Pre-orders for $4 smartphone go live with a serious catch

If you have become overwhelmed with how much technology costs these days, you're not alone. You can't even jump into VR without looking at spending around $800. An Indian cellphone manufacturer, Ringing Bells Pvt., is looking to change the trend of high priced smartphones with their 251-rupee (US$3.67) Freedom 251 smartphone.

The Freedom 251 boasts a four-inch display, 3.2-megapixel camera, 8GB of storage and runs on an Android OS, but there's a catch…

While Ringing Bells Pvt. is taking pre-orders on their roughly $4.00 phone, the facilities that would be manufacturing the phone don't exist. On top of that, their marketing materials look nothing like what is being showcased as the Freedom 251.

Here's an advert for the phone:

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

Here's the alleged phone:

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

Currently, the phone is sold out, but the manufacturer promises to make pre-orders available once again. How Ringing Bells can create and manufacture a phone for $4 without going in debt is enough leave you scratching your head.

It has also been reported that early versions of the phone were disguised Adcom smartphones, which run for $54. Ringing Bells didn't even bother swapping the Adcom phones case for something more like their 'Freedom 251,' instead opting to put Wite-Out over the word 'Adcom.'

Perhaps Ringing Bells wanted reviewers to experience the phones operating system while they work on actually making a case for the phone.

[Rocket News]