Essential Phone is the best deal in smartphones thanks to camera updates

The Essential Phone has come a long way since launch in one key area: Photography. When it first hit the market a few months ago, the camera had a nasty tendency to crash and was a bit slow to load and process photos. But Essential has stayed true to its promise of delivering frequent and effective Camera app updates, and the result is a smartphone total package that is easily the best value today at its reduced price of $499 – and it’s good contender for best Android smartphone period, now, too, even with the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL on the market.

I’ve been using the Essential Phone throughout its most recent camera updates, and I paid particular attention to the most recent updates for the app which brought a lot of improved stability and improved loading and capture times. Image quality, too, is improved, particularly in low light, which makes it seem like Essential did some work under the hood to improve the sensor fusion work that combines images from its dual color/mono cameras.

You can see examples of photos taken from the updated camera app below, including a selection of images taken in Japan. They definitely optimize for different qualities vs. some of the other leading flagship devices out there, including the iPhone X and the Pixel 2, but I’m a fan of the decisions Essential made with regards to their results, including more muted tones and a tendency to avoid exaggerating things like sky colors....