Essential360 Degree Camera for Essential Phone

I bought the essential phone mainly as an test into how much I would like the plain android OS. I did not have any intention of getting the 360 camera. I happen to see a video of it on Youtube and was intrigued. Then the price dropped down to $40 and I figured why not.I will start with the build quality. This does not feel like something that costs $40. This feels solid, not cheap at all. It feels like it could survive a drop or too depending the landing surface, but i am not gonna try it. Speaking on that, I recommend getting some sort of carrying case, since it has lenses on two sides and most likely is going to spend most of it's time in a bag or pocket, you dont want it to get scratched up.How to use? Line up the 2 connectors with the 2 on the phone and it pretty much slams together due to magnets. It seems to be a little more complicated then simply that however, I found myself a few times getting no reaction from my phone when it was hooked up (light on too) and I have to take it off and adjust it slightly. Once it is connected correctly, the phone is suppose to open up the essential camera app automatically and you are set to start snapping or videoing away. A few times I found this not to be as flawless as it sounds. The camera app would crash or freeze, or no matter how many times I connect and adjust the camera, I would get no reaction from phone. Usually a phone reset corrected it and then i was good to go.Picture quality? I am not an expert in it, but seems pretty good honestly for what your doing. This takes up to 4k videos. The stuff I seen on it however doesnt seem overly sharp or clear but could just be me. The best thing (which is really what its all about anyway) is the type of pictures it takes and the ease of it (once you get it up and running). Taking a 360 video or picture takes no extra effort then taking a regular one since you pretty much hold the phone the same way and use the same camera app. For me, the 360 has no major use everyday, but I have taken it to outdoor BBQs and some dinners and took some great pictures. (Capturing everyone around the fire pit for example). Everyone seems very impressed with it.I don't plan on keeping the Essential phone as my daily phone much longer, but I will definitely be keeping it solely because of the 360 camera. This would be great for vacations, taking 360 videos on some beautiful beaches.For 40$ , even if you dont see an immediate use for it, just get it anyway. It's a steal, and you will regret not getting it if they go out of stock or the price returns to its normal MSRP. If you have the Essential phone, you are probably missing out on the best feature of it if you don't have this. If you don't have the essential phone, well then you can't use this anyway.

I own several 360 cameras but the one I generally take with me for fun is the Theta V.This doesn't quite match the quality of that. However it's close enough that's I've stopped taking the Theta with me already and now just throw this in a pocket or my bag before I leave.Besides loving the phone.. this little 360 camera is amazing for the price they're selling it for now! I didn't really feel like I needed it so I wouldn't have paid the higher original price however I'd still pay at least double what I paid for it knowing what I know now.I might even go crazy and buy a second one to keep around as a spare. Then again when this phone finally dies there's a good chance the phone and a 360 camera will both end up in the garbage (recycled of course) so one Essential 360 camera might be enough for now. At least until I know if it will work on the new essential phone that's coming out or not. I'm doubtful but hopeful!Once again it's a steal at this price!

I love the camera for its ease of use, great looking picture styles especially the mini-planet style. However it is in no way a match to the quality of a full photosphere in terms of resolution. However the convenience of being able to capture 360° in one snap and not have to worry about subjects moving during the capture sequence cannot be denied. The video recording feature sometimes has garbled bits of video. The camera communicates with the phone wirelessly, and it seems that signal is not always as good as it should be. Google Photos does a great job of displaying the 360° photos, and the Google Photos mobile app can display the recorded videos in VR mode as well which is nice. The camera does get hot from use, and I have had it shutdown and give me an on screen message to let it coll and use my regular camera for a while after recording video on a hot day for about 20 minutes.

I got this camera shortly after I got my Essential PH-1 phone and it worked flawlessly for the first few months, while it was still under warranty, but it was almost like the camera had a count-down timer installed so literally the week after the initial warranty expired the camera would force the phone to SHUT DOWN AS SOON AS CONNECTED or within seconds of being connected with phone reporting the battery being FULLY DRAINED even with the phone connected to its charger at the time!!!The Essential PH-1 was still being sold as supposedly still "in production" on Amazon two months ago, despite the email I received from Essential Products almost a year ago thanking me for having remained a loyal customer but telling me they were CEASING PRODUCTION of their products in EARLY 2020... It's now Mid to Late 2020, so I highly doubt that the phone this camera is specifically designed to work with is even produced anymore, but based on my experience, I wouldn't recommend anybody consider buying the companion 360 camera unless they can find the camera selling in the maybe $10 - $30 price range!!!

I am glad I could find this camera at a large discount from the original price. It was fun to use but I could not send the 360 degree photos to anyone and have them view the photos in the same 360 degree mode. Maybe there is a way but there are no instructions and the Essential website is not helpful. And it doesn't help that there are no cases on the market that I can find that will accommodate this camera, so I had to remove the case before using and replace the case after. I need to have time to play with it, but during a party when I wanted to take some great 360 shots, there wasn't time to experiment. Another reviewer mentioned that it sometimes doesn't power up and it needs to be removed and reattached - I had this issue a number of times.