• Posted byby Tim

Unlocked Essential Phone Pre-Orders Open on Best Buy and Essential’s Website

Last week, the Essential Phone for Sprint’s network went up pre-order through various retailers, but today, anyone waiting for the Unlocked model can also pre-order it through Best Buy and Essential’s website.

The unlocked model is priced similarly to the Sprint variant, ringing up at $699. For Essential Extended Care (2 years of coverage for breakdowns and accidental damage), that’s an extra $99, and if you want that 360-degree camera, that’s still $50 for a limited time.

Oh, and it’s still only available in Black.

Have you ordered yours yet?

Essential Phone Links:

Written by

Tim

Stumbling upon Droid Life randomly after purchasing a Motorola DROID in late 2009, then setting out to learn everything he could about Android, Tim quickly became an integral part of the site's comment section. After quite some time of strictly commenting on Droid Life, Tim was offered an opportunity to write feature stories for the site, such as custom ROM overviews, as well as interviews with Android community members. Following success of those, Tim became a full time writer and editor for Droid Life, now spending his time on news articles, device reviews, producing videos, and much more. Tim currently resides in Portland, OR with his longtime girlfriend and two wonderful dog children (Loki & Thor). In his spare time, Tim enjoys playing guitar, drinking coffee, practicing photography, and destroying kids on Call of Duty.

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100 Comments

  • And, still no tracking information for my order for which the credit card was charged on 8/22. What’s up Essential?

  • As posted on their website I called them within the advertised time period but got a recording informing callers “no one was on duty” and to leave a message. Instead I sent an email requesting cancellation of my order: let’s see how long that takes.

  • They missed their deadline and still haven’t shipped yet. I sent an email to customer service and they insisted was still shipping this week so they have one more day.

    • Essential Products needs to stop giving time frames if they don’t want to be dinged for missing them. And this is only one issue. Most early reviews have dinged this phone especially it’s main cameras. If this phone disappoints it’s going right back and my money goes to Google for the Pixel 2 XL.

  • I received an email from essential for the 360 camera, that it is ready for prime time, I placed my ordered.

  • Has anyone got a shipping confirmation, among those who confirmed and paid within the pay week?

  • Print182s

    Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !yz202d:
    On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
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  • Seems like a neat phone, and I like the relatively smaller size. That said, it’s too expensive for me to justify getting as a replacement for my Oneplus 3, which is still working just fine. I also don’t care for the lack of a headphone jack for that much money.

      • Haha sure let’s see how well this sells when the new Iphone and Note8 come out. I am sure being exclusive on Sprint will help with that

        • What exactly does exclusive mean, if means nothing anymore, Sprint is not giving you the phone for free. The phone works on all USA carriers and international carriers, and it’s not made out of cheap aluminum line all the other phones on the market today.
          https://youtu.be/ukM_kVVO1Ic

    • Samsung lost me with that idiotic curved glass screen and soap bar design look, this coming from a S7 owner, they also need to fix Samlag, people who say that there is no lag with Samlag they have never used a pure Android device, I owned S3, S4, Note 4 which was the best Samsung device ever made with a fantastic design, HTC Incredible, HTC Rezound, Nexus 6. Now I own the S7 and Nexus 5X, the Nexus 5X is my daily driver until the Essential PH-1 arrives on my doorstep. Also software updates are a joke with Samsung and their phones run hot as hell.

      • Cool story.

        So you haven’t used a Samsung device since four generations ago. Guess what? Your “Samlag” comments are no longer appropriate.

        Enjoy your Essential, until it gets wet and dies.

  • Was going to order one but when I saw that Essential jumped on the customer-hostile “let’s-remove-the-headphone-jack-for-no-good-reason” bandwagon, decided I’ll pass.

    • The reason there’s is no headphone jack is because there is No room inside the phone, every crevice inside is occupied, how do you think they where able to fit a 5.7 inch screen with no bezels in such a small form factor, have you ever heard of a device called a DAP, I have not used my phone for music in years, I use a separate DAP for my music, either my ZX2 or iPod Touch 5th generation, plus I don’t kill the battery on my phone, and the DAP is build for music with better quality DAC build in.

