Essential Phone Review - Bezel-less Beauty!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys everything Apple Prue here today I'm very excited to bring you this video let's go ahead and take a look at the essential smartphone a new bezel-less smartphone created by the co-founder of Android now I'm very excited to see this one it's joining the pile of all of the new Android phones that seem to be doing the bezel-less thing and this is a trend that I'm absolutely loving I mean the new note a to the Galaxy S AIDS the sharp aquos s2 we've got a new me mix coming in a few days as well and then the iPhone 8 of course and this is the older me mix but they all follow one trend and that's to remove bezel make it as tiniest pasta they'll give you more screen and this is just another one of the smart phones so I'm so excited there's been so much buzz about the smart phone I just wanted to see it in person how it is you know what it's like is it a worthy phone that you would even consider out of all of the competitors yeah this is a tough year for smart phones and by the way there's the LGV 30 as well there's just like so many phones to decide from there are so many brands it's a really hard year to that it's just another one to add to the list anyways here it is so the essential pH one very nice packaging very similar to something maybe Apple would do very clean cutouts here you can see there's very very limited bezel here they even be Apple to the punch with the camera cut out these top censor bar except for there's just a camera up here it was let's get to unboxing this guy right so they're calling this a black moon by the way this is a very interesting construction of free phone so the borders are made of titanium which smartphone can you say is made out of titanium that's kind of crazy I've heard of titanium cases for smartphones but this is on another level also you've got ceramic for the glass backing or the ceramic backing this guy is made of ceramic it's a very tough material this one still doesn't have any scratches literally just scratch proof completely so I totally agree with the materials on this phone already now the front is made of Gorilla Glass 5 so the front is a ceramic but still the most durable glass on the market right now all right and here it is lovely packaging so we've got to cut the seal here and here it is is this hard tool okay there we go wow this thing is a lot smaller than I expected holy crap this is on the level of the iPhone 8 look at this these things are identical in size that's crazy that's something I did not expect and the cameras are very petite very tiny I'm not sure about the quality of those just from the size alone it's a little bit disappointing so here are the magnetic points for data transfer this is where you would plug in the 360 camera it's a very interesting take on a modular accessories literally just connecting them via magnet there and having them transfer all right these guys off this is such a tiny phone that's ridiculous while I like the flash design I like that they did something different overall here something that wasn't on the same level as Apple even with these seven plus and of course you got the fingerprint here on the rear so it's not a button it's just capacitive I like the design honestly it's very blocky but it works it's solid it feels good like a little brick alright so ceramic titanium definitely gonna have to drop test this see how it does and let's go ahead and power it on very petite power button here look at the iPhone eight massive one apparently it'll be programmable via different apps so it's literally three times as big they're very interesting so even looking at the bezels we can see it does have a little chin here it's not completely bezel as' but the top does match up alright so better representation here we can see the iPhone eight is still going to be a step ahead in terms of design here it was let's power it on and see what the display looks like in action I'm just quite impressed at how tiny this thing is and there it is there is how that black OLED panel blends seamlessly with these bezels and you can't even begin to see where the screen ends that's awesome I really really like that so overall impressions are good this thing has a hefty weight to it feels pretty premium in your hands for $700 you know I'd expect it to antenna bands very similar to what we're gonna see on to the iPhone and several sections on these sides here ceramic of course fingerprint magnet alright so there it is so this thing is running Android 7.1.1 out of the box which is nice to see it updated on the newest version already let's go ahead and I set it up and I'll be right back already a system update to the moment I begin setting this up so that's nice they are keeping this thing up-to-date and while this is updating just wanted to take a moment to look at the hardware here very interesting simply sment down here on the bottom I've got the USB C and then a very very nice little speaker grille here I mean I'm I'm just a little bit surprised it and not expect to likely design so much it's because it's so different it's not something you usually see on phones and nowadays nothing like this little blocky a very interesting looking guy and another small detail I just noticed so how this phone handles the earpiece situation me mix actually had a bone conducting earpiece this one is a very very tiny slit up on top and that's where the sound it comes through now how it actually sounds is a question to be discovered but that is very impressive those tiny details on this phone and something I've never seen on an OLED panel before and it'll be very hard to share with you guys but when you bend this thing in a light there's this very interesting shimmer on the darker panel up top when it's black it's got these lines I haven't seen in an OLED before maybe they're using some sort of interesting panel but as far as I know it's a qHD panel nothing out of the ordinary super amoled alright and here it is guys this is amazing the display but also the stock android aspect it's so ridiculously rare to open up a phone go into the apps and find almost nothing installed it is a naked phone here so back to the display though it's nice it doesn't blend