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Freedom 251 launched: Is it too good to be true?

Well, to understand why the Freedom 251 is actually a topic to be talked about, you need to understand what a smartphone is. Over the years, smartphones have really gained popularity. Nowadays everyone pretty much owns a smartphone. The issue is now which smartphone you own that is if it is one with the latest features or perhaps the latest one. When most people were asked on what they look for when buying a smartphone, most people said they basically want a phone that will make calls, read emails, good internet connectivity and how can we forget, a good camera. In this day and age where things like Facebook, Instagram have really become popular, what would it be without a camera? Another thing that is very crucial when purchasing a smartphone is budget. How can we not talk about budget, if we all had the money, we would all probably own the an IPhone 6s.When purchasing a smartphone, we would definitely go for a phone with some good features but one which we could afford as they say, it is always good to live within your means. So, imagine a phone that costs you Rs 251 or translated to dollars, around $4 dollars, what would be your first thought?

Is it a joke?

Everyone thought that it must have been a big joke or a spread out rumor when reports claimed that an Indian company known as Ringing Bells would be producing a phone and not just any phone but a smartphone worth, wait for it…$4.Well guys, it is no joke as the phone is already out and sales are being made. The phone is known as Freedom 251 and is going for Rs 251.The company had announced before that they were going to be launching a phone that would sell for below $500.People thought the whole thing was just a sham just to find out that the phone will actually go for Rs 251.Ringing Bells is a company in India that was started in 2015.Until now, the company was pretty much low key and nothing much was known about it. After the company released the cheapest smartphone ever heard of, the company has been trending. It became popular overnight.

What about the specifications?

So you may wonder, what the specs of this phone are. You will be surprised to learn that the phone runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. That is pretty shocking considering they are selling the phone at a throw away price. Other specs include, the phone has a 4-inch display, 3.2MP for the rear camera and 0.3MP for the front camera. It also has 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory and 32GB of external memory. They have pretty utilized the internal memory as the phone comes with pre-installed apps such as Facebook, Medical, twitter, Instagram and many other applications. On top of that the phone also has a 12 month warranty with the battery and charger carrying 6 months warranty and the earphone carrying 3 month warranty. The company however does not offer warranty for any tear and wear and for any liquid spillage on the phone. The president of the company also said that if the owner of the phones takes it to another person for repairs, the warranty will immediately become null and void.

The company claims that within a few days of releasing the phone it has already sold 30000 units. The website had crashed just a few moments after the phone was released as the servers had crashed. Once you get to the website and order the phone, you get a message that only one order can be made by one email probably due to how much the phone must be on demand. An additional Rs 40 is required for shipping charges once you order the phone. Giant smartphone companies such as Xiaomi and Motorola had suspended selling their gadgets in India as the government has been pushing for local manufacturers and producers to support the initiative „Made in India“. The Defense minister of India launched the phone claiming that the reason why it was going for such a low price was in order to make the smartphones available to everyone especially those people in the rural areas.

Since the site had previously crashed, people had taken to twitter to rant out their anger on how their website crashed just a few moments after the phone was launched. However, the site was restored and now you can easily make your order. We can only wait and see where this one goes.