[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DHO:
As many on XDA will tell you a Phone or ROM is only as good as it’s support team. As a developer who has offered various ROMs and android mods since 2009, I have extensive experience in troubleshooting and helping others do so. And in recent years, I very rarely go out of my way to lend an opinion or even review a device, however, I think the android community should be informed about the support that the Essential Phone offers before buying their product.

I was very excited to hear about Andy Rubin's project and immediately pre-ordered the PH-1 with the extended warranty. Despite delays, I had high hopes and had every intention of making it my daily driver. The day I received the phone I also received an email stating that it was not certified for usage on Verizon’s network. Verizon is the only network where I live. I tried my existing sim card and received awful reception. I wrote a quick review and stated “This may be a simple APN fix or could be a serious issue with the radios.” Since the phone was unusable, I boxed it up awaiting Verizon certification.

About a month went by before I finally got an email stating the PH-1 was certified for Verizon. I tried the phone and still received abysmal data reception. Despite 3-4 bars, the download speeds around 3 Mbps and uploads of 0.01 Mpbs or slower. Without wifi the phone cannot complete initial setup/login, Google Assistant cannot function, and in general does not work.

I spent 3 days troubleshooting this with APNs, data resets, Manufacturer's reset, custom bands, hidden menus, confirmed the IEMI via the web portal... you name it, I tried it. During this time, I noticed there are a few spots on the top of the screen that work poorly. So, I finally decided to contact Essential’s support; the options are limited to leaving a voicemail or email. I tried leaving a voicemail that no one returned.

After a week of waiting for a return call, I moved to the email support. I summarized all the steps I had tried. I received a follow up email the next day asking me to perform factory reset…..

Something that I had clearly stated I had already done.

So, I did another and responded that it did not work.

It took over 1 week to receive a follow up asking if I had the My Verizon app installed

. I cannot imagine how this would influence data speeds, but I played their game and gave it a try. Of course there was no improvement.

Their follow up ask me to reset the APNs, which is a much more logical option than their first and second response, but once again

something I clearly stated I had previously done in my initial request for support

. At this point, I took my phone to a Verizon and T-Mobile store and their representatives tried new sim cards, provisioned, and troubleshooted the phone. Both Verizon and T-Mobile, have said there is nothing wrong with the setup, the sim, the apps, and the phone’s hardware is defective.

I relayed this message to Essential Support and and their response was to #1 download the Verizon app #2 reset APNS #3 set the phone to global mode…… Not only had they told me to do this before, but if they bothered to read any of my emails they would have seen this has been tried, and both Verizon and T-Mobile have independently verified the software is fine, it is not user error, and the hardware is defective.

Over the last month, I have made no progress at all on the radio issue and it has been 4 days since Essential’s last lackluster communication.

Despite reminding their support staff several times,

no has even tried to troubleshoot the other issue I am having with the screen involving poor touch sensitivity

on the superior border. No one has offered me a new phone nor referred to my Essential Extended Care (which I do not want pay the deductible for a phone that never worked). When I asked to return, the phone they said it was 14 day window despite the phone not being certified on my network for the first month I had not the phone.

Over the years, I have owned Motorola Droid, Galaxy Nexus (toro + maguro), G2, G3, 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, LG G2, LG G3, LG G4, GS3, GS4, GS5, Sony Pollux, Nexus 4, Nexus n6p, among others, and I have had to call support for hardware issues. The Essential Phone is by a very wide margin has the worst support I have ever come across and Google’s has had the best.

In its prime, my custom ROM had well over 100,000 users and I tend to be the only one on the team who offered support, so I completely understand android support like very few on this planet. As of last month before the price break, Essential was estimated to have only sold 5,000 phones. Even with a bare bones staff fielding emails and not checking voicemail, their support volume per day is likely less than what I personally did for free for our community for free as part of a “hobby” for almost a decade.

To sum it all up: “Buyer Beware”