Sprint Essential Phone $5/M with Flex Lease

DEAL IS DEAD
starting 12/8/17, new term:

Phone lease charge $29.17
Purchase Option Price $174.93

Making the out of pocket cost for owing the phone as $699.99


FAQs
These are questions that gets asked over and over again. So please read these before you jump on the deal. Also, once you learn new things, please feel free to expand this FAQ.

How do I get this deal?
If you are not a Sprint customer, you need to become one. This will require your SSN and a hard inquiry to your credit report. You can try to open an account online. If it works, you are fine. If you get an error about credit check, then you need to call telesales to order. The telesales person will try to run your credit report and in case of difficulties, conference you in with Sprint's credit verification team. Most likely, you will get an approval here. In some cases, the credit team might ask you to go to a corporate store with two forms of ID for verification. This is normal. If this happens, go to the store and do the verification. Some stores might lure you to get the lines from them. Feel free to buy it in-store, but ask them to waive the activation fee ($30). If they won't, just ask the store to create an account for you and give you the account number and PIN. With the account number you can either order online or call telesales where you can get the activation waived. When ordering through telesales, or in-store, double check / triple check everything. Ask the rep to repeat what your final order is. It is common for them to tack on unnecessary services or offers. Do not be lured by any "FREE" offers (e.g., recently reps are pushing hard on a free LG tablet) if you don't want a surprise on your bill.

How do I pay off the device?
You cannot pay off the device online automatically. The best option seems to be chatting with a CSR. Tell them that you want to pay off the lease. They will either take your credit card information and charge it immediately, or add the amount to your Sprint account which you can pay online.

How much will the device cost in total?
If everything goes smoothly, you will pay $25 (down payment) when you buy the device. Then when you buy out the lease, you will be charged 18 monthly charges ($90) and purchase option price of $30 for a total of $145 ($25+$90+$30). Note that all these will have your state tax added to them. Understand that there is a risk in doing this deal - Sprint might charge you $30 activation fee, and first month's line fee ($45) and you might have to fight with them to get it back even if you cancel your account within 14 days. Hence your best case cost would be $145, and your worst case cost would be $220.

How do I unlock the device?
Several reports suggests that the earlier batches of this phone came unlocked out of the box. The downside of the earlier batch is that the first production batches of this phone used cloth grill for speakers which tends to fall off (see reddit discussion here [reddit.com]). To verify this, put a non-Sprint SIM in the phone and factory reset the phone. If you don't get "Invalid SIM Error", your phone is unlocked. However, newer batches of the phone are locked to Sprint (you will get an "Invalid SIM Error" when you try a non-Sprint SIM). Various people have found that if you pay off the lease on the device, Sprint will unlock your device in 3-5 business days. If your phone is locked to Sprint, you cannot cancel Sprint service until your phone is unlocked.So it is simply a waiting game. My devices were locked to Sprint, so here's what I did (and worked for me): I simply put back the Sprint SIM, made sure I can make a call and switched off the phone and kept it in its box. Then I kept checking Ting's IMEI checker. One day, the checker changed from "you have a financial obligation" to "congrats, you can bring your phone to Ting". When this happened, I switched on the phone, went to Settings -> About Phone -> OMADM updates -> UICC Unlock. I got a response that my phone has been unlocked. I also verified by using non-Sprint SIM cards and they all worked. After it is automatically unlocked, if you put the Sprint sim card back into the phone, it may relock your phone, forcing you to wait 50 days.
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Warning. Check your account for any updated billing info. Depending on your billing cycle, you may find wrong charges. I was charged for multiple activation fees (which were supposed to be waived), and I also found out that 2 of my leases were kept open, even though I paid them off to close them. Be careful and do check your account to be safe.

Earlier batches will come unlocked already. Newer ones are locked to Sprint. If you got a locked one and need help, read on.

Your device WILL UNLOCK AUTOMATICALLY 3-5 DAYS AFTER YOU PAID IT OFF TO CLOSE THE LEASE. The device needs to be active on a Sprint line for it to unlock, so keep it active on your line until it unlocks. wait 3-5 days. If your device still does not unlock for some reason after 5 days, contact Sprint to make sure that your lease was canceled/closed appropriately. Some experienced a situation where CSR failed to actually close/cancel the lase. Contacting Sprint for unlock from the get go won't help you much because they'll just tell you to wait for 50 days. Don't panic. This is just what they are trained to say.

