What problems are you experiencing with the Essential Phone

[OchoCILINDROS]

I also felt the screen was dark even when moving the brightness up. After going to the display settings and removing "adaptive brightness" the screen brightness is much better, big difference.

 

[jamezr]

Well, this phone clearly is not aimed for general consumers and No, it does not and will not compete with Note 8 or iPhone 8 or LG V30. They are not marketing that way and clearly they also don't have interest to do so.

It's targeted for folks who are eager to jump on a journey believing the company. As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, we are all beta testers for this product right now.

All the issues we have so far are related to software which means with adequate manpower, Essential can fix them.

Whether you want to be part of that journey is something you need to decide.

But.... but..... but..... don't companies PAY people to beta test their products? Would be different if the phone cost $400 or less. But at $700 to beta test is pretty outrageous.

 

[anon(9918034)]

But.... but..... but..... don't companies PAY people to beta test their products? Would be different if the phone cost $400 or less. But at $700 to beta test is pretty outrageous.

I'm super excited to throw down into this phone and I am ok with being a beta tester. Apple and Microsoft don't pay you to beta test any of their products. Infact you need to pay the 100 bucks a year devolpers fee for apple until they release the public beta. I was always a part of the windows insider when I had my surface pro 4. I have helped a few developers in XDA with first releases of custom ROMs.

I just hope that everyone who is reporting problems in this thread is compiling them for essential. I plan on pulling log cats everytime I have a serious issue and sending it to essential.

 

[msp1518]

Whether you want to be part of that journey is something you need to decide.

I cannot roll my eyes back far enough at this comment. The phone's camera is garbage. Inferior to the camera in a three year old iPhone 6. That is not acceptable. I am about to get on a plane for China and will be gone for 9 months. I am not going to hope and pray things get better. No, I will take my very reliable 6S+, which has a much much better camera and wait for v2 of the Essential.

For whatever reason Essential blew it. The launch has been a disaster. Now it's up to them to right the ship and win back all of the people who are truly disappointed in the phone.

They got a lot right. But some critical areas are just nowhere near where they should be.

 

[modifier]

Would be different if the phone cost $400 or less.

Price rarely correlates to complaints. People would complain at $400 and still complain if the device was free. Complaints about products will never end as no product will ever be made that can meet the needs of 100% of the market.

That's not to say there isn't something to complain about, just that lowering the price won't reduce the number.

 

[anon(661246)]

i think we can all agree the design is beautiful but that's where it stops.

it's not fluid, I see stuttering when watching YouTube videos and going through the menus. Google movies app crashed on me and the camera app sucks

 

[jamezr]

Price rarely correlates to complaints. People would complain at $400 and still complain if the device was free. Complaints about products will never end as no product will ever be made that can meet the needs of 100% of the market.

That's not to say there isn't something to complain about, just that lowering the price won't reduce the number.

But price and complaint correlation wasn't the point. As others have said....essentially every customer is a beta tester right while Essential get their act together. When paying flagship prices ($700) one would expect not to be a beta tester. But at half that price maybe its not as cringe worthy.

I agree that no product will satisfy 100% of the market...but c'mon......This product was rushed to market...it was not ready and their customer service has been atrocious.

All the reviews tout the craftsmanship and build quality. But the software does not meet the hardware needs. Maybe a few revisions from now it will be fine. But this is from all reviews good hardware but the software is still in beta.....

 

[jamezr]

I'm super excited to throw down into this phone and I am ok with being a beta tester. Apple and Microsoft don't pay you to beta test any of their products. Infact you need to pay the 100 bucks a year devolpers fee for apple until they release the public beta. I was always a part of the windows insider when I had my surface pro 4. I have helped a few developers in XDA with first releases of custom ROMs.

I just hope that everyone who is reporting problems in this thread is compiling them for essential. I plan on pulling log cats everytime I have a serious issue and sending it to essential.

paying $100 bucks to be a developer is not the same as paying $700 for a phone. Paying a Dev fee so you can gain access to code is not the same. Paying that $100 to help you code an app that could return big $$$....so its not even close to being the same thing.

But if your happy spending that money then that is all that counts.

 

[digitalbreak]

I cannot roll my eyes back far enough at this comment. The phone's camera is garbage. Inferior to the camera in a three year old iPhone 6. That is not acceptable. I am about to get on a plane for China and will be gone for 9 months. I am not going to hope and pray things get better. No, I will take my very reliable 6S+, which has a much much better camera and wait for v2 of the Essential.

For whatever reason Essential blew it. The launch has been a disaster. Now it's up to them to right the ship and win back all of the people who are truly disappointed in the phone.

They got a lot right. But some critical areas are just nowhere near where they should be.

