The Essential Ph-1 Now Available For US $499 After US$200 Price Cut
The Ph-1 by Essential was announced in May 2017 and after months of anticipation, the smartphone went on sale in September. Priced at US$699, the smartphone was expected to compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note8 and the iPhone 8. The founder of Essential, Mr Andy Rubin is popularly known as the father of Android. With such a big name attached to the company, the Essential Ph-1 entered the market with heavy anticipation. However, popular opinion on the below average camera performance and a hefty price tag meant that the first ever Essential phone failed to have any sort of impact on the smartphone market. Now, the Essential Ph-one has received a US $200 price cut, bring the price down to US $499.
Essential has cited the desire to make its first phone more accessible as the primary reason for the price slash. In a blog post, the company stated:
We think making it easier for people to get their hands on our first products is a better way to get to know us.
At a price of US$499, the Essential phone becomes an interesting prospect, considering it is now competing with the OnePlus 5. Both the phones run pure Android OS with the OnePlus 5 running a bit more customisable skin on top. The 64GB storage and 6GB RAM variant of the OnePlus 5 is priced at US $479 while the higher end variant will cost you US $539. The Essential Phone on the other hand has 4GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.
The Essential Ph-1 has a 5.71 inch IPS LCD display with a 2560 x 1312 px resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top for protection. Under the hood, the smartphone has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 2.4GHz octa-core processor, 4GB RAM and 128GB onboard storage which can not be expanded. The smartphone runs Android 7.1 Nougat and is powered by a 3040 mAh battery. The fingerprint sensor is placed at the back of the device.
The Ph-one has a dual 19MP camera setup at the back. One of the cameras has TBG (colour) sensor while the other one is equipped with a monochrome (black and white) sensor, with an f/1.9 aperture. On the front is an 8MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture.
Now US$200 cheaper, the Essential Ph-one might make a few people’s holiday shopping list. Would you be interested in the phone after the price cut? Let us know in the comments below.
