Freedom 251 delivery will finally begin on July 7 and not June 30. The smartphone is the world's cheapest Android device.

The delivery of the world’s cheapest smartphone at Rs 251 (less than $4) will finally begin from July 6, and not June 30 as was announced earlier, its makers said on Wednesday, adding that they are trying to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi for garnering his support under the Make in India initiative.

According to Ringing Bells’ Founder and CEO Mohit Goel, they are ready with nearly two lakh ‘Freedom 251’ handsets.

“In the meanwhile, we have prepared a letter requesting a meeting with our Prime Minister to pitch our case as a domestic smartphone maker which wishes to contribute towards ‘Make in India’ initiative,” Goel told IANS.

“We are planning to organise a launch event in the capital on July 7, a day after starting the delivery,” Goel added.

In an earlier interview to IANS, Goel had announced June 30 the date for delivery, adding that once he is done with this first phase of delivery (of two lakh phones), he will open registration again for those who wish to buy the handset.

The company had in mid-February this year planned to deliver 25 lakh handsets before June 30. However, it received over seven crore registrations before its payment gateway crashed within three days.

“We learned from our mistakes and decided to go silent till we come out with the product. Now we have a 4-inch, dual-SIM phone ready for delivery. I feel vindicated,” he had told IANS.

According to Goel, he is facing a loss of Rs 140-Rs 150 per handset, for which parts were imported from Taiwan, but hopes to make profit on volumes.

“We will have a loss, but I am happy that the dream of connecting rural and poor Indians as part of the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives has been fulfilled with ‘Freedom 251’,” Goel said.

The 3G device has a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory and supports external memory cards of up to 32GB. No device was, however, given to IANS. Only a photograph was allowed to be taken.

The company has offered an 8MP primary camera with flash, a 3.2MP front camera for selfie and a 1,800 mAh battery. It runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop).

The phone is available in two colours — black and white — with centrally aligned rear camera and branding on the back panel. It has a speaker just alongside the branding.

The device displays the Indian Tricolour when you switch it on. The company has incorporated all the basic Google apps in the handset.

“Our devices are completely ‘Make in India’ and were manufactured at our Haridwar-based manufacturing unit. We plan to sell two lakh devices every month,” he said.

The company is also planning to launch a 32-inch high-definition LED television — also called “Freedom” — in the first week of July.

“These will be the cheapest television sets in India and will be available for less than Rs 10,000. Within two days, the delivery would be made and we will sell them online,” Goel said, adding that the company currently has one lakh such pieces in stock.

In comparison, the cost of 32-inch HD LED TV sets normally begins from Rs 13,000

After Freedom 251, here is another cheapest smartphone in Indian market. An unheard smartphone company Docoss is taking orders for Docoss X1 smartphone that is priced at Rs 888.

Docoss X1 is offering smartphone at jaw dropping price tag. Earlier we had also saw Freedom 251 which had made similar promised, a fully functional  android smartphone at Rs. 251, but it is yet to begin sales. Now another new smartphone manufacturer Docoss has started the booking of its Rs. 888 Android mobile phone on its website docoss.com/

Docoss specification

Docoss X1 features a 4 inch IPS capacitive touch screen on the front. Under the hood the mobile phone is powered by a dual core Cortex A7 processor that is clocked at a speed of 1.3GHz. The processor is further clubbed with 1GB of RAM space and with that the smartphone offers 4GB of internal memory space that can be further expanded upto an extra 32GB using a microSD card.

Camera  and Connectivity

The Docoss X1 camera department consists of a 2MP primary camera on the rear side and the front of the smartphone houses a 0.3MP secondary camera for selfies and video chats. The rear camera is also supported by an LED flash. The X1 Docoss mobile phone is backed up by a 1300mAh battery that might last for an entire day seeing the other specification of the device.

Docoss Design

The handset comes running the older Android v4.4 Kitkat operating system out of the box. The Docoss X1 phone offers dual SIM usage and comes with other connectivity features such as 3G, 2G, bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. The 888 rupees X1 smartphone will come with 1 year warranty.

