Essential Phone

I had been running 8.1 beta for a few weeks, just around the time Essential allowed for it to be done OTA, and through registration of your phone's serial number, it was approved and downloaded it the next day. This morning, on another phone site, they said it was ready for non-beta available, did a check, and it downloaded. More then likely it was the same or close to the same as the beta rom, which I had no problems with. I did have a suspicion it was going to be available fairly soon, because Essential usually tosses out monthly security updates within a day of when Google releases them (which was March 5th) and the Officially Oreo 8.1 had it included. I know it's been and up and down ride with PH-1, but I love the feel and use of the...
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How does lowering the price on a phone very few have heard of make more sense than an ad campaign to actually get your name out there? Also, a gift card to buy more of your stuff is not being good to your early adopters who could have kept the money in their bank accounts if they'd waited just a few weeks. Essential gets the interest and not the customer.

$200 price drop because PEOPLE BUY HIGH END PHONES ON BRAND, doesnt matter if this thing is another $200 off, IT WILL NEVER SELL!

This is an awesome device, but there is too much noise right now...LG G6, SAM NOTE 8, I PHONE 8 and X, just not going to sell because NO BRAND, customers buy from trusted BRANDS and there is just nothing there.

This device looks amazing. I've already reserved mine.