Essential Inc. is finally confirming the arrival of the first Essential Phone PH-1 for those who have pre-ordered the device and have been waiting for weeks.
After a month’s delay, Essential Phone is said to be shipping within seven days. Earlier, we heard that the phone would be available “in a few weeks” but now the time frame is more precise. For those who are looking for an outright purchase, the smartphone can be picked up from Essential’s website or through Amazon and Best Buy; additionally, it has a financed option of $29.13 for 24 months.
Click to Order Essential Phone on Amazon.com
In the US, Sprint is the only carrier to get the Essential device, and the carrier will start shipping the device starting this week.
Further, the company will be shipping only the Black variant, as the pure white version may still take a few weeks to be ready to ship. To compensate, the company provides an option for the customer to change their pure White Essential Phone pre-order to the Black Moon variant.
Here’s an excerpt of the notification received by customer who have pre-ordered the Pure White version:
Great news! Essential Phone (Black Moon) is starting to ship. As shipment of your Pure White device is still a couple of weeks away, we want to give you the option to change your order from a Pure White to a Black Moon device, which will ship within 7 days. If you want to be one of the first to have an Essential Phone in your hands please contact our support team at support@essential.com to change your order.
Given that the company’s chief and Android co-creator Andy Rubin has already missed his earlier deadlines – and later tweeted about the “few weeks” – the latest news comes as a relief to customers who have already shelled out the $699 for the Android device.
While the company confirms the shipping time, it is still not clear when the 360-degree camera mods will be ready. Essential is said to still be working on the ‘subjective tuning’ feature to capture the best images in all conditions – different kinds of scenes, distances and lighting conditions. Sarcastically speaking, we hope the technology doesn’t get outdated by the time the mods are shipped.
Just to highlight a few of Essential Phone’s features, the Android smartphone will come with high-end specifications and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. It will be backed by 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage with no microSD expansion, a 3040mAh battery and Android 7.1 Nougat, which we’re assuming can be upgraded to Android O later on. Android O will probably be released before the first Essential Phone customers can get their hands on their device. It could be a while before Essential Inc. gets their tweaked version of Android O to their users.
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