We just released an update to
Essential Camera App that adds Auto - HDR, a new HDR algorithm that improves camera performance and scene rendering, dynamic HDR and Flash indicators, and various stability fixes.
The Essential camera app feels like an iPhone app, with simple swipe actions to switch modes.
The Essential Camera app itself is also receiving an update in the Google Play Store.
Reddit users and Android Police surmised the number after
the Essential Camera app hit the 50,000 to 100,000 installs mark.
We just released an update to
Essential Camera app that adds flash for the selfie camera, Tiny Planet mode (beta) for 360 ° photos and videos, and stability fixes.
Essential Phone owners have likely grown accustomed to frequent updates for
the Essential Camera app, and lo and behold, yet another one is rolling out now.
Not exact matches
From the
camera app to the gallery and music player, everything is pretty much basic and lacks a few
essential options.
Out of the box, these applications include the
essentials, like the phone, messaging, browser, and
camera apps.
That said, in the situations where an
app wraps around the front - facing
camera in the way I describe in the first scenario, the
Essential Phone feels like a peek into the future of smartphones.
Then there's the moment - to - moment experience of using the current version of the
Essential Phone's
camera app.
There's no bloatware to speak of — the only non-Google
app that comes pre-installed on the device is
Essential's
camera app.
Speaking of the
camera app, it's the only real change to speak of when comparing the
Essential OS to stock Android, and it doesn't bring much to the table.
Camera app issues aside, the software experience on the
Essential Phone is excellent.
With the exception of a proprietary
camera app, the version of Android on the
Essential Phone is the same as the one Google ships.
On early Friday morning,
Essential issued an update that tweaked the
camera app to add support for HDR and fix some of the stability issues that made it prone to crashing.
Have a peek at our
Essential Phone first impressions feature to see some examples of better photo quality with the Google
Camera App (originally meant for the Pixel.)
Once I've had a chance to use the final
camera app software, I'll have more to say about the
Essential Phone's software experience.
The
camera app that came pre-installed with the
Essential Phone is as basic as smartphone
camera apps come in 2017, with features that have become frequent inclusions on other high - end devices absent.
Essential previously released an update to its
camera app with several improvements.
When I first used the
Essential Phone back in August, the device's
camera app was barely serviceable; now, however, the
camera is capable of capturing genuinely decent photos.
In addition to the new features in Oreo,
Essential also pushed out a valuable update to their
Camera app on the Play Store.
In addition,
Essential has added some new functionality to the
camera app.
A new update for the
Essential Phone's
camera app is rolling out now, and with it comes a Tiny Planet mode and a flash for the front - facing
camera.
In the absence of official figures, we can only rely on Play Store installations of the proprietary
Essential Phone
camera app for sales approximations.
The steady pace of
Essential Phone updates continues this week with a new
Camera app release that adds a «Tiny Planet» feature to the proceedings.
Systemless root allows you to make modifications to system
apps and libraries to enable things like audio enhancing mods, system - wide ad - blocking, font changing, Google
Camera port on the
Essential Phone, Night Light and
Camera2 API on the Xiaomi Mi A1, and even allowing for fully customizing the Google Pixel 2's Active Edge.
And only then, once
Essential has reached the bare minimum requirement of a fast and smooth
camera app, can we talk about actual photo quality.
The device comes with all the Google related
apps,
essential tools like calc,
camera, FM Radio, galley, Refuel and Retriever options pre-installed on your device.
We found that the
Essential Phone's
camera did take decent shots, but still not as good as the OnePlus 5T, and the
app was a little frustrating to use too.
According to the company, the
essential in - built
apps such as contacts,
camera, gallery, calculator and many of the default
apps have been re-engineered by the company for a lower memory footprint.
There's absolutely zero bloatware on this phone, and it seems like the only piece of custom user - facing software
Essential has included with the phone is the
camera app.
The only
app Essential made for this phone was the
camera app, but we'll get to that one later.
Essential has already shown that this can be fixed to some extent through software, and as it turns out, using a port of the Pixel's
camera app actually helps a lot, so I won't totally write - off this
camera just yet.