Freedom 251 - World's cheapest smartphone launched

  • Thread starter Aaroh
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An Indian company has launched what is being billed as the world's cheapest smartphone.

Ringing Bells earlier said their Freedom 251 phone would be priced under 500 rupees (£5; $7.3), but at the launch on Wednesday, it said it would cost just 251 rupees ($3.67; £2.56).

The phone has 8GB storage and cameras in the front and back. (Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35595500)

http://freedom251.com/home

First look -

Ringing-Bells-Freedom-2513.jpg
Freedom-251-Front-new-624x351.jpg

Specs
-4 inch (10.2 cms) qHD IPS display
-3.2MP AF Rear Camera & .3MP Front camera
-1.3 GHz Quadcore Processor
-1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory
-1450 mAh battery
-Android Lollipop 5.1
 
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FrzGT
Made in India, i suppose?
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Yes made in India. Right now its not possible to order as their server is overloaded. Even if some manages to order from the site, it wont be delivered until June.

EDIT: First look of the Phone added to OP.
 
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Let's revisit this when product is shipped.

Or perhaps I should say if product is shipped.
 
Aaroh
Yeah it does sound too good to be true. Also, the company Ringing Bells has never been into electronics.
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Nothing adds up with them and makes no sense really for them to do what they are doing. Some start up company who in India is not certified to sell any product can somehow afford to sell what looks like tippexed out phones on a mass scale for such a low price. In UK, already can get phones that cheap through Pay as You Go upgrades such as I got a Lumia 435 for £4.99 but can understand big companies subsidising products. This looks really dodgy, makes no financial sense unless it is a scam.
 
Saidur_Ali
Nothing adds up with them and makes no sense really for them to do what they are doing. Some start up company who in India is not certified to sell any product can somehow afford to sell what looks like tippexed out phones on a mass scale for such a low price. In UK, already can get phones that cheap through Pay as You Go upgrades such as I got a Lumia 435 for £4.99 but can understand big companies subsidising products. This looks really dodgy, makes no financial sense unless it is a scam.
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The company said that the launch was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for ‘empowering India to the last person, transforming India's growth story’.

Its become quite a craze here. Everyone is talking about it and there is an insane amount of hype. You can't even order the phone as their site has become so overloaded.
 
Saidur_Ali
Seems like a scam to me.
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Bear in mind that it's a very low-capability smartphone aimed at a very specific market. It's not going to outdo "major" smartphone markets as much as create new "low power" markets.

Of course, a cynic might say that the rumoured Indian government funding means there could be backdooring going on too :)
 
Aaroh
The company said that the launch was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for ‘empowering India to the last person, transforming India's growth story’.

Its become quite a craze here. Everyone is talking about it and there is an insane amount of hype. You can't even order the phone as their site has become so overloaded.
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TenEightyOne
Bear in mind that it's a very low-capability smartphone aimed at a very specific market. It's not going to outdo "major" smartphone markets as much as create new "low power" markets.

Of course, a cynic might say that the rumoured Indian government funding means there could be backdooring going on too :)
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It is really high-spec for the price and you get 1 year warranty. It is not government subsidised. Now it will be good if it turns out not to be a scam and the people running this company are just very charitable people.

Edit: Just saw this quote from their president, rather worrying if that's the PR to try and make it appear genuine. :lol:

If he genuinely believes that then they will go bankrupt very quick. Either stupid or sinister.
Ringing Bells President Ashok Chadha
"The bill of materials [cost of the parts] for a phone like this is around Rs. 2,000 - by making in India we take away around Rs. 400 from that; by selling online we cut overheads and save another Rs. 400," explained Chadha. "And as the numbers go up, we're not talking lakhs but much more, we save another Rs. 400 from economies of scale. And then, our platform becomes big, and attractive to others, so we can then highlight products that are worth buying for our customers, and this is another source of income. We will pass all of this on to the customers, we want to make only a small profit per unit."
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Got to say though, company name is perfect as they sure seem to be ringing bells worldwide - If it's too good to be true, then it probably is.
 
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I've managed to order one from their website. Total cost was not Rs.251, but Rs.291 (40 more for shipping). I'll write a review about it when it arrives in June.

If it arrives.:lol:
 
Less than $4 for a phone? Hell, I'd buy one just to see if it is real. As long as it runs Whatsapp (assuming the phone is real) seems useful in India.
 
Considering how ridiculous the big companies' markups are touted to be on smartphones, I'm keen to see if the final product is a usable device.
 
Whatever its true or not, this phone is probably part of government plan (subsidize) to make technology more available to masses. Hence the OLPC thing among others.

The phone quality will probably come as you might expect from the phone this cost. Bear in mind that this is India we are talking about. It mostly produces (for the mainstream) cheap products regardless of quality (Tata Nano comes to mind) and currently the country has a massive technology focused products, diaspora, and also education. The latter is a trend there that most Indian parents will push their kids into.
 
