Ringing Bells, the new entrant to the mobile industry came to limelight early this year when they launched world’s first cheapest smartphone – Freedom 251 for unbelievable price of Rs. 251 only. Unfortunately, they could not deliver the phone to the prospective buyers and their were lot of controversies to their business model. Today, at an event in New Delhi, the company has announced its return to the business with a bang and launched 2 more smartphones under the brand name Elegant and Elegance, four feature phones, LED TV and three power banks. The company has also announced that they would be delivering 5000 units of Freedom 251 smartphone to those customers from today who have already pre-booked it via lucky-draw.
Elegant (3G) & Elegance(4G VoLTE) smartphones – The Elegant 3G, as its name suggests is 3G enabled device and has a price tag of Rs 3999 and Elegance is 4G enabled smartphone which will be sold for Rs 4499.
Both the phones have same specifications of 5 inch HD IPS Display with 720×1280 pixels, 1 GB DDR3 RAM, 8GB of internal storage which can be extended upto 32GB & 1.3GHz Quad core processor, 8 MP Rear & 3.2 MP Front Camera and 2500 mAh battery. The Elegance is equipped with 2800 mAh battery. Both the phones run on Android 6.0 out of the box. They offer other standard connectivity options of Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM etc.
Ringing Bells also annoucned four feature phones – King, Boss, Raja and Hit. The King and Boss come with a 2.4-inch TFT display, 2MP primary camera and support up to 32GB of expandable memory via microSD card. While the battery of King is 1,800mAh; Boss is backed by a 2,000mAh battery. The specifications of Raja is the same as King except that it sports a larger 2.8-inch TFT display. King, Boss and Raja are priced at Rs 899, Rs 999 and Rs 1,099, respectively. Hit comes with a 1.8-inch display, 2MP primary camera, 1,250mAh battery and is priced at Rs 699.
All the phones comes with 180 days of replacement warranty.
The company has also forayed into TV segment and launched today 31.5 inch HD LED TV at Rs. 9,900 only and this TV will go on sale from 15th August via the company’s own website.
The company also informed that after taking feedback of 5000 users of Freedom 251, they will proceed with subsequent lots to complete the promised 200,000 units in the coming months. But can they do this despite the fact that the company has admitted that the acutal cost of Freedom 251 is approxiamtely Rs. 1450 and they are selling it for Rs. 251.
The new look Freedom 251 is far better than the prototype that was displayed during the time of the launch few months back. It is available in two colours — black and white. The Freedom 251 comes with 4 inch QHD IPS display with resolution of 540×960 pixels and runs on Android Lollipop 5.1 OS. It is packed with 1.3GHz quad-core processor paired with 1GB RAM, 8GB ROM extendable to 32GB, 3.2MP rear and 0.3MP front shooter, 1450mAh battery and supports Dual-SIM.
Ringing Bells has denied the reports that there have been complaints that those who booked Freedom 251, have not been refunded with their money. ” For the first 29200 units booked online on 18/2/2016, a sum of RS. 84 lakhs ( including courier charges) was received by the payment gateway M/s CC Avenue prior to the server crash and all these funds have been refunded by the gateway itself. No funds were received by Ringing Bells. M/s CC Avenue Payment gateway has confirmed on 29/3/16 that all payments have been refunded to the respective customers,” clarified Mr Mohit Goel, Director, Ringing Bells. Now Freedom 251 will be delivered against cash on delivery for Rs. 291 as 40 Rs. will be charged for coureir despatch.
