
Beware before Ordering Ringing Bells Smart 101 or Freedom 251 Smart Phone - dragonsh
http://phoneradar.com/beware-ringing-bells-freedom-251-smartphone/
======
dragonsh
Update: Although $4 phone is a scam, I cannot fathom how come Indian defense
minister is endorsing it. I hope this will not be charged to poor Indian tax
payers,like Akash which was subsidized and subsequently failed. Moreover
company is a fraud, how can anyone from government associate with it. It is
using name of Modi and Make in India. Even the most basic computer without any
WiFi or radio like Raspberry Pi Zero cost $5, so this is not just improbable,
but impossible unless some billionaire wants to do a social service.
[http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report-the-
freedom-251-fiasc...](http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report-the-
freedom-251-fiasco-what-the-hell-is-going-on-2178927)

~~~
rasz_pl
corruption, its India

------
rspeer
Why does this site want to send me push notifications? More specifically, why
is it showing me a fake, vibrating, AdBlock-evading, interface element
"powered by LetReach" asking to send me push notifications?

~~~
dragonsh
Sorry about the ad, I use ad-blocker in firefox so didn't notice it, otherwise
won't have included this link.

~~~
desipenguin
I too am using ABP with firefox, yet I can see the "LetsReach" annoying
notifications :( Which ad-blocker are you using ?

~~~
dragonsh
I have unchecked allow some non-intrusive advertisement. Also I selectively
allow javascript and only from the same domain so this website only loads
text. Probably if I enable JS it might come as well.

------
DiabloD3
I thought we already knew this wasn't on the up and up.

Even the most minimal SoC, powerful enough to run Android (I think I read it
was shipping with Android) is at least $30, a single core wtf-wonder.

~~~
akiselev
Where are you getting your $30 price point? Digikey single unit pricing?

At a Shenzhen electronic parts market I have seen dual cores from Mediatek and
Allwinner for $10-15/unit in low volume and this was several years ago. If you
have leverage during pricing negotiations you can get extremely low pricing
for chips that is an order of magnitude cheaper than any online list price you
can find.

That said, I'm skeptical that a $5 phone can be manufactured profitably with a
quad core chip without a lot of subsidies either from the manufacturer or the
gov't.

~~~
DiabloD3
I actually haven't looked at pricing for awhile.

Yeah, I should be able to get quad core absolutely garbage SoCs for $5-10 now
in sufficient volume.

Still, the LTE modem assembly is going to be a lot more than that.

If they had said maybe a $25 phone? And they were making several million of
them? I'd believe it.