About Docoss

According to reports, the Docoss is a Jaipur-based company. The domain name was registered two months back and it’s a private registration which means that there’s no information published about the domain owner, adding more doubts. After some investigation about the company we could only find the brand’s name, “DOCOSS Multimedia Private Limited,” as per the information, they are listed as a Smartphone seller company, reported the Phoneradar.



** Be Aware before you buy this device, it might be scam , do tell us what you think of this 888 INR smartphone.

Review of DOCOSS X1

There is an old proverb which rings ‘bell’ everytime I see some unprecedented marketing campaign: “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is..”

Something similar has happened with Freedom 251, the smartphone which is being offered at earth-shattering price of Rs 251 by a little known company called ‘Ringing Bells’. The bookings started today morning, and as per messages received by the some people, the website received 6 lakh hits a second.

 
Even the majestic Amazon Cloud couldn’t handle this onslaught of traffic, and the website crashed.
Social media is right now ignited with the news and reports of Freedom 251, as thousands and thousands of tech enthusiast attempted to book a unit of this new disruption in tech world.
We attempt to analyse logically, the truth behind Freedom 251, and try to decode whether its a scam or its a genuine offering from a new hotshot company which is attempting something never tried before?
We will first give them benefit of doubt, and present two reasons which prove that its not a scam:

At a glittering event, veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi launched this handset in Delhi. Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar was also expected to attend this event, but he failed to turn up.

 

The company’s owners are not hiding and have presented themselves to be scrutinized. Here is the Facebook profile of the founder Mohit Goel, who goes by the name ‘CuteMohit’; besides, all the founders of this company have come out in the open in today’s full page ad on TOI and mentioned that the handsets would be delivered in June.

Sample unit of Freedom 251 was reviewed by Hindustan Times, and they found that it’s a shady, rebranded ripoff of a smartphone sold by a company named Adcom, which is a Delhi based importer of gadgets and electronic products. And, Marketing Manager of Adcom has said, “We have no idea that our branding is being used on the Freedom 251.. We will look into this.”
Adcom A400, the handset which is being allegedly rebranded (without their permission) was launched 2 years ago. Hence, it can be a possibility that Ringing Bells are now reselling the old stock at lower price.
The most hilarious thing is that, the logo of Adcom is hidden by a whitener. No genuine company selling a smartphone shall do that.. Never!

Interestingly, the handset which has been rebranded is sold for Rs 4000 by Adcom. How will a new company rebrand it and sell the same for Rs 251? A huge red flag for scam alert here.

As per the specifications mentioned in their website, this smartphone will be pre-loaded with several apps such as Swatch Bharat, Women Safety App, Facebook, Whatsapp and more. But the review unit didn’t had any such app. Besides, the actual handset received by HT is entirely different from the handset which is being shown on their website and the full page ads in newspapers.

Infact, the icons & browser seems a direct copy of iOS icons and Safari browser.

Mobile Industry Body Indian Cellular Association (ICA) has written to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, asking him to look into this matter, as there is no way any company can sell such a handset below Rs 2700, even after considering all discount factors.

ICA President said, “For your kind information, the bill of material (BOM) value for a product like this when sourced from the cheapest supply chain cost approximately USD 40 (Rs 2,700).”
Considering that this handset feature 4-inch display, Qualcomm 1.3-GHz quad-core processor and 1 GB RAM; the individual cost of each component itself will be far more than Rs 251.

 

Ringing Bell, the parent company behind the scintillating offer is not listed under Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which means that they are not certified to sell any product in India. This is a major red flag alert, which indicates that it’s a scam. And, there are no address mentioned on their website; the copy which they have written describing the advantages and features are all amateurish, and the Tweets they are sending are unprofessional to say the least.
Only time will tell about the truth, which would be revealed on June 30th, when Ringing Bells will deliver the first batch of their Freedom 251 handsets.
Do share your opinion and feedback on this case.