us seamlessly with the borders as I would like once you start raising the brightness so I'm hoping that's something that Apple figures out with the iPhone 8 as it kind of removes that immersion with the lack of bezels and I'm honestly not liking the type of panel they chose that little ribbing in the display that I talked about it's more and more apparent I don't know I noticed these little details maybe you wouldn't if you use this but I just don't like it when the light catches it you see all these aligns I'm not sure if that's something that can be improved or what but I've never seen on any other phone anyways it is the perfect size guys I cannot wait the iPhone 8 is going to be literally the same size here so these are going to be so comfortable the next generation of comfortable phones are here where you can use almost everything with one hand plus you get so much more screen estate at the same time I can also see the gestures being a great help with the lack of home button plus on the iPhone you won't even have a little circle down here like this but enough about the iPhone get out of here this is a essential phone to time so what can I show you guys I mean the bezels they go up right to the edge it looks fantastic the Notification Center look at that it's kind of crazy to see a camera cut out to there in the middle but it works see when you're swiping through here it's very interesting to see this go through that's a little cut out there it's as if it's not even there or as if it's an overlay on the display it works somehow it just works and I was very curious to see how this handles media as I'm sure the iPhone is going to handle it in a very similar way as you can see it crops it if I go into full-screen mode it doesn't let me use the cutouts over here to look at my content I wish it did I think that'd be pretty cool but I mean it does the job it crops it perfectly how you need it to and it works alright so I want to show you how the camera is 13 megapixel dual lens sensor in the rear eight on the front we'll test them out individually but just starting to record 4k look at this it takes so long to start initiating the recording it hangs I mean you're gonna lose your moment if it really takes that long every single time alright so just want to give you guys an idea of how the 4k looks now starting to load this thing get getting the camera running is ridiculously slow I don't know why it hangs out of nowhere so it's a bit dark now so you're gonna see some grain there but - let me turn on the lights see if that improves yeah definitely more responsive of course when the lights are in so there's my kitchen it's a bit dark outside so there's not too much to show you but there are a wild fires just a few hundred miles from here so like my whole deck is covered in this suit everyone here in the Pacific Northwest has it kind of crazy I'm not liking the the camera I mean what in the world why is it grainy it's much more grainy than iPhone would be in the same environment we'll have to do more testing on this but boy that is uh that is not that's great alright so using that 8 megapixel front-facing camera I'm getting a black background on me now let's see how that noise is oh boy it is so not sharp it's it's a bit disconcerting alright with a little bit more light here what do we got that's much better definitely and lack of optical image stabilization here is visible definitely but it's alright I guess alright so all the Geekbench is running I just wanted to mention what I like obviously the design the material choice titanium cannot wait to test that in a drop test I think this will do pretty good got ceramic on the back this thing is gonna be very very scratch resistant it's made to endure daily life I like the sandwich design little block little brick and I've yet to see the battery life but I do like the overall form a factor obviously the display is a big plus the fact that it actually has a real speaker up top and the camera is in a great position one of the biggest flaws of the me mix is having a camera down here and having to flip this around to take FaceTime videos or I mean front-facing camera videos that's a bit annoying so they definitely solve some of the biggest problems of having a display like this onto the essential smartphone the virtual home button aspect of it is good I would like to see more gestures on it and everything else is okay I mean the camera is just okay the software is alright I feel like they should have done something custom for it but then again it's either custom or the official Android experience and I would much rather half of that so it's alright guys it's definitely not a bad phone for $700 this thing is alright I guess I think the Galaxy s8 would be a better value it has a better camera and for me camera is very important so that one still has a very nice display and still wait to see this guy it'll be $300 more expensive but it might be or who the money over this guy so let me finish this up this thing has a Snapdragon 835 so I don't expect too much from it pretty in line with everything else I'm guessing around 6000 multi-core and 2000 single core score yup so just like mostly Android smartphones with the Snapdragon 835 very in line with those scores 1900 single core score 6300 multi-core so it's no slouch but it's definitely not going to be as fast as the iPhone 8 it does feel well optimized so definitely this thing is responsive it's not hanging except when I clicked record on 4k video that's something I noticed otherwise pretty nice so there it is guys it is an awesome phone it does stand out from the crowd while being very simple it also does have a very unique aspect to it time will tell how this thing competes with the other devices but I'm very curious to see the durability aspect of it as it's one of its biggest market it features the materials and everything the display is certainly cool I think that we haven't seen to this extent before they mean mix and with the mimics to it'll go even further I think that alone isn't a reason to get a smartphone like this it should work all together very well on the cameras to be frank for me are a little disappointing so there does guys hope you enjoyed just a unique smartphone and I'll