Essential Phone now available for just $435

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The Essential PH-1 was one of our picks for best value smartphone of 2017, and it's cheaper right now, as Amazon has it listed at US$435. Not a bad deal for a device with a QHD display, 4 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, and a Snapdragon 835.

Ricci Rox, 01/27/2018

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The Essential PH-1 was beset by a number of issues, both pre-launch and post-release. The device itself, after making its way into user hands, has had multiple reports of a sub-par camera and poor reception. The camera issue has mostly been fixed with software updates, though, so smartphone photography enthusiasts will be getting a capable device in that aspect.

The device was launched with a price tag of US$700 but saw a permanent price drop to US$500 a few months after, perhaps due to unimpressive sales figures—reports claimed just 50,000 units had been sold a while ago. While it hasn't taken the world by storm, the Essential PH-1 is still a great flagship with debatably the best design ever seen on a smartphone, top of the line performance, a nice QHD display, and an able camera. It also has been updated to Android Oreo, with Treble enabled—one of the few devices that can boast of that, in fact. At $450, the Essential PH-1 featured at the top of our best value smartphone picks of 2017. At US$435, it's a no-brainer.

Both the Black Moon and Pure White options are available right now on Amazon, with free shipping.