You will probably be familiar with the name Andy Rubin. He is one of the creators of Android, the operating system found on many smartphones today. What you probably won’t be familiar that much with is the name Essential, his new company. They made a buzz few months ago about their product, the Essential Phone. An especially relevant smartphone that introduced a new distinctive design from other competitors and premium specs. Unfortunately, the delays on shipping put it between the iPhone X and Pixel XL 2 releases, so it did not live up to the hype. But now, it is getting a great price drop, making it worthy again! Let’s see what you can get from the Essential Phone.

Design

This is the most unique design you will find on smartphones today. Mainly because the front of the screen is (almost) full on display. The display is a 2560×1312 LCD panel, with a 19:10 aspect ratio. There is a minor bezel on the bottom, and the front camera is just added to the notch in the top. It does feel awkward when you start up the device, but you won’t use that space for anything else. The device is made from titanium and ceramic, with minimalistic approach and no branding on the outside. And because of the design materials, the device is slightly heavier than others (185 grams). There is a dual camera setup on the back, with two magnetic ports for the additional mods that are sold separately.

Features

Performance-wise, the Essential Phone is no slouch. It is powered by the Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. These specs are found in many flagships nowadays, which means that you won’t run into any problems in your daily use. Everything from light browsing to GPU-intensive games, the Essential can handle them without any sweat. Finally, the device is powered by the 3040mAh battery, enough to last you through the day.

The camera setup is where things do go downwards. On the hardware side, there is nothing wrong. Both lenses have 13MP, one of which is RGB and the other monochrome, while on the front is the 8MP shooter. The monochrome lens should combine photos with the regular one to give you better looking pictures, especially in low-light situations. This is where Essential had its initial problems. The camera application did not deliver its promise – the photos came out blurry and washed out. Hence, people had much more success using other camera applications than the regular one. Since then, the device received few updates to improve the camera app quality.

Speaking of the software, the Essential Phone is running on the 7.1 Nougat version of Android. An update to Android Oreo is in the works, with a release coming in the upcoming months. It doesn’t have any additional features or custom skins on it, implying on the name Essential. The only thing that is added is the ability to narrow videos, so you won’t block on things with the camera notch.

Pricing and availability

The good thing that could make you buy the device is the recent price drop. The Essential Phone is now available for $499, down from $699. That is a $200 price cut, that puts it in competition with OnePlus 5 and other mid-tier competitors. As a result, customers that bought the device previously can get a $200 coupon for family members and friends that want to buy the device. Or they could get the 360 Camera mod for free.

What do you think of the Essential Phone? Did the price cut made it more appealing? Share your opinions in the comments below.