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Today’s Deal is on the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact, the company’s 4.6″ Android phone that was launched in September of last year.  The XZ1 Compact is the follow up to the popular Xperia X Compact from 2016 and has some mighty impressive specs for its small size.  Right now on Amazon you can pick up the phone in any color for $449, a savings of $150 off the normal price.

The  Xperia XZ1 Compact has a 4.6″ full HD display (1920 x 1080) and is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC and coupled with the Adreno 540 GPU.  It has 4GB of RAM and has 32GB of storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.

In an unexpected move, Essential has quietly released an exclusive version of their Essential Phone on Amazon.  The new Halo Gray variant comes with Amazon Alexa built-in but is identical to any other variant of the phone as far as specs and features.  The Amazon exclusive is $449, the same price as other colors.

The addition of the Halo Gray color comes on the heels of three color variants being released by Essential themselves.  Those colors – Ocean Depths, Stellar Gray and Copper Black – are price $100 more than the standard color models.

The latest update to the Microsoft OneDrive app for Android is rolling out and bringing much greater support for Oreo’s Notification Channels.  The new build is version 5.3 for those keeping score at home and should get to everyone who has the cloud storage app installed at some point this week.

Notification Channel support in OneDrive actually came to the app in December of last year but it was pretty limited in scope.  Microsoft, in this version, has fully fleshed it out by adding notifications for when your storage is nearly full, when people edit your files that you have shared with them, and when OneDrive creates a photo album for you to name a few.

Right now, over at Amazon, you can pick up the entry level Google Pixelbook for $975.  While it is not a massive discount, only $24 off the regular price, it falls under the category of “better than nothing”.

And “entry level” is a bit misleading because we are talking about one of the most powerful Chromebooks out there.  The price is for the Intel i5 powered unit with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.  It is certainly powerful enough to do anything you would need, be it in Chrome OS or Android apps running on the device.