Well, it was only a matter of time wasn’t it? Sure, it’s felt like an age since the phone was first released, but now the Essential Phone PH01 is available to buy for us in the UK.
The Essential phone got a lot of media attention as it was the first device from a company run by former Android head, Andy Rubin. If you are a fan of design and premium build quality, these are things that the PH01 has in spades. It was the first phone that brought us the “notch” and it has a titanium core sandwiched between glass and ceramic front and rears. Yes, the internal specs are not groundbreaking – there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 for its chipset, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of memory – but they are still certainly viable for the non-poweruser.
Camera wise this phone has taken a lot of stick over the last year and in some cases, it was deserved. Those issues have mostly been resolved at a software level, but some still come down to hardware. Sadly these will never be resolved. We’ve not had a great deal of time with the camera but it’ll impress all but the most ardent of shutterbug’s (for those check out the P20 Pro from Huawei review coming very soon).
The company has struggled to make a big impact in the US though, with multiple discounts and offers to try to attract more of a fan base.
I do really like that the company is still working on the modularity of this phone, plus that the 360 camera is still available. We are still crossing our fingers for the arrival of the charging base that was spoken about while I was on the stand,
Here are some specs for you as a reminder of what this phone has onboard..
| Operating System | Android 7.1.1 |
| Display | 5.7-inch LCD, 2560×1312 (505 ppi) Corning Gorilla Glass 5 |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 2.45GHz octa-core Kryo 280 CPU Adreno 540 GPU |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Storage | 128GB (UFS 2.1) Non-expandable |
| Rear Cameras | Dual 13MP camera (color + monochrome) f/1.85 lens, phase-detect + laser auto focus 4K video at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps or 720p at 120fps |
| Front Camera | 8MP with f/2.2 lens 4K video at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps or 720p at 120fps |
| Battery | 3040mAh Non-removable |
| Charging | USB-C fast charging |
| Water resistance | No |
| Connectivity | 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0 LE NFC, GPS and GLONASS Accessory power pins with 6 Gbps wireless data transfer |
| Security | One-touch rear fingerprint sensor |
| Audio | Single down-firing speaker USB-C to 3.5 mm headphone adapter included |
| Network | LTE Bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/11/12/13/17/20/21/25/26/28/29/30/66 TDD-LTE Bands 38/39/40/41/42/43 |
| Dimensions | 141.5 x 71.1 x 7.8 mm 185g |
| Colours | Black Moon, Pure White, Stellar Grey, Copper black |
The website is still showing prices in dollars. It is currentl priced at $499 for the Black Moon and Pure White and $599 for the Stellar Grey or Copper Black (which is currently sold out).
The shipping costs are between $33 and $37 depending on what you choose and will be taken between 1 to 4 days.
Want more ? Want to see it up close? Check out our hands-on from Mobile World Congress in February.
At least the Essential Phone has finally made it out of the US, but with so many top quality flagships available in Europe now, is it too little too late?