device
felt like using a Kickstarter reward, or a beta phone.
And that holds true today.
It's no more a $700 experience today
than it was back in August.
But, now that you can get it for $500,
or even 450 in the deal I'll link to in a second,
well that changes everything.
For the same price,
a OnePlus 5 will still give you fewer headaches,
but if standout design is the thing
that gets your ringtone singing,
the Essential phone's new price definitely
puts it in the running.
You can snap up an Essential phone for $450
by visiting today's sponsor.
Thrifter is a new way to save money on everything
from gadgets to home goods by shopping based on value,
and not hype.
Click the link in the description to get
all the leaked ads and the best deals for Black Friday,
as well as that $450 Essential phone
and mint sim combo deal at thrifter.com.
If you bought an Essential phone,
or you're thinking of buying one,
I wanna hear your thoughts.
Drop 'em in the comments,
and be sure to subscribe to The Mr. Mobile on YouTube
and Instagram, with new videos dropping every week.
Until next time, thanks for watching,
and stay mobile, my friends.