UPDATE: 3/13/18 OK, so I am downgrading my rating from five stars to four...and I am really tempted to say it's at about 3 stars, actually. Many people might look at this problem and give it one or two stars. And the downgrade is 100% due to the frequent freezing that happens 1-4 times per day, requiring a hard restart. From what I've seen online, this is a known issue with this phone and seems to happen to people after about two months of use. A factory reset solved the problem for a while, but the freezing came right back within a month or so. This persistent issue keeps this phone from receiving a higher grade, at least until a true fix is found.

First off—the tech site reviews for this phone range from lukewarm to horrible, which almost caused me to do an immediate exchange without even opening the box, but I decided to give the Essential phone a shot for a day or two. I am glad I did because I can honestly see no reason why this phone has received the kinds of reviews that have littered the online tech websites. The Essential PH-1 is an elegant, powerful, and smooth-working device that is as well designed, physically, as any phone I have ever held in my hands. Now that its price has been cut down to $499, it's a complete no-brainer.

Hardware

Simply put, the Essential phone is an eye-catcher. The ceramic back is clean and beautiful, though it does attract fingerprints like crazy—of course, which phone doesn't, these days? The titanium frame offers a high-end feel to it, and the front screen is made of Gorilla Glass 5. It is a heavy, substantial phone, given its relative size.