An Essential branded phone with model number A11 has received Wi-Fi certification. There are some tech sites that claim that the company could be working on a new Essential phone with model number A11. However, this phone that has surfaced on Wi-Fi Alliance site is the same Essential PH-1 smartphone that the company had announced recently. The Wi-Fi certification reveals that it will be arriving preinstalled with Android 7.1.1 Nougat OS.
The Wi-Fi certification reveals that the Essential PH-1 has a model number of A11 and it features 2.4GHz and 5GHz dual-band Wi-Fi. In the previous month, it received approval from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. The Essential Phone was launched on May 30 and it was expected to start shipping from June 30. However, the shipping of the smartphone has not started yet.
Now that the Essential Phone has received FCC and Wi-Fi Alliance certification, its shipping is pegged to begin soon. According to Essential COO Niccolo de Masi, the Essential Phone’s release is “imminent” in the U.S. However, he did not give out the exact date from when the customers that preordered the Essential Phone would be receiving it. The Essential Phone will be exclusively available through Sprint in the U.S. 
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There is no reason provided by the company on why it has delayed the shipping of the Essential Phone to its customers. In the recent past, Essential’s vice-president of marketing, Brian Wallace made an exit from the company and few days before this happened, the Head of Communications, Andy Fouché left the Essential Products company. There is no real proof whether these things could have delayed the release of the Essential Phone.
Also, a recent report from Financial Times states that the Essential Phone would be launching in international markets like the Europe and Japan. Currently, Essential is rumored to be in talks with multiple carriers from the U.K including EE to decide on a launch date for the Essential Phone. In Canada, the smartphone would be exclusively launched through TELUS. In the U.S., the Essential Phone is priced at $699, but there is no information on the pricing of the phone for other markets. The U.S. pricing suggest that the Essential Phone won’t be carrying cheaper price tag in the western European markets.
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