Essential is well known as Android co-founder Andy Rubin's new gig, braving a very competitive smartphone market dominated by Apple and mainly Korean and Chinese based competition. The Essential PH-1 is the first major phone by Essential and like the Google Pixel phones, supports USB Power Delivery rather than Qualcomm Quick Charge for fast charging.

The Essential PH-1 doesn't have a 3.5 mm audio port so it comes with a USB Type-C to 3.5 mm audio adapter. Other accessories includes a 27 watts USB Power Delivery adapter, USB Type-C to Type-C cable, SIM removal pin, and documentation.

The Essential PH-1's 27W USB Power Delivery adapter supports 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps) and 27 watts (9 volts @ 3 amps) of charging. 27 watts is a lot more than other 18 watts USB Power Delivery and Qualcomm Quick Charge chargers usually shipped with phones. Click here to view more details on the power capabilities of the Essential PH-1's charger.  

The Essential PH-1 uses a titanium shell which is also unique among the competition, although the phone is still not totally impervious to dents and screen cracks. The phone feels heavier and more rugged than others, contributing to its positioning as a touch premium product.

The Essential PH-1 has a single USB Type-C port that supports USB 3.1 Gen 1, USB Power Delivery 2.0, as well as DisplayPort 1.2.

The Essential PH-1 is smooth all around with no protruding bumps other than the volume and power buttons.

Using the USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs with the Granite River Labs USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester, we can quickly see how the Essential PH-1's power profile looks like by running the following tests.

The USB Power Test App first negotiates a power contract emulating the Source to determine the Power Delivery Sink capabilities of the Essential PH-1. The USB Power Test App then reports out the voltage and current supported by the phone for each of the Source PDO's advertised to the phone.

Sink Cap.	Voltage (V)	Current (A)
5V	5.08	1.94
6V	5.1	2.27
7V	5.11	2.09
8V	8.1	1.53
9V	5.07	2.13
10V	5.11	2.26
11V	5.12	2.45
12V	5.08	2.27
13V	5.02	2.15
14V	5.1	2.08
15V	5.08	2.23
16V	4.98	2.06
17V	4.98	2.21
18V	5.09	2.16
19V	5.1	2.18
20V	5.11	2.16

The USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs also produces a voltage, current trace plot which graphically shows the voltage and current requested by the Essential PH-1 for each advertised Source PDO throughout the power negotiation.

Using the USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester from Granite River Labs to run just a subset of the full USB Power Delivery compliance test suite, we can see that the phone supports three PDO's for charging: 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps), 27 watts (9 volts @ 3 amps), and 27 watts (12 volts @ 2.25 amps). Note some compliance failures were observed. We can also see that it uses a Qualcomm based USB Power Delivery solution and confirmed DisplayPort Alt Mode support.

Product Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
UUT_Device_Type
Vendor_Name	Qualcomm, Inc

Power Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
PD_Power_as_Sink
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #2	Fixed
Voltage #2	0xB4(9V)
OP Current #2	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #3	Fixed
Voltage #3	0xF0(12V)
OP Current #3	0xE1(2.25A)
PD_Power_as_Source
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Peak Current #1	0x0(A)
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
Max Current #1	0x96(1.5A)

USB Power Delivery Results Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
1	TDA.2.1.1.1	BMC-PHY-TX-EYE	PASS
2	TDA.2.1.1.2	BMC-PHY-TX-BIT	PASS
3	TDA.2.1.2.2	BMC-PHY-RX-INT-REJ	FAIL
4	TDA.2.1.2.1	BMC-PHY-RX-BUSIDL	PASS
5	TDA.2.1.3.1	BMC-PHY-TERM	PASS
7	TDA.2.2.1	BMC-PROT-SEQ-GETCAPS	PASS
10	TDA.2.2.5	BMC-PROT-DISCOV	PASS
12	TDA.2.2.7	BMC-PROT-BIST-NOT-5V-SRC	PASS
14	TDA.2.3.1.1	POW-SRC-LOAD-P-PC	FAIL
15	TDA.2.3.1.2	POW-SRC-LOAD-CP-ACC	FAIL
18	TDA.2.3.3.2	POW-SNK-TRANS-PC	PASS
19	TDB.2.2.9	BMC-PROT-GSC-REC	PASS

DisplayPort Results Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
1	DPC 10.1.1	Disconnected Bringup	PASS
2	DPC 10.1.2	Bringup Procedure DP AltMode	PASS
6	DPC 11.2.1	VBUS VCONN before Attach Detection	PASS
7	DPC 11.2.2	DFP VBUS VCONN after Attach Detection	PASS
8	DPC 11.3.1	Adaptor VBUS and VCONN Tests	PASS