Freedom 251, the smartphone costing Rs 251 and billed as the cheapest smartphone in the world, clocked up 6 lakh hits per second shortly after it went on sale online at 6 am on Thursday. The event was headed by chief guest Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and was chaired by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, MP. This is perhaps the first phone from the company at such a low price.
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Although the company says that the phone’s delivery will be completed four months later – by June 30, 2016 – the pre-booking, in this case, is still inaccessible to users. It’s name reflects the fact that it will cost consumers just 251 Indian Rupees or $3.67 using current currency calculations. The product manufacturing has been “heavily assisted” by the Indian Government. 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.
At present, cheapest smart phones are available for around Rs 1,500. Internet connectivity and smartphone usage are lacking, but it is fast growing, and the 251, if it turns out better than the budget tablets, should help further. It turns out smartphones don’t have to cost an arm and leg, as relatively-unknown Indian firm Ringing Bells have proved.
Customers will also get several apps pre-installed in the phone including Women Safety, Swachh Bharat or Clean India, Fisherman, Farmer, Medical, Google Play, WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube. Freedom 251 gives a comes with a camera quality of 3.2-megapixel for as primary camera and 0.3-megapixel for secondary camera. It is powered by a 1.3 GHz Quad core Processor with 1GB of RAM.
Whether India’s consumers would adopt the superbudget device remained to be seen, however.
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Memory: The smartphone comes with 8GB internal storage and if that is not sufficient for you, it can be expanded upto 32GB.
