Freedom 251 is rebranded version of Adcom Ikon 4; Chinese smartphone sold under ‘Make in India’ garb?

Apart from identical looks, both the smartphones function on Android 5.1 operating system, have a 4-inch screen display, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB internal memory and powered by 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. Their user interface appears to be blatant rip-off of the Iphone.

New Delhi, Feb 17: Indian mobile phone manufacturing company Ringing Bells’ launched the much-awaited smartphone ‘Freedom 251′ on Wednesday. Priced at Rs 251, it has grabbed interest of not only gadget fans but general masses who desire to be the ones among the first list of customers. Although Ringing Bells’ has claimed it to be a product of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, the phone was found to be a rebranded version of  Chinese smartphone Adcom Ikon 4.

According to tech pundits who procured ‘Freedom 251’ immediately after it’s launch, the product was found to be not an original creation, but a sloppy rebranding of Adcom Ikon 4. The Chinese smartphone is available on online shopping sites. It is priced at Rs 4000, with features strikingly similar to ‘Freedom 251’. (ALSO READ: Freedom 251 specifications: 10 features to know about the ‘Rs 251 smartphone’)

Apart from identical looks, both the smartphones function on Android 5.1 operating system, have a 4-inch screen display, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB internal memory and powered by 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. Their user interface appears to be blatant rip-off of the Iphone.

However, there is a difference in the camera quality of Freedom 251 and Adcom Ikon 4. While Adcom comes with 5 megapixel rear camera and 1.3 megapixel front, Freedom 251 has a poor rear camera of 3.2 megapixel, whereas, the front camera is 0.2 megapixel. Considering the price of the latter, there should be no complaints regarding the camera.

Another major failure of Freedom 251 is that the smartphone has not received clearance from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). If the phone is not approved by BIS, then it is not officially confirmed to be safe for usage. Getting the BIS certificate is expensive, which might had forced Ringing Bells’ to give it a skip.

 Freedom 251 will be available for sale through its website. To order the phone, customers need to visit www.freedom251.com and click on ‘Book phone’. The sale will begin on Thursday morning 8 AM and end on 6 PM on Sunday.