Any Interest In Rubin's Essential Phone?

[jamezr]

Finally received my refund last night. After all the CS reps who tried to talk me out of canceling my order. After all the promises and making me re verify all my information in every email. After having to describe my reason for wanting to cancel to every CS rep who responded to my emails. CS rep Chuck Haycox processed my refund.

What a complete nightmare ordering/canceling and customer service has been with this company.

 

[widgeteer]

Finally received my refund last night. After all the CS reps who tried to talk me out of canceling my order. After all the promises and making me re verify all my information in every email. After having to describe my reason for wanting to cancel to every CS rep who responded to my emails. CS rep Chuck Haycox processed my refund.

What a complete nightmare ordering/canceling and customer service has been with this company.

They made one pass at talking me out of it but otherwise I didn't have to justify anything. It took a bunch of back and forth to get it done but no one hassled me about it.

 

[Fernandez21]

Me too. It's not like I can repair my phone, even if I bought all the tools they use I just don't have the skill or interest to do so.

But if the phone is super-tough and well built, that's something of note.

And here it is.

 

[lowendlinux]

And here it is.

I can't watch the video at work...what was his conclusion?

 

[1BadManVan]

I can't watch the video at work...what was his conclusion?

Was good, glass acted as it should for gorilla glass 5 and the back was even harder being ceramic. Passed the bend test as well. Overall he liked the build quality of it, just didn't like all the missing features when it came to buying

 

[Fernandez21]

I can't watch the video at work...what was his conclusion?

It passed his durability test and was impressed with it's building materials. Said he wants to try a drop test. Will also be taking it apart. Said phone is not for him though because it lacks water resistance, headphone jack, wireless charging, and no SD card. Also would've preferred zoom lens instead of monochrome for dual camera.

 

[lowendlinux]

Was good, glass acted as it should for gorilla glass 5 and the back was even harder being ceramic. Passed the bend test as well. Overall he liked the build quality of it, just didn't like all the missing features when it came to buying

Thank you

 

[symphara]

I can't watch the video at work...what was his conclusion?

Super tough, pretty much aces the test, but the guy doesn't like it because of the missing headphone jack, water resistance etc and the useless (in his opinion) monochrome sensor.

 

[Fernandez21]

Looks like the 3rd wave of reviewers are starting, these are the ones that had to order the phone themselves.

 

[Fernandez21]

Second time ifixit tearing down the essential phone, and looks like they were able to get to it easier. However still looks like you would have to replace the display every time you open it.

 

[Zackmd1]

Second time ifixit tearing down the essential phone, and looks like they were to get to it easier. However still looks like you would have to replace the display every time you open it.

Since you have the phone, how would you classify the screen? It seemed telling to me that one of the reviewers mistook the display for OLED.

 

[Fernandez21]

Since you have the phone, how would you classify the screen? It seemed telling to me that one of the reviewers mistook the display for OLED.

It's very good, not as good as my iPhone 7 or S7 though. Best way to describe it would be an ultra sharp version of my 6S Plus. Actually this is probably the sharpest display I've ever seen. However brightness, colors, and viewing angles are about on par with what I had on my 6S. Blacks are also fairly black, the only time you really notice it's not true black is when viewing in a dark room.

 

[Tig Bitties]

And here it is.

- Indestructible if you don't drop it on an uneven surface, a dusty area, or water. Pretty much the only 3 places most people tend to drop their phones.

- This phone will be resilient in certain ways, but don't drop it face-first on asphalt and expect it to come out unscathed. And ceramic is scratch-resistant, but not drop-resistant -- it's brittle, so it'll shatter with a forceful enough impact.

 

[Fernandez21]

- Indestructible if you don't drop it on an uneven surface, a dusty area, or water. Pretty much the only 3 places most people tend to drop their phones.

- This phone will be resilient in certain ways, but don't drop it face-first on asphalt and expect it to come out unscathed. And ceramic is scratch-resistant, but not drop-resistant -- it's brittle, so it'll shatter with a forceful enough impact.

I would say because of the frame it should do very well in side drops. But flat face forward or backward would worry me. Still waiting on some drop tests.

