The Essential Phone gets a substantial price cut mere months after launch

Andy Rubin's Essential announced that its very firstsmartphone, the Essential Phone (PH-1), is now officially sold for $499. Releasedseveral months back, the Essential Phone was initially offered for $699,so we're talking about a significant price cut here - $200 off. Essential saysit's cutting the price in order to "make it even easier" for consumers to tryits device and experience its brand. Honestly, we're not sure why it didn'tlaunch the phone for $499 to begin with.

If you're one of the (apparently not too many) people who'vealready bought an Essential Phone, the company is offering a "$200 friends& family code" that can be used to purchase a new handset, or anEssential 360 Camera. No cashback, sorry.

The Essential Phone is far from being perfect, though a fewsoftware updates fortunately fixed various shortcomings. And now, at $499, thistitanium and ceramic-made handset may actually worth the asking price.

Both the black, and white versions of the Essential Phoneare available for $499 (and both are compatible with all major US carriers). Right now, we're seeing the new price only over at Essential'sofficial website - check out the first source link below.

P.S.: Earlier this week, for a short period of time, Best Buy offered the black Essential Phone for $599. At this very moment, the retailer is (weirdly) asking $699 again for the smartphone.

sources: Essential, Essential blog