I would say yes, but depending on what price you're getting it for. For those of us in Singapore, since we need to ship it in, it's not as worth it at the usual price since there's no warranty. But if you can get it below 400, I think it's a worthy purchase.
The design is still top notch even today imo, I think the angular design and more industrial look is very timeless, a bit like the older iphones.
The screen with the tiny bezels looks nice too. It's not the best looking screen, and if you nitpick you can definitely see some flaws. Like a bit of light bleed, and you can see the digitizer too. But on the whole I think it still looks good.
Specs is good too with SD835, 128GB UFS2.1 storage, and 4GB RAM. With Android Pie, the phone performs well too. It's still not as smooth as pixel phone, mostly because of the animation frame rates doesn't seem to be 60fps, and the very very slightly slower touch response, but it's still what I would consider as decent. Even the battery life is not bad for me. 1 day of use is no problem (maybe because they save battery in animations? haha). YMMV of course.
Software is probably the highlight of the phone. Near stock android experience, so minimal bloat, and Essential is really fast at software updates these day. This is the only other phone that got the Android Pie update same day as the Pixel line up, can't say enough how impressive this is. Not even Nokia could update their Android One phones as quickly.
Camera is also not as bad as most initial review suggests. It got slammed mostly because of how expensive it was. But at the current prices, it's a good camera. I've gotten some really good shots out of the phone. It's not as good as the Google Pixel, but it's still pretty decent if you ask me.
Full resolution camera samples here.
There are things that could be better of course, but at this price can't really complain. Things like lack of water resistance, headphone jack, microsd card slot, stereo speakers, etc. This is no longer selling at flagship price after all.
A few other things to note. Network strength is something that a lot of people have mentioned as well, and in my experience, it does seem a little weaker than some other phones I've tested. But i've not had any major issues with the phone suddenly losing connection or what not. So it's still not a big deal for me. Singapore's infrastructure is mostly decent enough. But if you work at a place with bad reception to begin with, do take note.
All in all, I think it's still a really nice phone, even with the new pocophone around. it might not be as fast, specs might not be as good. but if you can grab one at a lower price like many of us here did, it's still a good buy. It just feels so much more premium than the pocophone, and looks so much nicer.
Anyway, video review if anyone is interested. But basically talking about the same things I just mentioned. lol.
