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  • Category: General
    Points:5

    Get ready for world's cheapest smartphone.

    The world's cheapest smartphone"Freedom 251" is all set to launch in India. The smartphone which is completely made in India comes with an unbelievable price of Rs. 251. There are lot of buzz going around about the smartphone which is launched by the company called Ringing bells. The specification of the phone is near to any smartphone selling at the price range of Rs. 4000. The smartphone comes with a 4 inch display, 1 Ghz processor, 1 GB RAM and 8 GB internal storage.

    How does a smartphone can be priced this much less compared to other smartphones? Experts please pitch in your opinion regarding the phone.
  • #23721

      

    Points:5
    Yes, indeed - the Freedom 251 is the world's cheapest smartphone to be precise. The phone has been manufactured under the support from Make in India campaign. It is totally made in india. The phone is actually ridiculously affordable, yet functional.
    As for the price, it appears as if the government has subsidised the manufacturing quite heavily. The nearest competitors to the phone have been priced around Rs. 4000. But Freedom 251 beats them to the hilt. Except in the camera specifications, the new Freedom 251 stands neck to neck with Karbonn MachOne and Lenovo A2010.
    With the bookings opening tomorrow at 6 am, I am sure the smartphone will run out of stock before noon.
    By the way, are any of the Techians going to book it?
    Live....and Let Live!

  • #23722

    Points:4
    This is something new. I didn't paid attention to news lately. Phone sounds very promising and will now force many companies in Indian market to drop prices. Because for 1GB RAM and 5MP camera, nobody is going to be paying more than 10K. Sony and some other brands are going to have hard time pushing products in India. I think looting days for some brands is over now. I am glad that such market disrupting product is launched.

    I think the specs are pretty competitive. And the lens being expensive it's totally justified price. I'd say for those who consume data on browser, for them camera hardly matters.

    Also the price is very low. And this in reality will bring digital india and not the facebook free basics.

    Its good to see such products.

  • #23723

    Points:1
    @Timmappa, I planned to book the phone tomorrow. I am very much excited to see how the smartphone going to perform. I hope many of the people would plan to buy this phone as it cost less than 1 GB 3G recharge of some service providers.

  • #23724

      

    Points:4
    Well, I too plan to book it the first thing in the morning. Hopefully, I will get to book and the website will not crash.
    It would, in fact be a great bargain. If the phone does not appeal to your needs, you are not going to lose out much. The device costs less than what you would pay for a screen protector.

    @Mahesh, I do not think it will have much effect on other brands, or smartphones. This is a special case, and definitely price bas been highly subsidised. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar himself launching the handset speaks tons about it being a government initiative. You can never expect other manufacturers to bring phones at such dirt cheap price.
    But, yes - we may expect a little drop in price.
    Live....and Let Live!

  • #23725

    Points:4
    I think this was part of "Make in India" initiative I guess. So there are going to be other products in digital category for price disruption.

    The reason I said it will affect the prices of other brands is because after Xiaomi breaking the 10K price tag for basic specs, other brands followed the trend. Micromax, lava, lenovo, Gionee and Le had to drop the prices. So I am guessing subsidized products too can affect the market. I mean the specs are not bad at all. I mean just few spec changes and it can even get close to Xiaomi or simialr other under 8K product line.

    One another thing that surprised me here is that this government didn't cared for big brands lobbying and launched this product. I mean big brands hate disruption especially from government.

  • #23726

      

    Points:2
    As I said - the website seems to have crashed. I can't open it for the last five minutes.

    Anyone else has any kind of success?
    But hoping for huge price cuts based just on this alone won't be meaningful. I am sure thus would be just one off product. Neither the government nor the manufacturer will be able to afford such cheaper products over a long run.
    Live....and Let Live!

  • #23727

      

    Points:1
    I tries to book but after the first page, all I see is a blank page. Anyone else had luck in booking the phone?

  • #23729

      

    Points:2
    I Have been trying since morning. Earlier i was not getting the site at all. Now, it is taking you upto buy now link. Once you enter your details and click on Pay Now button, the page keeps re loading.

    Maybe it will take much more time to get the site running again.
    Live....and Let Live!

  • #23730

    Points:4
    If you click on the buy now button, you get one apology message. It seems they are getting 6L hits per second. I am surprised that even the base site is working as of now. I guess they need to use CDN service with better servers in future if they wish to handle such large queries. I am guessing most of the queries on their website were from the sellers from sites like ebay etc. They overbook such phones and then sold them at higher prices. That happened in case of Xiaomi's flash sales too.

