Freedom 251: The World's Most Affordable Smartphone being Launched Today

A small, Noida based company called Ringing Bells is launching today, the world's most affordable smartphone, with support from the Indian Govt--Freedom 251.

At Rs. 251, the Freedom 251 can comfortably be considered as the world's cheapest smartphone. It will be launched by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, MP and Union Defense Minister, Sri Manohar Parrikar as the Chief Guest this evening.

Specs of the Freedom 251 are amazing at this price--a quad core processor running at 1.3 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB of internal storage, which is expandable to 32 GB, a 3.2 MP rear camera and 0.3 MP front camera, with a 1450 mAH battery.

Apparently, the phone is being launched with 'immense' support from the govt. Does this mean that the phone is being heavily subsidized, considering that even data plans could work out more expensive than that, and the cost of shipping the phone itself could be more than that.

Everything in the Freedom 251 is apparently indigeneously being manufactured in India, and is being considered as a success story of PM Modi's Make in India campaign.

Bookings for the phone will open on Feb 18th 6 AM and close on Friday 21st Feb 8 PM, and delivery is being promised by June 30, 2016.

It's too early to comment on how good would the phone be. Hopefully, it will be better than what various similar initiatives in the past offered, like the Aakash Tablet.