Essential Phone is a highly anticipated phone that has several industry-leading features. The phone not only has a edge-to-edge screen that wraps around a front-facing seflie camera, but also features top-of-the-line specs too. We recently reported that first round of the phone should begin shipping next week.
If you’re looking for the Essential Phone and at a discounted rate, then Sprint has a deal for you. The carrier is now taking preorders for the phone, and offering it at a 0 discount too.
Before you get too excited, Sprint is in the business to making money and not losing it. Sprint is advertising the Essential Phone deal as “50 percent off,” but that’s not entirely true. What the carrier is doing is giving a 50 percent discount off of its standard payment plan, which is the “Sprint Flex 18-month lease.”
Here’s the catch and where things get interesting. At the end of the lease, you don’t actually own your phone. Rather, you will only have $525 paid off from the $700 price of the phone. At that point, either you can trade in your phone for another device of your choice (bad idea), or pay an additional $175 to pay the phone off completely (might be the best route).
The carrier is offering black versions of the phone only and will start shipping Essential Phone units by August 28th.