have a drop test for this guy up soon peacewhat's up guys everything Apple Prue here today I'm very excited to bring you this video let's go ahead and take a look at the essential smartphone a new bezel-less smartphone created by the co-founder of Android now I'm very excited to see this one it's joining the pile of all of the new Android phones that seem to be doing the bezel-less thing and this is a trend that I'm absolutely loving I mean the new note a to the Galaxy S AIDS the sharp aquos s2 we've got a new me mix coming in a few days as well and then the iPhone 8 of course and this is the older me mix but they all follow one trend and that's to remove bezel make it as tiniest pasta they'll give you more screen and this is just another one of the smart phones so I'm so excited there's been so much buzz about the smart phone I just wanted to see it in person how it is you know what it's like is it a worthy phone that you would even consider out of all of the competitors yeah this is a tough year for smart phones and by the way there's the LGV 30 as well there's just like so many phones to decide from there are so many brands it's a really hard year to that it's just another one to add to the list anyways here it is so the essential pH one very nice packaging very similar to something maybe Apple would do very clean cutouts here you can see there's very very limited bezel here they even be Apple to the punch with the camera cut out these top censor bar except for there's just a camera up here it was let's get to unboxing this guy right so they're calling this a black moon by the way this is a very interesting construction of free phone so the borders are made of titanium which smartphone can you say is made out of titanium that's kind of crazy I've heard of titanium cases for smartphones but this is on another level also you've got ceramic for the glass backing or the ceramic backing this guy is made of ceramic it's a very tough material this one still doesn't have any scratches literally just scratch proof completely so I totally agree with the materials on this phone already now the front is made of Gorilla Glass 5 so the front is a ceramic but still the most durable glass on the market right now all right and here it is lovely packaging so we've got to cut the seal here and here it is is this hard tool okay there we go wow this thing is a lot smaller than I expected holy crap this is on the level of the iPhone 8 look at this these things are identical in size that's crazy that's something I did not expect and the cameras are very petite very tiny I'm not sure about the quality of those just from the size alone it's a little bit disappointing so here are the magnetic points for data transfer this is where you would plug in the 360 camera it's a very interesting take on a modular accessories literally just connecting them via magnet there and having them transfer all right these guys off this is such a tiny phone that's ridiculous while I like the flash design I like that they did something different overall here something that wasn't on the same level as Apple even with these seven plus and of course you got the fingerprint here on the rear so it's not a button it's just capacitive I like the design honestly it's very blocky but it works it's solid it feels good like a little brick alright so ceramic titanium definitely gonna have to drop test this see how it does and let's go ahead and power it on very petite power button here look at the iPhone eight massive one apparently it'll be programmable via different apps so it's literally three times as big they're very interesting so even looking at the bezels we can see it does have a little chin here it's not completely bezel as' but the top does match up alright so better representation here we can see the iPhone eight is still going to be a step ahead in terms of design here it was let's power it on and see what the display looks like in action I'm just quite impressed at how tiny this thing is and there it is there is how that black OLED panel blends seamlessly with these bezels and you can't even begin to see where the screen ends that's awesome I really really like that so overall impressions are good this thing has a hefty weight to it feels pretty premium in your hands for $700 you know I'd expect it to antenna bands very similar to what we're gonna see on to the iPhone and several sections on these sides here ceramic of course fingerprint magnet alright so there it is so this thing is running Android 7.1.1 out of the box which is nice to see it updated on the newest version already let's go ahead and I set it up and I'll be right back already a system update to the moment I begin setting this up so that's nice they are keeping this thing up-to-date and while this is updating just wanted to take a moment to look at the hardware here very interesting simply sment down here on the bottom I've got the USB C and then a very very nice little speaker grille here I mean I'm I'm just a little bit surprised it and not expect to likely design so much it's because it's so different it's not something you usually see on phones and nowadays nothing like this little blocky a very interesting looking guy and another small detail I just noticed so how this phone handles the earpiece situation me mix actually had a bone conducting earpiece this one is a very very tiny slit up on top and that's where the sound it comes through now how it actually sounds is a question to be discovered but that is very impressive those tiny details on this phone and something I've never seen on an OLED panel before and it'll be very hard to share with you guys but when you bend this thing in a light there's this very interesting shimmer on the darker panel up top when it's black it's got these lines I haven't seen in an OLED before maybe they're using some sort of interesting panel but as far as I know it's a qHD panel nothing out of the ordinary super amoled alright and here it is guys this is amazing the display but also the stock android aspect it's so ridiculously rare to open up a phone go into the apps and find almost nothing installed it is a naked phone here so back to the display though it's nice it doesn't blend us seamlessly with the borders as I would