Essential Phone

In many ways, the first Essential Phone seems designed almost entirely to satisfy a single category of user: someone who wants a display to cover nearly the whole front of their phone. In that respect, the PH-1's scant metal rim and glass front and back...

Smart Phones have become ubiquitous in modern society. Everyone has a phone and uses it for various tasks that range from calling, web surfing, and photography, to music and video playback. But even with so many people using phones, and so many options...

The Essential Phone is a great idea in offering a phone which supposedly just offers the essentials. While it seemed to stumble at launch, software updates have rectified some of the issues and the camera is slowing getting better with each one as well....

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...

We can't recommend the Essential Phone over competitors, but it’s a mostly competent handset that’ll definitely turn heads.

"I can't really recommend this phone over other currently available high-end Android phones. For the same amount of money, Canadian consumers can get the more complete Galaxy S8 or LG...

Unfortunately, smartphone cameras have gotten so good that Essential's purely OK shooter will frustrate some. The lack of certain popular niceties, like a headphone jack and water resistance, also make the PH-1 a tougher sell than expected. All told, this is a phenomenal first try and an undeniably solid device, but we're really looking forward to Essential's next attempt.

Minimalism can ironically go too far – without dialed-in software to back up what is a beautifully-crafted and well-executed piece of hardware, the Essential Phone will greatly appeal to some and frustrate others looking for...

The Essential Phone is doing so much right: elegant design, big screen, long battery life, and clean software. And on top of all that, it has ambitions to do even more with those modules. If you asked Android users what they wanted in the abstract, I suspect a great many of them would describe this exact device. But while the camera is pretty good, it doesn’t live up to the high bar the rest of the phone market has set.

There’s absolutely room for a phone that doesn’t shove its manufacturer and advertising partners in your face. If you buy this phone, I think you’ll appreciate that about it. You’ll also realize that Essential, like everyone else, is still working out how to truly change the smartphone game.

The Essential Phone PH-1 combines top-notch hardware and pure Android software for an amazing deal on Sprint, but its more costly unlocked model is a harder sell.

Calling it “essential,” however, is a fallacy. It’s not something you need to have; it might not even be something you want to have. There are plenty of other impressive smartphones on the market—and, as always, more coming soon, both from Android handset makers and Apple—that will suit you just as well if you are interested in a high-end unlocked phone. And if, like many people, you don’t have $700 to spend on a smartphone, there are also many capable options that cost a lot less.