The initial hype and anticipation leading towards the launch of the Essential Phone unfortunately does not translate to its performance right now. Essential, a company headed by Android co-founder Andy Rubin debuted its first ever smartphone roughly half a year ago. The Essential Phone did not take off like many expected, and has only sold around 50,000 units since launch.
50,000 smartphones sold by a company over a few months is certainly not impressive, and most likely a letdown for a company led by the likes of Rubin. The Essential Phone was first plagued with software issues surrounding its camera app, citing poor optimization with the handset’s dual camera setup. Some users even ported in the Google camera app and produced better results than the stock app. Speaking of the app, that’s where the estimate of units sold comes from – the number of downloads on the Play Store.
Nevertheless, the Essential Phone has gotten a permanent discount to $499, which makes it the perfect contender for affordable flagships such as the newly launched OnePlus 5T. What are your thoughts on the Essential Phone?