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

Domestic handset maker Ringing Bells is all set to launch India's most affordable smartphone, 'Freedom 251,' for mere Rs251 on Wednesday, a move that could revolutionise even the affordable smartphone market.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikkar will launch the smartphone 'Freedom 251' on 17 February. ''The phone will be popularly priced at under Rs500… this event and launch stands as a true testimony of success of the latest initiatives taken by the Government of India,'' according to a media invite sent by the firm.

The cheapest smartphones available in the market now are priced around Rs1,500. Last year, DataWind had announced plans to launch the world's most affordable smartphone, priced at Rs999, in joint initiative with Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (RCom). The phone is yet to hit the market.

Freedom 251 smartphone comes with a 4 inch (10.2 cms) qHD IPS display.

The smartphone houses  a 3.2MP AF rear camera and 3 MP front camera. Freedom 251 with its inbuilt touchless technology is good for selfie lovers.

Freedom 251 comes with 1.3 GHz Quadcore Processor and the smartphone runs Android Lollypop 5.1. It comes with 1450 mAh battery.

It has 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB using SD card.

Bookings for the Freedom 251 will begin on 18 February at 6 am and close on 21 February at 8pm. The company says deliveries will be completed by 30 June 2016.

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. Though it is not functional now, bookings can be made from 6 am Thursday morning when the booking starts.

The launch is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for ''empowering India to the last person, transforming India's growth story'', the Noida-based company said.

Established last year, Ringing Bells will start with the assembly of handsets in Phase-I and aims at full indigenous development of the feature-rich smartphones, it said. It did not disclose any other details about manufacturing, products and pricing.

A new entrant in the Indian mobile phone market, Ringing Bells had launched one of India's cheapest 4G smartphones at Rs2,999, recently. It has launched two other feature phones in the market.