The tag of ‘World’s Cheapest Smartphone’ is changing hands at fast clip. A Bangalore based company Namotel has announced launch of Smartphone that costs just Rs. 99 or roughly $1.5. Recently, we have had Ringing Bells Freedom 251 Smartphone launched at Rs. 251 and Docoss X1 Smartphone for Rs. 888.
Given the price point of Namotel Acche Din, the first question that comes to mind is “Are we looking at yet another scam”. And the smartphone is launched at a time when Ringing Bells controversy (scam?) is still very fresh in people’s mind.
While this may very well be a scam, we will present you the facts as we know as of now. Unfortunately (and as expected) their website is down, however, we have managed to collect some information based on cached Google pages that we accessed.
About Namotel Company
Their about page (accessed through Google Cache) reads this:
Established in 2016 under the flagship of “make in india” namotel become highly popular brand under Checkcut technologies pvt ltd. Namotel is India’s most talked and fastest growing mobile brand. Headquartered in Bangalore, India, the company will open offices in Mumbai, Hyderabad, delhi and chennai. We aim to create new business model with sustained profitability and high sales growth since the very first year of operations. Namotel will be on the path of an ambitious journey to becoming India’s first consumer brand, empowering people with quality innovative products.
We are smart phones specilists who intent to rediscover new way of innovation in electonics segment. Namotel will have complete in-house R&D and product-testing set-up in India.
If you read carefully, the sentences are filled with mistakes with with no capitalization to any letters and spelling mistakes (see underlined words). The about page itself looks to be suspicious. We will still given them benefit of doubt and move ahead to actual Smartphone specifications.
Namotel Acche Din Smartphone
Namotel Acche Din (Not sure where NAMO reference comes from and ‘Acche Din’ remains an often abused word since new Government took over) Smartphone, although available for Rs. 99, does have some decent specifications. It is a Dual SIM phone that has a 4 inch display and runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. The phone is powered by 1.3GHz quadcore processor along with 1 GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. It supports 3G connectivity and has 2 mp rear and a VGA front camera. It has a 1325 mAh battery and features an all plastic build.
Interestingly, we do not know how the phone looks like as the website clearly mentions that ‘Pictures shown on website is for illustration purposes only’. The phone also has a tagline – “Joy and freedom represents the logo! The same joy will flourish in billion Indians In the form of smart Connect with (3 different looks and shapes) Android Smart powerful Phone at 99.”
Interestingly, the website mentions the price of this phone has been reduced from Rs. 2999/- to mere Rs. 99/-. And yes, they already have 575 service centres across India, as per their website!
How to Buy Namotel Acche Din
We are not sure if you are still interested in buying this phone – but if you do, here is how to do it (and hopefully the website will be up). The phone will be available for pre-booking starting from May 17th to May 25th on company’s website namotel.com, for which you will also need an Aadhaar card. Fortunately, you can get Cash on Delivery for this phone. But don’t think you will not have to shell anything upfront. You will need to register on BeMyBanker.com (even this site is down) and get an ID and password. You will need to pay Rs. 199 lifetime valid membership fee. So the price of the whole phone comes to around Rs. 298!
If you do manage to book one, do let us know in comments about your experience!
Image: Financial Express
Please send me this 99 rs mobiles 2 sets