The Essential PH-1 is finally available for purchase, well, only in the US though. Andy Rubin, co-founder of Android created quite a buzz with the launch of the Essential Phone. However, the buzz was short lived as the company failed to meet its earlier availability time for June. The smartphone is now available for users to purchase via Essential’s official website, Amazon, Best Buy and Sprint. The smartphone is priced at $699 which rounds off to approximately Rs 44,900.
Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone went up for pre-orders in June with an expected shipping time by June end. Even so, the smartphone isn’t available for purchase immediately as consumers can only pre-order it now. The shipping date mentioned is September 1. As for those who pre-ordered the smartphone in June, Essential has started sending out emails for payment details, 9to5Google reports. The company says that the Essential Phone will be shipped within seven days for the early birds.
In addition to the smartphone, the 360-degree camera accessory announced at the launch is also available for pre-order. The Essential Phone comes with modular functionality and the 360-degree is the first accessory for the smartphone. As a bundled offer, the Essential Phone and the 360-degree camera is priced at $749 (approximately Rs 48,100). ALSO READ: Essential Phone by the creator of Android checks the right boxes, but would India even care?
The Essential Phone made headlines particularly for its design as it features a bezel-less display with only a cutout for the front camera. In terms of specifications, the Essential Phone features a 5.7-inch Quad HD display with Gorilla Glass 5 on top for protection. The smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. ALSO READ: Edge-to-edge display to modular capabilities: Top 5 features of Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone
For photography, the Essential Phone sports a dual rear camera module which is a pair of 13-megapixel regular sensor and a monochrome sensor of f/1.85 aperture. Andy Rubin claims that the Essential Phone boasts the slimmest dual camera module on a smartphone. Up front, it houses an 8-megapixel camera with 4K video recording capability. RELATED: Here’s how the dual-camera setup on the Essential Phone works
On the software front, it runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat out-of-the-box. The smartphone is fuelled by a 3,040mAh battery. Its connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS and a rear fingerprint sensor. It, however, lacks the 3.5mm audio jack. ALSO READ: Andy Rubin’s Essential to launch an affordable smartphone next: Report
