I had an essential phone from the first fire sale, was overall happy with it but a few months in I went hiking and my pants got a bit wet from walking though wet forest (wasn't raining) and the phone died. They were small enough that nobody knew how to work on it (tried all the usual tricks). As other people have mentioned, the phone was pretty good, except for the camera.
The iFixit guide was b---s---, they froze the phone for no clear reason, and destroyed the entire phone. I almost gave up on buying because of them. Here is a tutorial by fixEZ. All you need is a heat gun (I used a hairdryer) and a playing card.
