Essential Phone gets a $200 price cut; Now available for $499

Essential phone has slashed the price of its eponymous phone, down to $499. Not only this, anyone who who already has an Essential Phone, will get a $200 "friends and family" code that one can use at the official store to buy a 360-degree camera or get credit toward another phone.

In a bid to take on big guns like Apple and Samsung, Niccolo de Masi, President and Chief Operating Officer of Essential, made the announcement over the weekend, noting that the move comes as the startup attempts to "make it even easier for you to experience our products and our band." Users can purchase the handset at the revised price from Essential.com, he said.

Though the company did not say anything about the sales or lack of it, there is really no other way to read the move except as a signal that it wasn’t selling well at $699 — especially given that it comes with limited carrier deals (in the US, only Sprint) and has little brand recognition as yet.

But we aren't sure if the price cut would be enough for Essential to cut a mark for itself in the already saturated smartphone market ruled by Samsung and Apple.