While most have already given up on hyping the release of the new Essential Phone, owing to release delays and not many updates coming from the company’s end, there is now some concrete evidence that the phone is close to receiving its official launch date.
Essential Phone listing shows up on Best Buy’s website
According to reports, Best Buy has now listed the Essential Phone (PH-1) on its website which includes both the unlocked and the Sprint carrier version. Just like with Essential’s offering, Best Buy’s own offering costs $699, while Sprint customers will have to pay a little more for their Essential Phone, which will set them back $750 instead, which can be paid back through the monthly rental plans offered by Sprint. Best Buy offers two color variants of the phone – Black Moon and Pure White. While it is still listed on the website, there has not yet been official confirmation on when it will actually go on sale.
The grey and the blue color variants of the phone will be made available at a later date. The company has had a rough few months, considering the departure of its top executives as well as delays in production. Should the company release its phone now, it will be able to take on headlines before the new Galaxy Note 8, LG V30 and the iPhone 8 overwhelm the media and immediately overtake the Essential phone in popularity. The unlocked model will work with AT&T, Cricket, Go-Phone, H2O Wireless, Net10, Simple Mobile, Sprint, T-Mobile, TRACFONE, and Verizon, while Sprint has exclusive right to sell the phone in its stores. For those buying the unlocked version from Best Buy, an Insignia universal cell phone stand will also come included with the purchase.
The Sprint-exclusive listing on the phone on Best Buy has now been removed from the website, perhaps indicating that the increased cost shown earlier for the Sprint-exclusive variant could have possibly been a typo, since it is unlikely for carrier-locked versions of a phone to cost more than their unlocked variants. The Essential Phone will come with flagship features when it launched, including a Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The phone will also come with a titanium and ceramic design and the display will be composed of a 5.71-inch QHD bezel-less display. It will also come with a 3,040mAh battery unit and feature stock Android Nougat 7.1 out of the box.
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