Essential Phone Early Adopters Get a $200 Discount

Days after dramatically dropping the price of the Essential Phone, Andy Rubin's Essential Products has started giving a straight $200 discount to those Essential Phone users who paid the original price of $699 (roughly Rs. 45,300). The discount is being offered through a $200 Friends & Family code, but unfortunately, will not be refunded to users - instead, they can use the discount to buy accessories like the Essential Camera or a new Essential Phone. To recall, the smartphone received a massive price drop of $200 last week and is currently available for $499 (roughly Rs. 32,457).

You are eligible for the $200 Friends & Family code if you've purchased an Essential Phone anytime before October 22. The code can be used to purchase another Essential Phone for your loved ones or even to get an Essential 360 Camera. Further, the purchase can be made through Essential's online store or Sprint, Best Buy or Amazon in the US. If you're buying an Essential Phone, this brings the price down to as low as $299 ($499 minus the $200 discount).

It is worth noting here that you need to request the code by providing the purchase details, serial number, and IMEI number of your Essential Phone before November 15. Also, the $200 discount can only be used on new purchases - and not applicable to the original order. This suggests the Andy Rubin-led company is mainly aiming to widen the customer base of the Essential Phone through the discounted offer. Essential Products back in September was reported to have sold just 5,000 units of the Essential Phone on US carrier Sprint. Importantly, shipments through other means have not been revealed.

The strategy would help Essential Products sustain its popularity against the offerings of Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi that sport bezel-less display panels similar to the Essential Phone. Moreover, the company is ultimately pleasing the early adopters of the Essential Phone.

Launched back in August, the Essential Phone sports a 5.71-inch IPS display with 1312x2560 pixels resolution and an odd, 19:10 aspect ratio. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC along with Adreno 540 GPU and 4GB of RAM. Also, there is 128GB of inbuilt storage, 3040mAh battery and Android Nougat-based Ambient OS.