The World’s Cheapest Smartphone Costs only $4 — meet the Freedom 251
Now I’m not sure about you, but when I purchased my smartphone, it was definitely a lot more than $4 even after all of the savings and discounts I got through my carrier. A relatively unknown phone manufacturer from India, Ringing Bells, has launched the Freedom 251 and it’s priced at Rs. 251 which is equivalent to $4 and thus makes it the world’s cheapest smartphone.
The Android Lollipop 5.1 device supports 3G and dual SIM. The Freedom 251 features a 4 inch 960 x 540 pixel display, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 8 GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 40 GB with a microSD card. The small device has a 3.2 megapixel rear camera and 0.3 megapixel front camera equipped so while it’s definitely different from phones we’re probably use to, it still can produce semi-decent pictures. The phone does not have a long battery life as it only sports a 1,450 mAh battery. Ironically, these specifications are slightly more powerful than those seen on the HTC Desire X, which is currently 3 years old and selling for $95 on Amazon brand new.
Even after its launch, the performance is still a mystery as the company said that the device was built with “immense support” from the Indian government but there is no proof regarding the performance. It’ll be a miracle for a small company like Ringing Bells, which is a relatively unknown brand, to produce a well-built phone with decent performance at this price, even if the components were highly subsidized.
So while this may be very hard to believe, you’re not the only one who was skeptical. It’s worth noting that the device originally shown on the company’s website when compared to the one in the newspaper did not remotely resemble each other however, that has since changed following its launch event. Ringing Bells will begin to accept pre-orders for the Freedom 251 as of February 18th and they plan to ship orders by the end of June. So if you go to Starbucks and buy a cup of coffee, the price you pay for that Latte can be used towards this smartphone if you’re interested in taking that risk!