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Aaroh
I've managed to order one from their website. Total cost was not Rs.251, but Rs.291 (40 more for shipping). I'll write a review about it when it arrives in June.

If it arrives.:lol:
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Best of luck.
TenEightyOne
In fairness a working table lamp would be high-spec at the price...
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It is not like a low end Android phone, it has quad core CPU, 8GB internal memory and IPS screen.
FrzGT
Whatever its true or not, this phone is probably part of government plan (subsidize) to make technology more available to masses. Hence the OLPC thing among others.

The phone quality will probably come as you might expect from the phone this cost. Bear in mind that this is India we are talking about. It mostly produces (for the mainstream) cheap products regardless of quality (Tata Nano comes to mind) and currently the country has a massive technology focused products, diaspora, and also education. The latter is a trend there that most Indian parents will push their kids into.
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It's not subsidised by the government. They seem to be going by that the staff and website will give them money to make the phones cheaper. Over 88% cheaper than the Chinese it seems and generally I think China is likely to be cheapest place to manufacture phones hence why so many phones are made there. I'm sure Apple would be quite interested if they can make their phones significantly cheaper to produce than they already are.

They are going to sell something more higher spec than this in the same country for a small fraction of the price and they think they are going to make a small profit on the device :lol:: Link

Even if they got the components for free they would be struggling to sell it at that price and make money from it.
 
Saidur_Ali
It is not like a low end Android phone, it has quad core CPU, 8GB internal memory and IPS screen.
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Quad-core 1.3GHz CPU, only 1Gb of internal memory (not 8 as you seem to think), comparatively low-res cameras (3.2 and 0.5), a 4-inch 960 screen... I'm afraid that a low-end Android phone is exactly what it is. It'll struggle with quite a few apps, I should think.

That doesn't stop it being a bargain at the price, of course. The question is... where's the monetisation in the business model? Not in the handsets, it seems. Apple spend about $150 building each handset, even if RB are doing it at a tenth they're still making a loss on initial sales.
 
TenEightyOne
Quad-core 1.3GHz CPU, only 1Gb of internal memory (not 8 as you seem to think), comparatively low-res cameras (3.2 and 0.5), a 4-inch 960 screen... I'm afraid that a low-end Android phone is exactly what it is. It'll struggle with quite a few apps, I should think.

That doesn't stop it being a bargain at the price, of course. The question is... where's the monetisation in the business model? Not in the handsets, it seems. Apple spend about $150 building each handset, even if RB are doing it at a tenth they're still making a loss on initial sales.
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1GB RAM, internal memory is 8GB. It's not low end say like the LG L20 which is a lot more expensive to buy and that ran apps fine.

Their president seems to think they will make a small profit per unit and that savings on additional costs will actually mean you lower cost of materials and total cost. :lol:

Also I think for launch they only plan to sell less than 1000 units, amazing how they get such amazing economies of scale and how they are not already sold out. :lol:

If only business worked like they said, one could outdo Samsung as a start-up with less than 0.01% of their capital. :lol:

I will be shocked if this is not a scam. Seems so amateurish yet many people are buying into it.
 
It's really not possible for anyone to make let alone sell a smartphone that cheap unless it government, company or software subsidised. It would cost at least £20-30 to manufacture.
 
This phone is insanely hyped here. Suddenly everyone wants this phone now even though they have phones 20 times better than it. Every article on the internet has comments like " I am willing to pay Rs.XXXX for this" , " I can give you this phone for Rs.XXXX email me". Its crazy.

My order wasn't successful and it says please order again. I've decided not to order for now since as of now I think its bogus. Let's see.
 
Robin.
Well I didn't see that coming....... said no one.
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Others have said that the only way to meet that price is with government subsidy (insert snoopers-conspiracy-theory here). Now's the time to see if that's the evidence they produce, I guess.
 
"Women Safety"?

So it's an application that you use to determine which of your contacts should recieve
a distress SMS in case you are distressed, like being chased by a thief or murderer.
You simply shake the phone, and the message is instantly sent to anyone you want to alert to your
danger.

So a protection service...apparently specially for women.
What a load of marketing crap.

It would be less insulting and more appreciated that they called it
Safety Call, or Quick Respond.
 
citroengt1
"Women Safety"?

So it's an application that you use to determine which of your contacts should recieve
a distress SMS in case you are distressed, like being chased by a thief or murderer.
You simply shake the phone, and the message is instantly sent to anyone you want to alert to your
danger.

So a protection service...apparently specially for women.
What a load of marketing crap.

It would be less insulting and more appreciated that they called it
Safety Call, or Quick Respond.
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To be fair, the "marketing" were mandated and enforced by Indian government.
 

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