The camera output is not as bad as you are suggesting but the camera app itself is buggy and slow. The camera hardware, except for the lack of OIS, is pretty good comparable to some flagship sensors. Here are my pictures: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=NmdqSjlweHFUbDlhV1ZSaGhEdV9sY1dUWkh1dWZR

Side-loading Google Camera app does produce good results which effectively tells me software can fix the issues.

Lack of OIS - it's easy to pick this argument and say this camera cannot perform well. Many said the same with OnePlus 5 - Guess what, OnePlus 5 issued an update that drastically improved EIS even for 4K videos that shut everyone down who believes EIS cannot do wonders.

 

[digitalbreak]

paying $100 bucks to be a developer is not the same as paying $700 for a phone. Paying a Dev fee so you can gain access to code is not the same. Paying that $100 to help you code an app that could return big $$$....so its not even close to being the same thing.

But if your happy spending that money then that is all that counts.

Early adopters basically do that and are happy to spend their money. There is nothing wrong. It's the same with say a new subscription service or a product that gets launched. We are so used to getting stuff from big players and this is probably the second or third time (OnePlus, NextBit etc.,) a startup is coming to play alongside the big giants.

 

[tmacgarris6727]

My phone won't connect to voice service no more I'm on sprint my data works fine but I can not make any voice calls it keeps saying network not available just started last night I call sprint they tried everything and nothing work this phone is problematic at best

 

[msp1518]

The camera output is not as bad as you are suggesting but the camera app itself is buggy and slow.

It is. I stand by my statement. The evidence is all over the place. It's bad. You are welcome to love it as much as you like, but I am welcome to give my honest thoughts on a phone I had been very much looking forward to but which has unfortunately disappointed a heck of a lot of people. I hope they get it right next time.

 

[anon(661246)]

It is. I stand by my statement. The evidence is all over the place. It's bad. You are welcome to love it as much as you like, but I am welcome to give my honest thoughts on a phone I had been very much looking forward to but which has unfortunately disappointed a heck of a lot of people. I hope they get it right next time.

I agree. The whole software experience has been disappointing. I really hope it improves in time for the second version. I'd be more than happy to buy

 

[tmacgarris6727]

Wifi calling works but no voice service at all with out wifi calling on craziness

 

[atlbuc]

The camera output is not as bad as you are suggesting but the camera app itself is buggy and slow. The camera hardware, except for the lack of OIS, is pretty good comparable to some flagship sensors. Here are my pictures: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=NmdqSjlweHFUbDlhV1ZSaGhEdV9sY1dUWkh1dWZR

Side-loading Google Camera app does produce good results which effectively tells me software can fix the issues.

Lack of OIS - it's easy to pick this argument and say this camera cannot perform well. Many said the same with OnePlus 5 - Guess what, OnePlus 5 issued an update that drastically improved EIS even for 4K videos that shut everyone down who believes EIS cannot do wonders.

I have to agree with this, the camera isn't all that bad. In fact I think the stock camera takes better pictures than Open Camera and Google camera. The stock camera colors are more true to color than the the other 2 but I do think they can improve on the software a bit. Not a deal breaker for me. I'm a stickler for great craftsmanship and this phone has that. Software can be tweaked and improved, hardware can't unless you buy a new phone. I'm having 0 issues on the T-Mobile network. The phone froze on me earlier today while opening an app and I had to hard reboot but my S8 plus and iPhone 7 plus have done the same and those phones are pricier than the PH-1. I factory reset the phone out the box and setup as new and for the most part the software experience has been very good.

 

[modifier]

Wifi calling works but no voice service at all with out wifi calling on craziness

Must be an issue with Sprint. It works on T-Mobile. No issues with voice at all.

 

[tmacgarris6727]

Must be an issue with Sprint. It works on T-Mobile. No issues with voice at all.

View attachment 267498

My WiFi calling works fine but cellular voice service stop working today I have five phones on my account and this is the only one that won’t connect to voice outside of WiFi calling

 

[modifier]

My WiFi calling works fine but cellular voice service stop working today I have five phones on my account and this is the only one that won’t connect to voice outside of WiFi calling

Not sure if you've tried it but have you manually updated Carrier Services? https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ails?id=com.google.android.ims&token=a0-BtmEf

 

[tmacgarris6727]

Yup me and sprint tried everything I’m going to a tech sprint store tomorrow to see what they can do

 

[digitalbreak]

It is. I stand by my statement. The evidence is all over the place. It's bad. You are welcome to love it as much as you like, but I am welcome to give my honest thoughts on a phone I had been very much looking forward to but which has unfortunately disappointed a heck of a lot of people. I hope they get it right next time.

You said evidence is all over the place yet you failed to see my photos?

Let me know in what exact ways the camera is bad. Lack of OIS, I totally understand. I and many others here believe we will get software updates, may be, may be not but time will tell. But 'still photography' is not bad and I have been taking many photos with this phone so far and has not disappointed. Again, agree the camera app itself is buggy and slow.