 

[Fernandez21]

The camera is pretty bad in low light. It's fine for what I'm going to use for, but would not use it for pictures of my kids. Video is also pretty disappointing.
Essential

iPhone 7

 

[Fernandez21]

I'm on the road alot, so most of the time my phone's are on the car charger, but today I wanted to test out the battery. Here are the results. Pretty good, 5hrs screen on time. Could probably get it to 5:30-6:00hrs. I'm at 12% right now.

Wow, fast charging is no joke on this this either, back up to 90% in less than an hour. And suppose to top off in 7 min.

 

[samven582]

Got mine last week. Had dust behind the front and back camera. Contacted CS 2 days ago. Waiting for shipping label

 

[AppleRobert]

Still waiting to check it out, tick tock.

We will see if this is a keeper for anyone, especially at this price.

 

[jamezr]

Got mine last week. Had dust behind the front and back camera. Contacted CS 2 days ago. Waiting for shipping label

They don't email them to you huh? They snail mail you the return labels. That just adds to the return frustration.

 

[co.ag.2005]

They don't email them to you huh? They snail mail you the return labels. That just adds to the return frustration.

yeah, my snail mail return label gets here today. It was shipped out Tuesday.

 

[samven582]

They don't email them to you huh? They snail mail you the return labels. That just adds to the return frustration.

you are absolutely right. I didn't read the email properly

 

[Moneoa]

Didn't you say before this phone is vaporware? Several times, in fact? You sound like you have an axe to grind.

Nope I really don’t

The vapourware statement was proven incorrect but even before I assumed it was vapourware I said earlier in the thread that this is phone is nothing but another niche android device.

I stand by my statements and am more that willing to admit when I’m not right.

There is nothing special about this phone. In the next 6-8 months every phone will have minimal bezels. Also if you did some reading about googles project arias and look at Motorola’s success with its play line of phones, a modular phone is a non starter out the gate. Been there and done that.

My favourite android phones were the nexus line up until the nexus 5 where google tried to push higher standards on its OEM partners to make better phones with stock android and little bloat. The pixels are nice phones but they don’t try to push the envelope with them like the nexus phones.

 

[Moneoa]

Not to mention the seriously lacking camera in the essential for what is supposed to be a premium phone

 

[widgeteer]

Nope I really don’t

The vapourware statement was proven incorrect but even before I assumed it was vapourware I said earlier in the thread that this is phone is nothing but another niche android device.

I stand by my statements and am more that willing to admit when I’m not right.

There is nothing special about this phone. In the next 6-8 months every phone will have minimal bezels. Also if you did some reading about googles project arias and look at Motorola’s success with its play line of phones, a modular phone is a non starter out the gate. Been there and done that.

My favourite android phones were the nexus line up until the nexus 5 where google tried to push higher standards on its OEM partners to make better phones with stock android and little bloat. The pixels are nice phones but they don’t try to push the envelope with them like the nexus phones.

I think mods can work if they actually a) get around to releasing one and b) release mods that people will use.

However the biggest stumbling block to mods is I think people intuitively have it ingrained in their thinking that they'll be outdated year over year regardless of what a company promises. Form factors change, and even though Essential swears their set up allows their mods to be used with different form factors, we've seen company after company break their promise of support.

I think the phone could have differentiated itself based purely on its premium build and running stock Android. But with CS and shipping being a disaster, and the camera failing so hard, I'm afraid what they do have going for them isn't enough. Niche folks will gravitate towards Pixels. The masses don't care about stock. Lose/Lose for Essential at this point.

 

[Fernandez21]

Camera aside, I'm really digging this phone. I think though the bad press it's getting is partly due to expectations not being met. This phone has such an incredible build quality that you expect it to be water resistant, and it's not. It's running stock android and you expect it to be flawless, but it's not. Your buying a flagship and expecting a great camera, but it's not. You expect some form of customer service, but it's basically non-existing or they flat out lie (I emailed them about my tracking number because I didn't get one when everyone else did, by the time they responded I already had the phone in hand, and they still lied and said they found my phone in the warehouse and to expect it soon).

It's a shame because the phone itself is top notch. And really if they had competent customer service and a good camera I think things would've gone a lot different. I hope things work out for them, I'm loving this phone and hope they're around to support it.