India’s cheapest smartphone `Freedom 251′ comes at Rs251

The phone is manufactured by Ringing Bells, a new Indian company set up to provide affordable smartphones. There’s an internal storage of 8GB but there’s space for 32GB more via a microSD slot. For photography, the smartphone consists of a 3.2MP rear camera and a 0.3MP front-facing camera for selfies. It’ll come running the Android 5.1 Lollipop OS meaning access to the myriad Android apps already available. It is an ultra-affordable 3G smartphone and has been made in line with the Make In India, Digital India and Skill India programmes. It’s not clear if this is still the case or not, or how many orders Ringing Bells has recieved yet for what is probably the world’s cheapest smartphone. The handset will be officially unveiled today evening at a launch event in the presence of Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Other criticisms on the Freedom 251 include that it is too cheap to make any profit and that the so-called beta version of the phone copies Apple’s iOS icons and resembles Adcom’s Ikon 4.

The Freedom 251 device will sell for Rs. 251, which is under $4 in the US. Bookings for the Freedom 251 will open from 6AM on 18 February, and deliveries will be completed by 30 June.

India, one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally, is poised to overtake the U.S. as the second-largest market in next few years.

To book the smartphone, a buyer must go to the company’s website http://www.freedom251.com/ and click on the booking option button on the homepage.

But the Indian startup believes it can offer a much cheaper alternative with its Freedom 251 smartphone.

Ringing Bells said that it now imports parts from overseas and assembles them in India, but plans to make its phones domestically within a year.