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AppleRobert

macrumors 603
Nov 12, 2012
5,729
1,133
Well the iPhone 8 keynote was a big disappointment for me..... I saw nothing that Apple is doing better then the rest of the industry. The iPhone X is behind the curve in my mind with no touch ID and a lackluster implementation of facial recognition. I saw nothing that would make face ID more usable then other facial recognition tech (don't get me started on the"flood light" in order to have the tech work in the dark). Maybe a bit more secure but that's about it. I'll reserve final judgment for reviews but disappointed with the information available so far.

I was hoping for 120hz refresh rate displays at least. The iPhone 8 costs $50 more the normal and now matches the essential phone in price but with no edge to edge display and no titanium and ceramic build. Granted the iPhone will likely take much better pictures, wireless charging, and water resistant.

All that said, I think I am still on track to purchase the pure white Essential Phone once Essential is ready.

Apple shot themselves not changing the design for the 8 and Plus as far as I am concerned. Looking forward to give this Essential a hard look as well as other upcoming android smartphones, I am not spending for the iPX.
 

symphara

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2013
670
649
The 256Gb version of the iPhone X is CHF1389 here in Switzerland, rofl. One would need a particular kind of stupidity to spend that amout of money on a phone.

As far as I can tell, the sane choices are now the Essential, hopefully the Pixel 2, and probably the Mate 10. I’m waiting for the latter, since unfortunately neither Essential nor Google seem interested to sell their stuff here.
 
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lowendlinux

macrumors 603
Sep 24, 2014
5,460
6,788
Germany
I stopped by Best Buy to see if they had a display model and they didn't they expect them next week. On the way out of the mall the sprint store had an advertisement up for them so I went in to look and they had a display model so I played around with it. It's less impressive IRL than the pictures and they said they didn't know when they were going to any in stock.

Even if it's less impressive in real life I think I'd pick it up over any handset other than the Pixel
 

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2010
4,840
3,183
So it's been over a week since I've had my phone, and I got to say I really like it. I'm still in awe at times just looking at the design. It feels great in hand, build is one of the best. Love the black slab look, and there are no humps or anything to break the seamless look (other than the white half of the flash and 2 small prongs for the camera). The screen is awesome, one of the better LCD's I've seen. Color and backlight have been very even and no light bleeds. It's not as bright as my iPhone 7 but I can still see fine in daylight. Blacks are also pretty black, you can only really tell it's LCD when your in a dark room or if you look really close. It's also the sharpest display I've seen.

I love this bezel less design, it amazing how big the screen is with such a small and compact body. I can use this phone one handed comfortably for the most part, only the occasional shimmy. The top camera notch isn't at all distracting, and I actually kind of like it, gives it a distinct look. It doesn't get in the way either. Even though there is no bezel, haven't had any false touches, I think the flat design and compact body have to do with it.

Performance has been great for the most part, apps load very fast, and app performance has been great. The games I load here preform great too. I do occasionally see a skipped frame here or there and a freeze. Seems something that can easily be fixed with software, as the phone has clearly demonstrated in other occasions to be more than powerful enough to handle it. These haven't happened at critical times, so not bothering me yet, but I hope they fix it soon.

Battery life has been great, I was in a hotel over the weekend avoiding the hurricane, but was streaming the news the whole time on my phone over LTE and multi tasking coming on these boards, checking Facebook's for updates from my friends who stayed, and surfing the web. Astonished I got over 6hrs screen time! Of course there was almost no standby time, but that's still pretty amazing to me.

I do miss the water resistance of my other handsets, it kinda feels like a step back.

And the camera, while fine in good lighting, is pretty bad in low light. There was an update, but haven't really tested it much. I will say the monochrome camera actually takes some really good photos, especially in low light it gets alot more detail than even my iPhone camera. If they can somehow get that kind of performance with the color of the main camera, it might actually turn out great. Big if though.

Video is also not that great, I would say maybe above average, but the iPhone, Pixel and Galaxy series are much better. And im sure LG's is too.

The 360 camera though was actually pretty cool. It does a really good job in stitching everything and very simple to use, just snap on. It's awesome recording a video with it, not only do I get to see my daughter acting goofy, but also see everyone reacting to her and the faces my wife was making to make her act that way. The first to be able to get this feature baked in will be a game changer for home videos.

Unfortunately, to use the 360 camera you need to use Essential's camera app, which is slower and crashes alot more when entering 360 mode.

Overall, I would say this is still a great phone hobbled by the camera. Excluding the camera, this is definitely in contention with being one of the best handsets out. So if you don't really care about camera quality, I would highly recommend this phone. But if it's your main shooter, unfortunately I would say stay away, at least until essential can figure out the camera software.
 

Zackmd1

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2010
815
487
Maryland US
Well I saw one in person today! My local sprint store surprisingly had one on display. The design is amazing and felt great in the hand. The display bezels are truly impressive. Unfortunately the display was not impressive to say the least... Coming from the S8, brightness was the major downside to the display for me... It just struggled to look vibrant and when I held my S8 next to it there was simply no competition... Unfortunate to say the least and will likely stop me from ordering the pure white model... Other then the disappointment in the display, the software experience was good but I was also surprised in that even some of the preinstalled apps have UI elements showing up under the status bar.

The display not measuring up to my standards really destroys my prospects of getting a smaller all screen phone! At least for now that is... The iPhone X is way to overpriced with no Touch ID, the LG v30 is much larger then the S8, the smaller pixel 2 is going to keep the bezels, and now the essential phone has a screen I personally would not be happy with....
 

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symphara

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2013
670
649
Apparently they issued the September update at the same time as Google. Impressive! I read they ironed out some performance issues.
 

