Essential Phone Raises $300 Million In Funding, PH-1 Release Date Will Be Announced Next Week

Essential Products, a smartphone start-up by Andy Rubin has raised USD 300 million in new funding. It was also announced that the Essential Phone’s release date will e revealed next week.

Essential Products has also signed up retailers for the distribution of the smartphone which includes amazon.com, BestBuy, Sprint in the US and Telus in Canada. This new development comes a few days after it was reported that all may not be well at Essential Products after losing three top-ranking officials within a month.

The founder of Essential Products, Andy Rubin took to Twitter that the manufacturing process of the $699 smartphone is in full swing and will be available to the consumers soon. The funding round concluded with the funds raised up to $300 million, and the investors included Tencent Holdings, electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn and Amazon.com, which participated via its Alexa Fund. Previous investors Redpoint Ventures and Playground Global also participated.

The Essential phone is one of the most anticipated devices of 2017 as it is the brainchild of the ‘father of Android,’ Andy Rubin. The device;s potential launch will clash with some of the heavyweights of the smartphone industry such as the iPhone 8 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, both of the devices will have top-of-the-line features. The Essential phone will be displayed only in BestBuy stores and retail online through Amazon against the widepread distribution of the likes of Samsung, Apple, LG etc. R. “Ray” Wang of Constellation Research said, “It’s not just about US distribution. This is going to be a global phone. The biggest phone markets are China, India and the US” referring to Essential’s two principal investors from Asia.

Essential PH-1 next to the iPhone

What we know about the Essential Phone PH-1 so far-

• Display – 5.71-inch 2560 x 1312 px with an aspect ratio of 19:10
• Battery – 3,040mAh support for fast charging, Wireless charging
• Chipset – Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
• RAM- 4GB
• Storage – 128GB
• Rear Camera- 13 MP dual cameras with one RGB sensor and one Monochrome sensor and f/1.85 aperture lenses
• Front Camera- 8MP
• Video Recording- 4K at 30 FPS