The Essential phone was released amidst a lot of hooplas, and the very fact that the project was headed by Andy Rubin, the founder of Android created a lot of expectations. The Essential Phone was an attempt to stick to the basics and yet provide an enriched user experience. Despite being one of the first bezel-less smartphones to make it to the market, the Essential PH-1 failed to make its mark.
The Essential PH-1 Price dropped from an initial $699 to $499, and the offer was in parallel to the $200 family and friends discount. Well, the device also sold at great prices throughout the Cyber Monday Amazon Deal. However, the total number of devices sold was under the wrap, that is until now. The figures from the Play Store of the Essential Camera show that a total of 50,000 units have been sold. While the number in itself is not impressive by any yardsticks, it is relatively better than the 5000 devices sold in the first month.
Needless to say, the sales and discounts have helped the makers of Essential Phone boost the sales. Now one might dispute the numbers and cast their doubt on how accurate is the 50,000 numbers and how would one arrive at the same. As explained by the folks at Android Police the Essential Camera app can be downloaded only by Essential Phone users and thus the deductions. Moreover, the Play Store usually counts the unique number of downloads. Even if a single user downloads the app several times, the counter is incremented by only one.
That being said, there are a couple of caveats that hint at inflated numbers. To begin with, developers usually sign in with multiple accounts to test their app. Some of the devices may have been resold, and when the new user downloads the camera app, the number increases yet again. Add to this the modders who actually trick the Play Store to recognize their device as the Essential in order to download the camera app.
Quite a few Essential PH 1 users have expressed their angst for the device. The glaring WiFi bugs, frequent reboots, fingerprint sensor failure and most importantly the touchscreen failures. Perhaps all these bugs make the Essential phone a deal breaker, but hey the $499 is pretty attractive. I personally feel that the current gen Essential is more of work in progress and I am ready to bet big on the next gen Essential phone (that is if it exists.)