The bookings for Freedom 251, which is being touted as the World’s Cheapest Smartphone started today morning around 6. Many customers reported that the site often crashed which might be due to the heavy site traffic. Few others are suspicious that it might be a scam.
Freedom 251 is priced at INR 251 (Around 4$ as per current exchange rates) and was launched by a little known Noida based company, Ringing Bells. It was officially unveiled in New Delhi on Feb 17 evening at an event presided by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, MP, with the Union Defence Minister Sri Manohar Parrikar as the Chief Guest.
The company said on its website that
the launch is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for “empowering India to the last person, transforming India’s growth story”.
Ringing Bells says the Freedom 251 smartphone has been developed ‘with immense support’ from the government and is touting it as a success story of PM Modi’s flagship ‘Make in India’ scheme.
Freedom 251 : Specifications
The website also lists important specifications of the Freedom 251: 4-inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage (expandable up to 32GB), 3.2-megapixel back camera, 0.3-megapixel front camera, and a 1450mAh battery. Along with this comes few preinstalled applications Women Safety, Swachh Bharat, Fisherman, Farmer, Medical, Google Play, Whatsapp, Facebook, Youtube and few others. The phone will come with a standard warranty of 1 year. According to the company’s website, “This warranty of the product extends for a period of 12 months for the host unit, 6 months for battery and charger, and 3 months for earphone commencing from the date of purchase.”
At present, smartphones available in the market are priced around Rs 1,500. Last year, DataWind had announced that it is teaming up with Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (RCOM) to launch the world’s most affordable smartphone, priced at Rs 999. The phone is yet to hit the market.
Despite being a new entrant in the Indian mobile phone market, Ringing Bells (established last year) had launched one of India’s cheapest 4G smartphone at Rs 2,999, recently. It has also launched two other feature phones in the market.
The booking started today via its official website and most people are irritated by continuous crashes. While the booking ends on 21st Feb 2016, the products are expected to be delivered 4 months after the booking ends.
Freedom 251 : Issues
Given its Ultra-low price tag, it is assumed that this would disrupt the smartphone market in India, but the satisfiability of the promises is yet to be seen. But there are issues to be addressed by the company.
There very first thing is the price. Even with the cheapest hardware, a smartphone would cost around 1500 INR. Given that there is no government involvement of subsidizing the product, such an endeavour is not possible.
Also there seems to be few flaws with company’s marketing. The product’s website featured a photo of a phone similar to it’s previous smartphone (SMART 101) while the print ad seems to feature another. What’s interesting is that the company’s website didn’t list the product. Also the website dedicated for the Freedom 251 updates uses a photo of SMART 101. (http://freedom251india.com/why-we-should-buy-freedom-251-smartphone/)
Hindustan Times published a review which indicated that the device is a jumbled mishmash of other existing phones. The screenshots of the Freedom 251’s UI clearly show ripoffs of icons from iOS. Apple’s Photos, Safari, and Email icons are sitting pretty beside standard Android Lollipop fare. That’s a copyright infringement lawsuit in the making. In addition, HT claims the trial device they were sent by the company actually featured branding of an entirely different company, Adcom. The brand name was whitened out adding another ominous bell. When googled, Adcom is an IT product importer from Delhi, and Adcom said that they have nothing to do with Ringing Bells.
To add flames to the fuel comes BIS. All phones sold in India must be certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Getting this certification done is both time consuming and expensive. However, it appears that the BIS registration of the Ringing Bells Freedom 251 has not been done. It is not listed in the list of manufacturers registered by BIS. This means that if the phone is a new device made by Ringing Bells, then it has not been certified as safe for use in India.
For list of Manufacturers registered by BIS : http://164.100.105.199:8071/cmd3/index.php?search=&submit=Search!
