Thinking of coming back to Android for the Essential Phone

[jdevenberg]

Hey all!

I used Android from 1.5 on an HTC Hero all the way to 5.0 on a Nexus 5.

After some bad experiences on the Nexus 5, I decided to go over to Apple for the iPhone 6 Plus and currently use a iPhone 7 Plus.

However, I'm thinking of coming back to Android and the Essential phone is looking attractive to me.

My main concern is that I want to make sure that the main issues I left Android for have been addressed. I left because of poor stability, poor battery life, and the only truly great hardware being paired with bad software.

The Essential and several others have seemed to address the last point. However, what about the first two? I could count on one hand the number of times my iPhones have frozen and needed in the last 2-3 years. Same with the number of times I've found myself with a dead phone. Under moderate to heavy use, my iPhone will last me from 2 AM until about 330 PM before it needs charged (and then it is around 20%).

 

[Aquila]

Do eet.

 

[Zulfigar]

Honestly, anything that has the Snapdragon 835 cleans up the first two points well, no matter the phone it's in.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

Hey all!

I used Android from 1.5 on an HTC Hero all the way to 5.0 on a Nexus 5.

After some bad experiences on the Nexus 5, I decided to go over to Apple for the iPhone 6 Plus and currently use a iPhone 7 Plus.

However, I'm thinking of coming back to Android and the Essential phone is looking attractive to me.

My main concern is that I want to make sure that the main issues I left Android for have been addressed. I left because of poor stability, poor battery life, and the only truly great hardware being paired with bad software.

The Essential and several others have seemed to address the last point. However, what about the first two? I could count on one hand the number of times my iPhones have frozen and needed in the last 2-3 years. Same with the number of times I've found myself with a dead phone. Under moderate to heavy use, my iPhone will last me from 2 AM until about 330 PM before it needs charged (and then it is around 20%).

Androids have come very far in terms of battery life, and TBH its now a mix of how well the OEM has optimised their SW for efficiency and how large the battery is.

I will be dead honest with you, I doubt the Essential PH1 will give you amazing battery life, its got a huge 5.7inch Display with a puny 3090mAh battery, if you area a heavy user I doubt it will get you through a day of heavy Web browsing, Streaming and Texting.

If I were you I'd look at:

OnePlus 5 128GB (8GB RAM)
Google Pixel XL (the 2 is nearby though)
Samsung Galaxy S8+ (or wait for Note8 next month)
LG G6 (or wait for V30 next month)
HTC U11
Sony Xperia XZ Premium
Huawei P10 Plus or Mate 9 Pro or wait for Mate 10 late this year

These are all great flagships with great batteries that I believe would serve you better than an Essential, TBH.

 

[J Dubbs]

Nothing's really changed too much unfortunately :-(

But you can still get a good phone for not a lot of money ;-)
That's always been one of Androids biggest draws anyway.

 

[jdevenberg]

Androids have come very far in terms of battery life, and TBH its now a mix of how well the OEM has optimised their SW for efficiency and how large the battery is.

I will be dead honest with you, I doubt the Essential PH1 will give you amazing battery life, its got a huge 5.7inch Display with a puny 3090mAh battery, if you area a heavy user I doubt it will get you through a day of heavy Web browsing, Streaming and Texting.

If I were you I'd look at:

OnePlus 5 128GB (8GB RAM)
Google Pixel XL (the 2 is nearby though)
Samsung Galaxy S8+ (or wait for Note8 next month)
LG G6 (or wait for V30 next month)
HTC U11
Sony Xperia XZ Premium
Huawei P10 Plus or Mate 9 Pro or wait for Mate 10 late this year

These are all great flagships with great batteries that I believe would serve you better than an Essential, TBH.

I should have mentioned I'm on Sprint, which right away eliminates all of these other than the Pixel, S8+, G6, and U11.

Pixel, G6, and U11 are all 100% non-starters for me. The G6 and U11 are ugly and cheap feeling and I don't qualify for financing on the Pixel. Which basically leaves me with the S8, S8+, and Essential phone. Most of the reviews have had the Essential getting adequate to good battery life, why do you think it will be poor?

 

[jdevenberg]

Nothing's really changed too much unfortunately :-(

But you can still get a good phone for not a lot of money ;-)
That's always been one of Androids biggest draws anyway.

That isn't a draw to me at all. If "our phones are cheap" is Android's biggest advantage still, I'd rather just stay with Apple.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

I should have mentioned I'm on Sprint, which right away eliminates all of these other than the Pixel, S8+, G6, and U11.

Pixel, G6, and U11 are all 100% non-starters for me. The G6 and U11 are ugly and cheap feeling and I don't qualify for financing on the Pixel. Which basically leaves me with the S8, S8+, and Essential phone. Most of the reviews have had the Essential getting adequate to good battery life, why do you think it will be poor?

I the small battery with large hi res 5.7inch display makes me believe that if you consume a lot content (YouTube, Music streaming, Movies) as well as texting and emailing a lot, you might have to plug in sooner rather than later in daily usage .

 

[jdevenberg]

I the small battery with large hi res 5.7inch display makes me believe that if you consume a lot content (YouTube, Music streaming, Movies) as well as texting and emailing a lot, you might have to plug in sooner rather than later in daily usage .

I guess that makes sense. I don't really stream music because my commute takes me through large areas where no carrier has service, so I've just gotten used to having all the media I want to consume downloaded (part of why this 128 GB phone appeals to me) and I just default to having my phone plugged in in the car because why not. Honestly most of my use when I'm in a situation where plugging in is not practical is web browsing, emailing, texting, chatting in discord, stuff like that. Very little media streaming.