      • All that’s great for your use case. I’m on the “keep the jack” train because it fits my uses. It is pretty consumer hostile, too.

        I expect that I won’t have a choice in the not-so-distant future, though.

  • I pre-ordered one. Pre-ordered a skin from dbrand as well to take care of the fingerprint issue.

  • Confirmed my reservation and ordered last Wednesday with credit card: still waiting for shipping confirmation which Essential said would occur within 7 days, leaving tomorrow as the deadline. Let’s see what happens in next 24 hours.

    • Same. I also can’t access my account or orders on their site. When I try to log in it just freezes.

      • Indeed. But it is coming soon. I need to see what else they are going to come up with, along with how they are going to price them.

        • Yeah, I’m interested to see the types of mods they come up with for this. I wonder if they will be better than Motos Mods.

          • I already think it is a much better implementation. Just being able to have the 360 cam in your pocket without it being attached to a full sized back is all I need to see.

  • Does anyone know if this is bootloader unlockable?

    Edit: It is going to have an unlocked bootloader per XDA. Yes!!

  • Still waiting on the email for my white one. They said i could switch but, nah.

    • Last date I saw was September 30 for the white. Which makes sense for the “in a few weeks” email, since the Black launch date is technically September 1.

      • The end of September would be alright. Hope it doesn’t hit anymore snags along the way.

  • I want one so bad, but I just can’t bring myself to get it because of the LCD display. AMOLED is so wonderful, and I’d lose Daydream support on top. :/

  • Still sitting on the reservation list from June, waiting patiently for Pure White to show up.

  • Still waiting on shipping for those that reserved one last week. Pretty sure today is day 7 of “shipping within 7 days”.

    • Launch Day is technically September 1. You should expect it to arrive around then.

        • I reserved as soon as was possible couple months back. Had two reservations, the first was just the phone. Changed mind, reserved again phone plus camera, both reservations for the Pure White. Fast forward to August 17th. Got email that I could change reservation to Black Moon by contacting support. Did that, asked to change one of the reservations. On a lark, on August 17, submitted brand new reservation for Black Moon plus 360 camera. Got the email to complete the purchase same day on that August 17 reservation. Took three more days to get the original reservation update response. I’ve ignored it as I’ve got a fully paid order from the 17th. Bottom line. Not just early reservations were able to get in on this as of last week.

  • Just saw that this morning. Still waiting on the White. I’m done with black Glossy backs that look terrible after holding a phone for 5 seconds.

    • I prefer all black but with a glass back, finger prints will show constantly. I would just put a skin on it

    • I don’t think the white is going to be any better it’s still a polished ceramic. The only difference is white might be harder to see when directly looking at it without a glare any off angle is still going to show them.

      • White is always going to look much better. You’re not going to see fingerprints and scratches anywhere close to how you’ll see it on a black back. Black only looks good when you’re not holding it. The S8 is a perfect example

          • I hate that gray/white trim around the front of the phone from the frame, it really throws off the front and once you notice it you cannot unnotice it. I am glad I ordered the black moon.

      • Print182s

        Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !yz202d:
        On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
        !yz202d:
        ➽➽
        ➽➽;➽➽ http://GoogleFinancialJobsCash202ShopMobile/GetPay$97/Hour… ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★:::::!yz202z..,…

      • Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family!!!
        On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
        !yz113d:
        ➽➽
        ➽➽;➽➽ http://GoogleFinancialJobsCash113FinderMaster/GetPay$97/Hour… ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★:::::!yz113z..,…

    • Your worried about the back? What about that ass ugly screen cutout you’ll be staring at.

      • Do we always have to have conversations about personal preference?

        I love the design of the entire device. See? Simple enough.

      • There is nothing wrong with where the camera cutout is on the front of the device, it’s where it’s supposed to be for selfies “centered”, because you have gotten used to all the other manufacturers placing the camera off center does not mean they placed the camera in the right location.

    • Networks97s

      Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !yz98d:
      On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
      !yz98:
      ➽➽
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