Lisa Gade reviews the Essential Phone PH-1, an unlocked Android smartphone with a stunning bezel-free display and titanium and ceramic construction. Essential is a new company started by Andy Rubin, the father of Android, and while it got off to a rocky start last month, several software updates and a price drop to $499 have greatly improved the phone. The phone supports both GSM and CDMA so it will work on most carriers. Sprint also sells it. The Essential supports modular accessories like a 360 degree camera via 2 pogo pins on the back.
The Essential Phone runs Android 7.1.1 (8.0 Oreo coming later this year) on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPU with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage. it has a 5.7” QHD 2560 x 1312 display that’s striking, with a widescreen aspect ratio of 19 : 10 and a front camera that floats at the top of the display. The mobile phone has dual 13MP f/1.85 cameras (one color, one monochrome) and a front 8MP f/2.2 camera, both of which can shoot 4K video.