like once you start raising the brightness so I'm hoping that's something that Apple figures out with the iPhone 8 as it kind of removes that immersion with the lack of bezels and I'm honestly not liking the type of panel they chose that little ribbing in the display that I talked about it's more and more apparent I don't know I noticed these little details maybe you wouldn't if you use this but I just don't like it when the light catches it you see all these aligns I'm not sure if that's something that can be improved or what but I've never seen on any other phone anyways it is the perfect size guys I cannot wait the iPhone 8 is going to be literally the same size here so these are going to be so comfortable the next generation of comfortable phones are here where you can use almost everything with one hand plus you get so much more screen estate at the same time I can also see the gestures being a great help with the lack of home button plus on the iPhone you won't even have a little circle down here like this but enough about the iPhone get out of here this is a essential phone to time so what can I show you guys I mean the bezels they go up right to the edge it looks fantastic the Notification Center look at that it's kind of crazy to see a camera cut out to there in the middle but it works see when you're swiping through here it's very interesting to see this go through that's a little cut out there it's as if it's not even there or as if it's an overlay on the display it works somehow it just works and I was very curious to see how this handles media as I'm sure the iPhone is going to handle it in a very similar way as you can see it crops it if I go into full-screen mode it doesn't let me use the cutouts over here to look at my content I wish it did I think that'd be pretty cool but I mean it does the job it crops it perfectly how you need it to and it works alright so I want to show you how the camera is 13 megapixel dual lens sensor in the rear eight on the front we'll test them out individually but just starting to record 4k look at this it takes so long to start initiating the recording it hangs I mean you're gonna lose your moment if it really takes that long every single time alright so just want to give you guys an idea of how the 4k looks now starting to load this thing get getting the camera running is ridiculously slow I don't know why it hangs out of nowhere so it's a bit dark now so you're gonna see some grain there but - let me turn on the lights see if that improves yeah definitely more responsive of course when the lights are in so there's my kitchen it's a bit dark outside so there's not too much to show you but there are a wild fires just a few hundred miles from here so like my whole deck is covered in this suit everyone here in the Pacific Northwest has it kind of crazy I'm not liking the the camera I mean what in the world why is it grainy it's much more grainy than iPhone would be in the same environment we'll have to do more testing on this but boy that is uh that is not that's great alright so using that 8 megapixel front-facing camera I'm getting a black background on me now let's see how that noise is oh boy it is so not sharp it's it's a bit disconcerting alright with a little bit more light here what do we got that's much better definitely and lack of optical image stabilization here is visible definitely but it's alright I guess alright so all the Geekbench is running I just wanted to mention what I like obviously the design the material choice titanium cannot wait to test that in a drop test I think this will do pretty good got ceramic on the back this thing is gonna be very very scratch resistant it's made to endure daily life I like the sandwich design little block little brick and I've yet to see the battery life but I do like the overall form a factor obviously the display is a big plus the fact that it actually has a real speaker up top and the camera is in a great position one of the biggest flaws of the me mix is having a camera down here and having to flip this around to take FaceTime videos or I mean front-facing camera videos that's a bit annoying so they definitely solve some of the biggest problems of having a display like this onto the essential smartphone the virtual home button aspect of it is good I would like to see more gestures on it and everything else is okay I mean the camera is just okay the software is alright I feel like they should have done something custom for it but then again it's either custom or the official Android experience and I would much rather half of that so it's alright guys it's definitely not a bad phone for $700 this thing is alright I guess I think the Galaxy s8 would be a better value it has a better camera and for me camera is very important so that one still has a very nice display and still wait to see this guy it'll be $300 more expensive but it might be or who the money over this guy so let me finish this up this thing has a Snapdragon 835 so I don't expect too much from it pretty in line with everything else I'm guessing around 6000 multi-core and 2000 single core score yup so just like mostly Android smartphones with the Snapdragon 835 very in line with those scores 1900 single core score 6300 multi-core so it's no slouch but it's definitely not going to be as fast as the iPhone 8 it does feel well optimized so definitely this thing is responsive it's not hanging except when I clicked record on 4k video that's something I noticed otherwise pretty nice so there it is guys it is an awesome phone it does stand out from the crowd while being very simple it also does have a very unique aspect to it time will tell how this thing competes with the other devices but I'm very curious to see the durability aspect of it as it's one of its biggest market it features the materials and everything the display is certainly cool I think that we haven't seen to this extent before they mean mix and with the mimics to it'll go even further I think that alone isn't a reason to get a smartphone like this it should work all together very well on the cameras to be frank for me are a little disappointing so there does guys hope you enjoyed just a unique smartphone and I'll have a drop test for this guy up soon peace\n"