    By the way they didn't mentioned how many phones they have ready in stocks.

  • #23731

    Points:1
    I tried a long time but failed at the end to book the phone.

    Experts,
    Is it only a limited time offer or we can able to book the phone later once the site is up? Please pitch in your opinion.

  • #23734

      

    Points:2
    The booking was remain open from 6 am on 18th Feb to 8 pm on 21st Feb. Now that the site has crashed withing the first few minutes ( I doubt there have been any bookings) , one can hope to see the booking windows to be extended.

    Let the site get up first. Hopefully, the upgraded service will be able to handle the hits this time.
    The crux of the matter is the phone is affordable to anyone using Internet and I'm sure that is what has resulted in such huge overwhelming hits. There us also a possibility that certain sites like EBay and other local stores buying it in huge quality and then selling them off at higher prices. We have seen this happening with Xiaomi flash sales and with Flipkart big million sales.
    Live....and Let Live!

  • #23735

      

    Points:2
    By the way, the bookings are working this morning. I placed an order. Only one unit per unique email ID is allowed. However, you are not making any payment right now.
    As soon as I placed the order, it was confirmed, and stated that I will receive a link for payment within next 48 hours. Order number has been generated.
    Will share the more details as soon as I get them.

    Anyone of you tried today?
    Live....and Let Live!

  • #23736

    Points:3
    Is there any mention of when the delivery period will start? I don't see any FAQ for this.

    I also heard a lot of concerns about this mobile. Something like this model is not mentioned to pass the radiation tests and other small changes. Also the models given to the media were with only installed android version. It lacked the apps that were claimed by the website.

    I guess these specs related issues and the delivery are supposed to be handled professionally.

    I hope that they are not going to do something like Aadhar card where they ship the cards only when they find the contractor to serve the specific number of the prints.

  • #23737

    Points:1
    @Timmappa,

    Thanks for your post. I can able to book the phone today. I tried another booking with my brother's ID but the page is not opening.

    @Mahesh,

    Ringing bells company stated that they going to deliver the phone within 4 months to customers who ordered now. I hope they won't make any issues with the delivery as they planned to open 650 centers across the country to tackle after sale service.

  • #23738

      

    Points:1
    I got to see a video on YouTube today. Mr. Chhadda and Mr. Goel in talk with Mr Rajiv Makhni of NDTV have stated that the shipping will begin from March end or April. Goel has claimed that they will go with both online and offline modes. It has been stated that there are around 30000 bookings by this afternoon( It could, or could not be authentic information). Search for "Alarm bells ringing" on YouTube.
    Hopefully, we will not witness a scam here.
    By the way, Goel - the MD of Ringing Bells does not speak English. He was speaking in Hindi on the talk show I mentioned.
    Live....and Let Live!

  • #23739

    Points:3
    There were / are huge campaign and advertisement everywhere but some says it is a real one, true to get the device via online booking and after online payment made of Rs 251, and some says it is a kind of scam.

    Now, the confusion is between two sites http://freedom251.com/ (and) http://freedom651.com/

    Other online news shown that the device they shown during launches was of AdCom company smartphone that cost around 4K. Anyhow, time will tell the exact result about this gadget.
    Regards,

  • #23741

    Points:2
    The fake site with 651 in the domain sounds like satire website. I guess this could be made by political party or some other person with some ulterior motive. No idea why would people spend their time and money trying to create such website.

    I do understand their concerns though. It is definitely possible to see such issues once the delivery starts. But based on the demo models and the quality checks being made on them. It's not that bad product.

    I hope they can make use of Chinese product makers and get the cost down like this on future products. It is hard but I guess this will put a dent on lobbying in the electronics sector.

  • #23750

      

    Points:1
    Has anyone here received the payment link via email? I had placed my order on 19th February and promptly received my order reference number. It has been more than 48 hours now and I am yet to get the payment link.

    The firm says they have received over a crore bookings of which only 25 lakhs will be delivered. Rest of the orders will be automatically cancelled. Has anyone had luck?
    Live....and Let Live!

  • #23755

    Points:2
    No, one of my friend also booked it online to test it. He booked one piece after several attempt and got the reference number too but no payment link yet.

    We will come to know the real situation once someone received it and write about it. Let's wait and see on this.
    Regards,


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