UICC Unlock (you can manually try this to see if Sprint has pushed unlock code to your phone) .

Your phone MUST HAVE A SPRINT SIM AND ACTIVE ON A LINE TO DO THIS. Without a sprint sim, the option will not be there. There is no 100% ful proof method. its a wait and see.
UICC unlock: Settings/ About Phone/ OMADM updates/ UICC Unlock.

VERY IMPORTANT. After you get the UICC unlock, place another carrier SIM in the phone. Then, FACTORY RESET with the active non-sprint SIM. There appears to be some sprint activation software that is getting left behind after unlock. This software can connect to Sprint via wifi to check activation status, if their terrible billing system has relocked the phone you are in trouble.


If you do the factory reset after UICC unlock then you get the software setup as if you purchased an unlocked phone and you get the proper carrier software. You will see a change in behavior in the phone during boot, you will no longer get an invalid SIM error just prior to connecting. Then never place a Sprint SIM in the phone again.

Quote from newfury : In the phone settings, there should be a uicc unlock request under system, you may try it few days later after paid off the phone, this would remove the invalid sim card message, you can also get help f the sprint online community

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Added by bizherbert

Some folks received out-of-the-box unlocked phones (which works with T-Mobile, AT&T, VZW, etc.) but when they pop in the Sprint SIM, their Settings - OMADM Updates - UICC Unlock says the phone is locked to their carrier UICC. Typically, the UICC will get auto unlocked in 2-3 days after paying off your lease.

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Added by bizherbert

For those curious about what the UICC unlock does/is. It seems to be for unlocking the phone to work on internaltional GSM networks:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidQ...locked_to/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/...stcount=18
https://help.ting.com/hc/en-us/ar...for-Travel

So even if your phone "seems unlocked" for other domestic providers (e.g. T-Mobile, AT&T, VZW, etc.), it's likely locked for international travel if UICC is locked. Best to get it unlocked if you plan on traveling internationally or if we want to sell the phone (so that buyers won't hate you when they travel internationally).

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Added by bizherbert

Some people are not able to order the phone online because Sprint credit check is unable to run. This is ok and totally normal (could be because your address changed recently, you info was breached as part of the recent Equifax incident, etc. or any number of totally valid reasons. Some of these cases can be resolved by Sprint over the phone, but more commonly they'll ask you to go to a corporate store with 2 forms of ID.

If you go to the store, they'll typically ask you to pay $30 activation fee per line. You can get this easily waived if you talk to the manager and say that you are only in the store because online credit check didn't work and if they can't waive the activation fee in store, just finish the credit check and create an account for you so you can then log into your account online and finish ordering the phone(s)/line(s). They will very likely waive the $30 activation fee - but ask twice whether they're waiving it or giving you a statement credit on a later bill (which is worse because you'll be stuck paying that $30 if your plan is to cancel or port out soon).

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Review: There are a ton of reviews on the Web. A lot of them are garbage spec regurgitation, or people clearly trying to get free stuff by hyping the phone to the hilt. All the video reviews are annoying and/or useless regurgitation of other people's work. The review I would recommend--and I have probably read most of them--is this one. It goes over just about every feature that this phone does/does not have, and seems to pretty flat line honest. Based on this review, I was hesitant to buy the phone when it was original price. But at the current bargain price, it's pretty good.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1R4EDS3BZRRID

Here is a legit review [droid-life.com] from a very popular Android Site.
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courtesy deal hunter:

Looks like 360 camera is free on Nov 23. Likely you have to keep active service for 5 weeks to receive the camera.
Get Essential Phone for just $25 down and $5 per month with Sprint Flex lease while supplies last. Beginning Nov. 23, with the lease of an Essential Phone, get the Essential 360 Video Camera – the world's smallest 360° 4K camera for video that snaps right to your phone – for FREE. That's a $199 value.3 [sprint.com]

Register for camera:
https://promo.sprint.com/FreeCamera/register (credit goes to JaTaN )




courtesy sr84

link for $300 cash back from sprint if u trade in essenstial... [sprintbuyback.com]
$175 trade in value as of 11/28/2017.


