Earlier this year, Android co-founder Andy Rubin launched smartphone brand Essential and its first smartphone — Essential Phone. The smartphone was launched in May this year, with a price tag of ₹699.
Recently, the phone received a price cut of $200, bringing the effective price of the smartphone to $499. Now, the US-based retailer BestBuy has cut down the price of Essential Phone by another $50 and it is now available for just $449.99.
Along with the Essential Phone PH-1, the 360-degree camera accessory also received a price cut, but it seems to have gone out of stock for now. However, it appears that the discount is not official as Essential is still selling the smartphone for $499.
While cutting down the pricing of the Essential Phone, the company had not revealed the reason. However, it is believed that the company could be struggling to make its mark given that there are many popular flagship smartphones in the market such as LG V30, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Apple iPhone 8, Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.
Essential Phone features a 5.7-inch bezel-less display that comes with a screen resolution of 2560 x 1312 pixels and an unusual aspect ratio of 19:10. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, along with 4GB of RAM 128GB of internal storage.
The smartphone features a dual camera system at the back, which includes a pair of f/1.85 aperture 13-megapixel sensors — one is monochrome lens while the other one is RGB lens. It also has a f/2.2 aperture 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
It is fueled by a 3,040mAh battery. On the back of the phone, there is a set of magnetic pins that hold Essential modules just like Motorola’s Moto Mods. The 360-degree camera is the only module available for now but the company says they will release new accessories every few months.
There is NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C and stereo speakers. The phone runs on Android 7.1 Nougat operating system out of the box with planned update to Android 8.0 Oreo.
Read More: Only 5000 Units of The Essential Phone Sold Through Sprint
At the time of announcing the launch, the company promised that Essential Phone will receive guaranteed updates for two years. It will also get monthly security updates for the next 3 years.
(Source)
