This Apple rival cuts phone price by a whopping $200

San Francisco: Andy Rubin's Essential Phone, which went on sale a few months ago, has received a permanent price cut of $200.

Media reports have said that the price cut may help the company woo customers who might have been eyeing Apple's iPhone X, that goes on sale on November 3.

"We want to make it even easier for you to experience our products and our brand. So starting today we're offering Essential Phone for $499 on Essential.com," the company said in a blog post.

"And to thank our early supporters who already own an Essential Phone, we're offering a $200 friends and family code to use on our website towards Essential 360 Camera or another Essential Phone," the blog post added.

Essential Phone sports a 5.7-inch LTPS display with 19:10 aspect ratio instead of the regular 16:9.

The phone features an edge-to-edge display and a modular system that lets users attach accessories such as a 360-degree camera.

It features dual primary cameras with two 13MP sensors. One is a standard RGB sensor while the other is monochrome.

The phone is made of titanium and it has a ceramic back that gives it added protection if dropped.

The device is powered by a 2.45 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset clubbed with Adreno 540 GPU.

It features 4GB RAM and 128GB internal memory which is non-expandable.

Along with the phone, Essential is also developing a smart home hub.