Essential Products has found a U.S. carrier to distribute its Essential PH-1 handset, and that carrier is Sprint. Essential still plans to offer the unlocked phone directly to consumers online, but the handset will also enjoy retail presence in Sprint stores, according to USAToday.
“We like to bet with where we think the market is going as opposed to where the market was,” said Essential President Niccolo de Masi to USA Today. “I feel like we are a new brand and a new consumer electronics company and we are partnering with the network of the future.”
This isn’t the only reason. Sprint is majority owned by SoftBank, and Andy Rubin, Essential’s CEO, has a long history with Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s CEO. As recently as early this year, SoftBank was expected to make a $100 million investment in Essential, though it backed out for unknown reasons.
“It’s certainly conscious for us to work with partners that can make an investment in supporting our brand ambitions,” continued to de Masi, “and it’s an approach that obviously Andy Rubin has been very successful with in the past as well as a lot of our management team.”
The PH-1 has a unique, magnet-based system for accepting modular attachments, such as a 360-degree camera, on the back panel. It includes a 5.7-inch quad HD screen with curved corners, Snapdragon 835 processor, and dual rear cameras. It will run a near-stock version of Android 7 Nougat and ship completely devoid of brand names or logos. The PH-1 is expected to go on sale later this summer for $699.