Zackmd1

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2010
815
487
Maryland US
Apparently they issued the September update at the same time as Google. Impressive! I read they ironed out some performance issues.

I can confirm that. The display unit I was looking at yesterday had yet to be updated and I noticed the stutters and touch reponse issues. While I was there I went ahead and updated the unit for them and performance after the update was much better. In the same period of time I was playing with it before the update I noticed none of the issues after. Very responsive after with very smooth scrolling.
 
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Aneres11

macrumors 601
Oct 2, 2011
4,353
9,551
I'm kind of glad this phone isn't available in the UK as I would most definitely be tempted to get hold of one.
Such a shame the screen isn't as impressive as it could have been.
 

frankgrimes

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2016
519
387
From all the bezel less it looks by far the best. Granted we haven't seen the XL 2 and Mate 10 yet but Samsungs offerings are too long, LG has QA issues and Apple well no buttons and a huge distracting notch
 

widgeteer

Suspended
Original poster
Jun 12, 2016
1,565
4,610
From all the bezel less it looks by far the best. Granted we haven't seen the XL 2 and Mate 10 yet but Samsungs offerings are too long, LG has QA issues and Apple well no buttons and a huge distracting notch

What is this in reference to? I don't know of any issues with the G6.
 

symphara

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2013
670
649
What is this in reference to? I don't know of any issues with the G6.
The infamous bootloop issues. There's even a class action against them. Don't know if it applies to the G6 or they finally learned how to solder stuff properly. No joke - my wife's putting her Nexus 5X in the fridge for OS updates. Apparently because of the phone heating stuff just comes off inside. Her first 5X died to bootloop, and we know other people with similar problems from LG-made phones.
 

widgeteer

Suspended
Original poster
Jun 12, 2016
1,565
4,610
The infamous bootloop issues. There's even a class action against them. Don't know if it applies to the G6 or they finally learned how to solder stuff properly. No joke - my wife's putting her Nexus 5X in the fridge for OS updates. Apparently because of the phone heating stuff just comes off inside. Her first 5X died to bootloop, and we know other people with similar problems from LG-made phones.

I'm familiar with the bootloops, didn't know if anything new had come up.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
The infamous bootloop issues. There's even a class action against them. Don't know if it applies to the G6 or they finally learned how to solder stuff properly. No joke - my wife's putting her Nexus 5X in the fridge for OS updates. Apparently because of the phone heating stuff just comes off inside. Her first 5X died to bootloop, and we know other people with similar problems from LG-made phones.
G6 has not had this issue ... The bootloop was an issue seemingly on a number of devices, but some folks here are instantly assuming all LG phones including unreleased devices have QC issues, which is a wild distortion.
 

symphara

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2013
670
649
G6 has not had this issue ... The bootloop was an issue seemingly on a number of devices, but some folks here are instantly assuming all LG phones including unreleased devices have QC issues, which is a wild distortion.
If they had it on a number of devices it wasn't a fluke (like the Note 7 battery) but a pattern, so I'd call it a reasonable assumption/fear rather than a wild distortion.

I have no horse in this race either way here. I'm perfectly happy to hear that the G6 and V30 are rock-solid QA-wise. I'm not planning to buy their phones, I just don't particularly like their design and their Android skin.
 

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2010
4,840
3,183
G6 has not had this issue ... The bootloop was an issue seemingly on a number of devices, but some folks here are instantly assuming all LG phones including unreleased devices have QC issues, which is a wild distortion.
I remember having this issue on my Note 3, had to remove the sd card to get it to boot.
 

Aneres11

macrumors 601
Oct 2, 2011
4,353
9,551
I never bothered reading reviews of this phone as firstly it isn't coming to the UK (is it?) and secondly, with the way in which they handled a lot of your guys orders and the less than stellar reviews of the camera, I'd immediately dismissed it.

However, tonight for some reason I've been on a YouTube binge :D.

I think I'd love this phone. Its design really gets me. It reminds me a little bit of the situation I was in with the BlackBerry Priv. No one would really recommend it, people who used it didn't really enjoy it, it had so many short comings, but I adored it. And I knew I would before I even got my hands on it. I'm feeling this way about the Essential Phone.

I really wish it was out over here.
 
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Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Jun 16, 2010
4,840
3,183

symphara

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2013
670
649
I never bothered reading reviews of this phone as firstly it isn't coming to the UK (is it?) and secondly, with the way in which they handled a lot of your guys orders and the less than stellar reviews of the camera, I'd immediately dismissed it.

However, tonight for some reason I've been on a YouTube binge :D.

I think I'd love this phone. Its design really gets me. It reminds me a little bit of the situation I was in with the BlackBerry Priv. No one would really recommend it, people who used it didn't really enjoy it, it had so many short comings, but I adored it. And I knew I would before I even got my hands on it. I'm feeling this way about the Essential Phone.

I really wish it was out over here.
They said it’s coming to the UK, and they’re working on in as a matter of priority. There was a Q&A session on reddit I think, check it out.
 
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Aneres11

macrumors 601
Oct 2, 2011
4,353
9,551
They said it’s coming to the UK, and they’re working on in as a matter of priority. There was a Q&A session on reddit I think, check it out.

Interesting, thanks.

Normally I'd hold out and look forward to it, but given they can't even get the right information to customers who ordered I the US, I'm not holding my breath :p.

Love the look of this phone though. So sleek. That copper and ocean one :eek:
 

symphara

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2013
670
649
Interesting, thanks.

Normally I'd hold out and look forward to it, but given they can't even get the right information to customers who ordered I the US, I'm not holding my breath :p.

Love the look of this phone though. So sleek. That copper and ocean one :eek:
Yes I like that one too. The grey one is supposed to have a matte finish, very interesting. Neither is going to be out for quite some time though.
 
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