 

[codeda]

I the small battery with large hi res 5.7inch display makes me believe that if you consume a lot content (YouTube, Music streaming, Movies) as well as texting and emailing a lot, you might have to plug in sooner rather than later in daily usage .

I had the galaxy s8 for a while that has a similar screen and battery size and I had great battery life. I think we will have to say what people say first. 835 really is an efficient chipset. Even the g6 with an LCD and 821 is said to have pretty good battery life so we will see.

 

[jdevenberg]

I had the galaxy s8 for a while that has a similar screen and battery size and I had great battery life. I think we will have to say what people say first. 835 really is an efficient chipset. Even the g6 with an LCD and 821 is said to have pretty good battery life so we will see.

Like I mentioned, I've been reading/watching all the reviews on this phone. The person who was hardest on the battery in their review said he could comfortably get a full day of heavy use out of it.

 

[dov1978]

I've had every iPhone since the 3G and had the 7 Plus twice and it's hard to beat on battery tbh. The Galaxy s8 Plus is right up there though and is very close. I can't remember the last time I had an Android phone freeze on me but certainly not in the past few years. The LG G6, s8 and s8 Plus I had were as smooth as butter. If camera is important to you then I'd suggest waiting a few weeks for the Note 8 as it's basically the s8 Plus but with the bonus of the s-Pen and the same dual camera set up as the iPhone 7 Plus only heaps better

 

[anon(10092459)]

The Essential and several others have seemed to address the last point. However, what about the first two? I could count on one hand the number of times my iPhones have frozen and needed in the last 2-3 years. Same with the number of times I've found myself with a dead phone. Under moderate to heavy use, my iPhone will last me from 2 AM until about 330 PM before it needs charged (and then it is around 20%).

OP, to me it sounds like you're satisfied with Apple/iOS. I don't know that getting the PH-1 will make your experience with that much of an improvement than what you're already doing. More so, you've stated the reasons why you left Android, all legitimate, but why leave Apple if you're satisfied?

 

[jdevenberg]

OP, to me it sounds like you're satisfied with Apple/iOS. I don't know that getting the PH-1 will make your experience with that much of an improvement than what you're already doing. More so, you've stated the reasons why you left Android, all legitimate, but why leave Apple if you're satisfied?

Because there is a lot to like about Android as well. Having had Android for 5 or 6 years, I have a pretty extensive collection of paid apps on Android. I like the philosophy of open software and an open eco-system. I like being able to run whatever software I want, whether or not my phone's manufacturer okay's it (wanting to run an emulator recently reminded me of this). There are other reasons, but those are some big ones. I would *prefer* to use Android, but, to me, a phone needs to be stable and alive to be of any value. So, if those issues have been addressed, I'd like to switch back.

EDIT: Also, their hardware is growing stale and I am, as I said earlier in the thread, a sucker for good hardware.

 

[jdevenberg]

I've had every iPhone since the 3G and had the 7 Plus twice and it's hard to beat on battery tbh. The Galaxy s8 Plus is right up there though and is very close. I can't remember the last time I had an Android phone freeze on me but certainly not in the past few years. The LG G6, s8 and s8 Plus I had were as smooth as butter. If camera is important to you then I'd suggest waiting a few weeks for the Note 8 as it's basically the s8 Plus but with the bonus of the s-Pen and the same dual camera set up as the iPhone 7 Plus only heaps better

So I'm not like an avid photographer. My requirements from a camera are basically that it be able to take good pictures of my kid when she is doing something cute/funny/ridiculous/etc. and that when I do frame up a shot of something neat I'm seeing, it looks good in the end. I'm not the sort of person who takes my phone camera auto of Auto.

Also, I don't know that I can go Samsung. I've had a Note, Note 2, Note 4, and my wife had a Note 5. Samsung's software is a huge turn off for me and how slow they are to update their devices is another huge turn off for me. Every time I've owned a Samsung device, I've been unhappy with it well before it was "time" to upgrade.

 

[anon(10092459)]

Because there is a lot to like about Android as well. Having had Android for 5 or 6 years, I have a pretty extensive collection of paid apps on Android. I like the philosophy of open software and an open eco-system. I like being able to run whatever software I want, whether or not my phone's manufacturer okay's it (wanting to run an emulator recently reminded me of this). There are other reasons, but those are some big ones. I would *prefer* to use Android, but, to me, a phone needs to be stable and alive to be of any value. So, if those issues have been addressed, I'd like to switch back.

EDIT: Also, their hardware is growing stale and I am, as I said earlier in the thread, a sucker for good hardware.

Indeed. You're thoughts are clear it seems. I think Essential's offering will actually be great. The hardware build sounds really impressive and from what I've seen on YouTube, it actually may be. I'm more of a software/ecosystem user myself. Hardware is secondary to me. My DD is the Pixel, and it's been a great experience from day one.

I believe the PH-1 will be just as amazing UX and you may have found your path back to Android if that's the case. Good Luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Morty2264]

Hello and welcome! I think the Essential Phone looks pretty good!

 

[ffejjj]

You have a trial period so do it. I think the Essential phone looks really good but it's the first of its kind so it's hard to tell.

I have the G6 and it's great. I'm getting either the V30 or the Pixel XL2 but there is also the S8, S8+ and the U11 that are all really well reviewed. That's just naming a few.

 

[Tim1954]

It looks like a great device, stripped of bloat, a minimalist approach. Premium materials mmmm!
My S8 is good in battery life, I am a heavy user and I get a good day no worries. I do kill stuff I'm not using and have battery saver etc on, but it doesn't make a discernible difference in performance that I notice...

 

[bnice]

You seem to have a soft spot for Android. The only way you're going to find out how you feel about current Android is to experience it first had yourself. A lot has happened from Nexus 5 to the Pixel 8.0. The essential looks good but as a pure Android user, the Pixel will always be my choice.