Though it seemed the Essential PH-1 had a long going for it — the fact that it was made by Android cofounder Andy Rubin should have helped it secure popularity — it never managed to become something than an underdog in the smartphone world.
That's not entirely Rubin's fault, though. The smartphone industry has two huge players: Apple and Samsung — maybe three if you're counting Huawei or Xiaomi. Critics thought the Essential PH-1 was an excellent phone despite several shortcomings. The camera, for starters, still needs a lot of work.
For the most part, though, they thought it was a slick phone that screamed "premium," with a near-stock Android experience on top of everything, and also the promise of modular capabilities that unfortunately never got anywhere.
No surprise that Essential promptly slashed the phone's price in October, just a couple of months after it had been released, amid reports alleging poor sales performance. The price went down to just $500 instead of the usual $700 price tag.
Now, the phone just got its price slashed again thanks to Amazon, bringing it to just $400.
Get The Essential Phone For $400
Amazon currently has the Essential PH-1 up for sale via a promotion. Customers can get an unlocked version of the phone for just $400, and there are two bundles available: $468 for the phone plus a 360-degree camera, and $497 if you want a pair of Essential HD headphones.
That's one of the cheapest prices the phone has ever seen, and it probably won't last very long. Make sure to check out the Amazon listing to purchase the device. Only the Black Moon and Pure White versions are sold at that price, though. Limited Edition colors were recently announced to help drive up sales.
Essential PH-1 Specs
The promotion makes the Essential PH-1 one of the best bangs for one's buck, aside from the OnePlus 5T, which costs $100 more. Don't let the price fool you, though. The phone is thoroughly a flagship device. Inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, an Adreno 540 GPU, 4 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage. On the back are 13-megapixel dual cameras, and on the front is an 8-megapixel selfie shooter. It features a nearly bezel-less display with a camera notch on top.
Even still, it's not a perfect phone. Even at that price, many might find its lack of a headphone jack pretty irksome, and the performance of its camera isn't exactly the best out there. Yet the pros outweigh the cons, and for a top-tier phone that costs just $400, it's hard to complain.
Take note that it also recently received an Android 8.1 Oreo update, making it one of the first devices to get the latest version of the OS besides Google's own Pixel lineup.
Are you going to get this phone? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