WARNING: DO NOT CANCEL SPRINT SERVICE TILL YOUR PHONE IS CONFIRMED UNLOCKED.

Be careful if you are in one of these states until someone in one of these states confirm they were able to pay it off. The following is directly from the lease:

"Consumer residents of the following states/territories will not be entitled to
purchase the Goods during the Extended Lease Period: DE, ID, IA, ME, NJ, NY, ND, PA, PR and WI"

[Update] - Works for NJ. I was able to successfully payoff the phone
Confirmed - I was also able to payoff in NJ. Final amount $154.97 = 26.72 + 96.19 + 32.06 (downpayment, lease payment + POP w/ taxes)

[Update] - Works for WI, I was able to pay off the phone and it was unlocked this morning (11/18).

[Update] - Works for PA, I was able to pay off the phone and it was unlocked out of the box (11/17).


YMMV AMEX Holders - You might have a 10% cashback for cell phone bills on your AMEX cards. So you might get 10% back when paying this with your AMEX
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Google camera apk for better pictures - https://www.xda-developers.com/go...w-support/

APK Download link (from the XDA page, above): https://www.androidfilehost.com/?...6617934890
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Porting:

Numberbarn [numberbarn.com] - $7

H2O Wireless [h2owirelessnow.com] - Cheap Sim on Amazon/eBay - (Unknown if top up is required, if not would be cheapest route)
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Repeated Text Issue: If you get repeated incoming text messages from the same number go into your settings and turn off Enhanced LTE. You will still get LTE coverage in the appropriate areas and SMS and MMS will come in fine.
** Thanks to user supernoman for the tip

NOTE: YMMV on turning off enhanced LTE solving the repeated text issue. I turned it off and stopped consistently receiving SMS and MMS messages. As soon as I turned it back on a day or two later, I received a dozen or so messages that were apparently stuck in queue.

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Phone locked to Sprint, can not be used for BYOD

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12/02 - just bought the Essential phone from the B&M store. Got home, called CS, and they allowed me payoff for $130 (plus the $25 in store deposit, and the $30 activation fee).

https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=109169679&postcount=9707

Multiple SDers reported their Essential Phone was either relocked or blacklisted.
For FED check, https://imei24.com/check/sprint_financial/

For Blacklist check: https://imei24.com/blacklist_check/ ==> if it passes, Essential should be able to use without problem with other carriers, like AT&T and TMB.

For Sprint Blacklist check: https://secure.sprintbuyback.com/bbt/ ==> If it is reported as "lost or stolen", Essential is banned on Sprint network.
~~canex


A possible method to develop unlock for the Sprint variant of the Essential Phone.

Post on XDA:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/...k-t3724135

Summary:
Basically, it revolves around modifying the value of an item in the nv-data partition that contains the sim lock status.

This method is based on:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/...st54338871

Possible Solution:
1. Getting a backup of the nv-data from a locked Sprint phone and an unlocked Sprint phone,
2. Comparing the items from my locked phone and another locked phone and finding the items that have same value
3. Comparing the items found in step two to the items from the unlocked sprint phone and possibly finding an item that is different.
4. Writing the value of the found item to a locked phone and seeing if it becomes unlocked.

How you can help make this solution a reality:
We need backed up nv-data from at least one locked and one unlocked sprint phone, here is how you can back it up.
1. Open the dialer and input the secret code *#*#3424#*#*
2. On this screen enter 000000 and tap confirm (very great for us that essential left the default msl value).
3. On this screen check the diagnostic mode and close the app.
4. Download and extract the nv-data reader on a PC http://phonegeek.us/NV-items_reader_writer.rar
6. Connect your phone, in device manager, a new Qualcomm device should appear.
5. Run the program, in the top bar: select the com port (it should be shown in device manager), check both of the boxes in the top bar, and click connect.
6. Now in the top bar click read, if the log says "Log message: > SPC is correct. Phone unlocked" you have done everything correctly so far. (The unlocked part has nothing to do with the SIM lock status)
7. Under "Range (Dec):" enter 0 to 07300 and click read (07233 seems to be the last useful value but a little buffer is good)
8. Save the file with any name you like and send me a private message with it. -whymoo

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