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The company's future is a bit unknown at this point, but I've been curious to take a look at the Essential Phone -- a pure android experience, unlocked, runs on most networks, and while not the highest of specs it seems reasonably good.

Ceramics body makes the device more brittle and heavy (poor combination) without offering any protection advantage other than being a bit more scratch proof. Same for titanium. Essencially, you are much more prone to damage this camera than most others in the market.

Where are you getting your materials info from? The body isn't ceramic, it is titanium. The back is ceramic. Not that I think that either ceramics or glass is a good choice (I had to replace my fire sale Fire phone after shattering the glass back), but metal often isn't an option - think wireless charging, for example. But not everyone accepts plastic (as used on my Nexus S and now on my Nexus 5X), and so you're down to breakables.

Do you have a source indicating that ceramic back is heavier, or weaker, than glass?

[By the way, this is a trick question. Glass *is* a ceramic.]

But then we get to titanium, which is not only stronger (by weight) than aluminum, but is more durable, not less. You can see comparison shots of the titanium vs. aluminum in their corner drop tests look about half way down on their home page: https://www.essential.com/

Here's a video review of the phone:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

The attachable wireless modules are unique, and it has a 360 degree camera option. It has a 5.7" screen and a smaller body than 5.5" screen Androids and iPhones. No bloatware isn't unique, but it's better than most Android phones. Interesting and functional materials.

Their home page highlights these differences:
https://www.essential.com/

More than the current features is the promise of seamless integration with other devices.
https://www.wired.com/story/in...

I'm not buying this iteration of this phone, but I hope enough people do to keep this company alive - it looks like it has a lot of promise.

Checking out their FAQ, they are a slight improvement on Android phones in that their mission is supposedly to 'play well w/ others' and actually belong to you. However, they do lack expandable storage (although their main storage of 128GB may well be adequate), dual SIMs and replaceable batteries. However, their bootloader can be unlocked.

One major beef I have w/ Android phones is that since Marshmallow, I haven't seen a single Android phone that comes w/ SD card - precisely b'cos Marshmallow allows one to get around a limited storage by putting in, say, a 128GB or more SD card and defining it as the primary storage.