Josh Miller/CNET If you follow the phone market, you know that Andy Rubin's much-ballyhooed Essential Phone debuted last year to mixed reviews. Critics dinged the so-so battery life, finicky camera and missing headphone jack, but users have been far more enthusiastic. Of course, with its $700 price tag (later cut to $500), only the well-heeled could afford it. That changes today: For a limited time, and while supplies last, Amazon has the unlocked Essential Phone PH-1 (128GB) in Halo Gray for $224 -- the lowest price to date. Update, 8.05 a.m. PT: Proof positive that the universe hates me, this deal ended literally moments after I published it. The Halo Gray model is now showing $365, while the Black one is $344. Those are still good prices (Essential proper sells the PH-1 for $399), but obviously not nearly as compelling as $224. Sorry this didn't pan out. Even third-party sellers appear to be rapidly running out, so you may not find these prices for long either. But my Cheapskate senses tell me there will be more deals on this phone in the future, so stay tuned. The rest of the post follows as originally published. The first thing you should know about the Essential is that its future is uncertain. Plans for a follow-up model were scrapped earlier this year, and rumor has it the company may be put up for sale. So if you buy the PH-1, who knows how long you'll be able to get support from Essential and updates to Android? The second thing you should know: This is a $700 smartphone for $224. It's premium through and through, from its 5.7-inch edge-to-edge display to its 128GB of onboard storage to its blazing-fast performance. There's also a pretty cool magnetic connector for accessories, though unfortunately there's only one at the moment: a 360-degree camera (originally $199, now just $49). This was to be the phone for Android purists, and indeed it comes with bloatware-free Android Oreo 8.1. But you should be able to get Android Pie immediately, at least according to Essential's home page. From here I'll turn you over to CNET's Essential Phone review, as I know very little about this model. I do know a deal when I see one, and even if the company goes out of business tomorrow, you still scored a $700 phone for $224. Your thoughts? Now playing: Watch this: We destroyed the Essential Phone Tacklife Bonus deal: One of my favorite products is back on sale! It's a gooseneck lighter, the kind that's good for everything from birthday candles to charcoal grills. Except it doesn't use butane, it uses electricity! It's the Tacklife ELY01 arc lighter, and it's just $11.98 with promo code CPVF6U5N. That's only $3 off, but this thing is already pretty sweet at its regular $15 price. For starters, it should last a lot longer than your average butane lighter. Tacklife says you should be able to light it at least 1,000 times per charge, and that the battery can be recharged up to 500 times. I'm no math whiz, but I believe that works out to several million years' worth of candle-lighting. Plus, it's just plain cool. Instead of a boring old flame coming out the end, you get a little Tesla-style electric arc. The real advantage is that it's windproof. In your face, matches! I will note that there are a bunch of very similar lighters available for about the same price. All I can tell you is that I own one of the Tacklifes and like it a lot. Anker Bonus deal No. 2: See that big empty wall over there? Want to turn it into a mammoth movie screen? You can, with the right projector. Like this one: For a limited time, Anker's Nebula Capsule DLP portable mini projector is $266 with promo code AUGCPSLE. Regular price: $348. Adorably, the Capsule is the size and shape of a soda can. Impressively, it runs Android, meaning it can directly stream from apps such as Netflix and YouTube -- no need to pair or mirror your phone or tablet, though that's an option. There's also a fairly robust built-in speaker. Anker says the projector can run for up to 4 hours on a charge. There's one key limitation, though: You can't install additional apps beyond what's included, and there's no browser for big-screen web activities. You can work around the latter by screencasting from another device, but I do wish Anker would make this a little more versatile. Still, for big-screen Netflix just about anywhere there's Wi-Fi, this is a mighty nice option. Bonus deal No. 3: Some drones are great for long-distance flights and air-selfies. Others are just fun to zip around the yard. Here's one from the latter category: the Eachine E56 folding quadcopter for just $30. It actually does have an HD camera that can snap some decent flight-photos, just don't expect smooth video recording. The real highlight is the remote, which has an accelerometer. Tilt your hand left, the drone flies left. Tilt forward, it goes forward. Very cool -- and great for novice fliers. CNET's Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Note that CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and follow the Cheapskate on Facebook and Twitter!<doc-sep>Amazon currently has the Essential PH-1 available unlocked for just $279. This is the lowest price that the Essential PH-1 has ever been, which makes this a really great time to pick one up. The previous low was $349, and now it’s $70 less than that previous low. That really makes this a steal, for anyone looking for a new smartphone. The Essential PH-1 is a great smartphone from the startup – which is headed by the godfather of Android, Andy Rubin – with a 5.71-inch display, Snapdragon 835 chipset and 4GB of RAM. There is also 128GB of storage available here, but there’s no expandable storage available. This makes this one of the best 128GB smartphones out there, especially at this price. There is a notch on this phone, but it’s very small and it is only there for the front-facing camera. Essential also has equipped the PH-1 with a 3040mAh capacity battery, which is enough to keep the phone charged all day long and then some. Perhaps the best reason to pick up the Essential PH-1 is because it is already running on Android 9 Pie. Currently, as of this writing, it is the only non-Pixel smartphone running the latest version of Android. And it is far cheaper than the Pixel or Pixel 2 lineup right now. Definitely a good reason to pick one up. This item is also eligible for Amazon Prime’s free shipping. Which includes free two-day shipping, and pretty cheap (usually $3.99) next-day shipping if you need it extra fast. If you are not an Amazon Prime member yet, you can sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime. You’ll get 30 days free (if you’re a student, you get 6 months), and then it’s $119/year (or $59/year for students). Prime members do get a whole lot more than just free shipping though, so be sure to check out the full benefits.<doc-sep>
Despite launching with a seriously bad camera, buggy software, and janky performance, the Essential Phone has still remained in the headlines over a year after its release — and for good reason. For one thing, Essential's been straight-up killing it when it comes to software updates. Not only has the company issued a heap of camera and performance improvements, but it also kicked out the full Android 9 Pie update to all Essential Phone owners just minutes after Google released it for the Pixel and Pixel 2 series. Secondly, the Essential Phone has seen a number of big price cuts since it debuted with that staggering $799 price tag. After Essential permanently cut the phone down to just $499, various retailers have been running their own promos here and there to make the phone even more affordable. This past Prime Day saw one of the better deals with the phone being lowered to a mere $250. This is one of the best values in smartphones you'll find all year. We didn't think we'd see a better deal than that, but to our delight, we've been proven wrong. Right now on Amazon, you can pick up the Halo Gray Essential Phone for only $224. That's it! The Halo Gray color has a nice matte finish you won't find with the Black or Pure White variants, and since it's an Amazon exclusive, it's also got Alexa baked right into it. For those 224 dollars, the Essential Phone gets you way more than your money's worth. The 5.7-inch LCD 2560 x 1312 is bright, crisp, and handles the notch far better than most of the competition since it ushered in the design trend. The Snapdragon 835 and 4GB RAM offer more than enough performance for day-to-day tasks, the 128GB of internal storage ensures you'll never run out of space, and the combo of ceramic and titanium for the Essential Phone's construction creates for one of the most premium-feeling phones that's on the market right now. Whether you're shopping for a sub $300 phone, need a backup handset, or have been meaning to see what all the hype for the Essential Phone is about, now's the time to pull the trigger. See at Amazon