Hands on with India's £3 smartphone

 
Earlier this year, Indian company Ringing Bells said it was about to put a smartphone on the market costing less than $4 (£3).
Freedom 251 is an Android phone advertised by Ringing Bells at 251 rupees (£2.77).
In the hand, it feels somewhat like Apple's iPhone 5.
And, surprisingly for its price, its specifications are quite impressive:

• camera on both front and back
• 4in (10.2cm) wide
• 1GB Ram
• 8GB internal storage, expandable to 32GB
• quad-core processor providing more processing power when necessary but making less use of its battery at other times

 There are two models, one black, one white.
 

But it is hard to really test its capabilities, as it has very few applications, covering only basic tasks, such as:

• calculator
• music player
• web browser
• email

At the demo, the company said the final model would be made available for scrutiny only after 30 June. Later, on Tuesday afternoon, it said that date had been delayed until 7 July.

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