PH-1 camera samples now available

[modifier]

Just caught this on Essential's Twitter feed:

https://www.essential.com/blog/engineering-the-essential-camera

Looks like the monochrome+color camera has something to it. The results look pretty decent, especially noise reduction in night shots.

This could give others a run for their money.

I'll be curious to see how finite the controls are on their camera app, assuming they're making their own.

I'm impressed so far.



Edit: Found these posted on their Instagram account. Thought it had been abandoned.

 

[jasonandrews25788]

the hardware is competing directly with samsung !
finally a manufacturer that focuses on hw specs.

 

[msp1518]

It's about bloody time we got SOMETHING outta them!

And it's a cool something.

 

[modifier]

This is exciting. I personally don't need an awesome camera in my phone but this looks like it very well could be an awesome camera.

Looking at the photos more closely, they have a high chance of being better than Samsung and Google. I'd like to see full-size shots to make a final decision.

Now I'm getting impatient.

 

[bhatech]

Looks great but hopefully they do release sometime soon in August and before the Note 8 announcement and iPhone launch. Otherwise they will start losing even the small percent of interested people still left.

 

[cstmstyle]

Just my opinion but I think tweaking the camera is why they delayed the launch.

 

[SZQnl]

Photos seem pretty good to me. As said above, that may well have been the reason for the delay.

I was interested in the Huawei P9 a year or two ago mainly for it's similar dual-camera setup. The monchrome photos were gorgeous and the normal snaps were almost up there with the best of them.

Huawei and Leica made a big deal of it in Asia with lots of marketing and promotional material touting the feature. I was tempted but in the end decided against it due to Huawei's EMUI not being to my taste and the lack of dual-sim options.

Hopefully Essential have improved on the idea even further and, combined with almost stock Android, it could be a winner. Just need them to release in Asia with dual-sim and a matte option

 

[ChuckG73]

Glad to see the photos and that they are working on the phone!!!! Pics look pretty good

 

[modifier]

Just my opinion but I think tweaking the camera is why they delayed the launch.

IP rating might be part of it as well. They were hit hard on Twitter over water resistance and that might have been enough for them to make a last-minute change. That also would have bought them more time in camera/software tweaks.

Not sure what the delay was but I suspect it was more than one thing.

 

[ChuckG73]

IP rating might be part of it as well. They were hit hard on Twitter over water resistance and that might have been enough for them to make a last-minute change. That also would have bought them more time in camera/software tweaks.

Not sure what the delay was but I suspect it was more than one thing.

If they somehow improved the unknown IP Rating that would make this a no brainer....fingers crossed

 

[cstmstyle]

I'm hoping they send out order emails by the end of this week with deliveries arriving early next week.

 

[modifier]

If they somehow improved the unknown IP Rating that would make this a no brainer....fingers crossed

IPx7 and a killer camera would put them right up there, especially if their promise to keep up on OS/security patches holds true. This would give Google some healthy competition.

Now, about that matte black option...

 

[msp1518]

I want the ocean depths or whatever it is called.

I highly doubt this phone will be water resistant. likely just splash resistant.

 

[modifier]

Splash resistance is fine with me. Even the minimum of IPx7 makes it theoretically submersible to about 1 meter or 3 feet. I personally wouldn't submerge any cell phone unless by accident, regardless of rating, since none of them are waterproof. Plenty of IPx8 rated phones have failed in water.

 

[ChuckG73]

I keep forgetting at the 699 price it includes 128GB of space as well.

 

[ChuckG73]

Phil Hellmuth used an Essential phone to video the Tesla 3 release and uploaded them to YouTube yesterday.

 

[y2jdmbfan]

Phil Hellmuth used an Essential phone to video the Tesla 3 release and uploaded them to YouTube yesterday.

Can you link to the videos?

 

[Joe the Insider]

Looks like the camera on the Essential is good, Obviously the S8 won here, but that's to be expected. I don't expect it to be the best camera out there, I just want it to hold its own and it looks like it does.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bu...ne-vs-samsung-galaxy-s8-photo-shootout-2017-8

 

[modifier]

The review below was done before Essential updated their camera app with HDR support. It sounds like the camera app itself might be the low point rather than the actual hardware. If sideloading the Pixel HDR+ camera app makes that much of an improvement then we can hope Essential's own camera app evolves with time as well.

https://www.slashgear.com/essential-phone-first-impressions-18495628/

 

[EnemiesInTheEnd]

The camera samples in sunlight are pretty good. They just need to tone down the sharpening. The low light pictures are bad, but that seems like a software problem because they shouldn't be THAT bad.