D&D 4E 4e core or essential?

[S'mon]

Everyone keeps saying how easy Essentials PCs are, but if someone actually goes in a reads all of the writeup for the first level Thief in HotFL and compares it to the number of pages of a first level Rogue in the PHB (3 pages), the Thief writeup is not smaller (the pages are smaller, but there are more of them).

There's still a lot of material there to read and absorb.

It's not a good comparison - creating my Essentials Thief last month, I felt HotFL was holding my hand and guiding me through the process, whereas when I tried to make a 4e PHB PC the 4e PHB let me sink or swim - and I sank, which is why it ended up being a year between me first buying 4e (June 2008) and first playing it (June 2009, once I had hold of the free electronic charbuilder).