Essential gets $330 million dollars in funding, to go on sale next week

Essential Products, an American company founded by Android creator Andy Rubin is now backed by Amazon and has raised $330 million as its new funding. The company is also planning to reveal the release date of the Essential Phone ‘in a week’.

Essential Products with the new round of investment has attained strategic partners like Foxconn, Amazon, and Tencent Holdings. Retailers for the upcoming smartphone will be Best Buy, Amazon and Sprint in the U.S.A and in Canada, it will be the local telecom operator, Telus.

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In an interview with WSJ, Niccolo De Masi, Essential Products President said that they will be announcing the release date of the phone next week.

“If we are able to sell low single digit millions [in the first year], that’s very successful for a startup,” Masi told WSJ.

Analysts suggest that the timing of releasing the Essential Phone could make a big difference. Samsung and Apple are soon going to announce the Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone 8 respectively. Both the giants are expected to launch their flagships this September. Meanwhile, it is being said that Amazon and Best Buy will sell the unlocked variant of the smartphone whereas Sprint and Telus may sell the device with a contract.

The Essential Phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The phone will feature a 5.71-inch edge-to-edge QHD display with a resolution of 2560x1312. The smartphone will sport a 13-megapixel dual-camera setup at the back and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Under the hood, the phone will pack a 3,040mAh battery.