Sprint began accepting pre-orders for the Essential PH-1 smartphone today. The smartphone is being offered at a significant lower price through its lease program when compared to buying the phone outright directly from Essential. The PH-1 is available to Sprint users for $14.58 per month per month through a Sprint Flex 18-month Lease, which totals about $260 under the full retail cost of $699.
At the end of the lease period, Essential users can opt to pay off the balance or turn the phone in for something else. Sprint is also offering the Essential 360-degree modular camera attachment for $199, or $16.67 per month for 12 months on an installment plan.
The black version will be available in stores within a few weeks, according to Sprint, with the white model following at a later date. Sprint says the phone supports three-channel carrier aggregation on its network and can hit theoretical download speeds in excess of 200 Mbps.
Essential recently emailed customers who preordered the phone and informed them that the PH-1 will ship in about a week. The Essential PH-1 has a bezelless design, a magnetic mod system, dual cameras, and a Snapdragon 835 processor.
