The future of the $4 smartphone might not look as bright as you might imagine

By Williams Pelegrin Published July 10, 2016

Cast in doubt the moment it was announced in February, Ringing Bells’ $4 unicorn of a smartphone that is the Freedom 251 finally started shipping to customers. Moving forward, however, the future of the Freedom 251 seems to be nebulous at best.

Even though Ringing Bells promised to deliver 200,000 Freedom 251 units to customers, a company representative said that it needs help from the Indian government to make those deliveries.

Recommended Videos

“We may deliver more units if we get help or we may not deliver at all in the upcoming months,” the representative told Indian Express. “We are only focusing on the giving away of devices now.”

Furthermore, Ringing Bells co-founder and CEO Mohit Goel sent an open letter to India’s Prime Minister, asking for a total of $7.4 billion in financial support. According to the letter, the Freedom 251 is offered on “Cash on Delivery” terms. However, there is a gap between how much the phone costs to make and how much Ringing Bells sells the phone for. As such, not only will the money to go subsidizing Ringing Bells’ efforts, but ensure that every Indian will get the Freedom 251, said Goel.

Each Freedom 251 costs $20 to make, but thanks to partnerships Ringing Bells makes with software companies in order to have their apps pre-installed on the phone, the company loses $2 for each phone sold, reports CNET.

Goel made the assurance that Ringing Bells will continue to make Freedom 251 units even without assistance from the Indian government. We cannot help but wonder the validity of such a statement when the company also announced a total of six new phones, an HDTV, and power banks — a move that can be seen as a way to keep Ringing Bells afloat.

Out of the six phones, four of them are feature phones while the remaining two, the Elegance and the Elegant, are much smarter. The Elegance features a 5-inch, 1,280 x 720 resolution display, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, a 2,800mAh battery, and 4G LTE. Meanwhile, the Elegant also features the same display, processor, and RAM, but steps down to 3G and a 2,500mAh battery. The Elegance and Elegant will be sold for $67 and $60, respectively.

Williams Pelegrin

Former Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

Topics

Phones

I visited Infinix’s first global flagship store, and it’s unlike any phone store I’ve been to

Phones, coffee, and robots: Infinix's Bali concept store was a delightful surprise

Infinix Flagship Store

I've been to plenty of smartphone stores over the years, and I can't tell any of these experiences apart. Picture neatly arranged tables, rows of smartphones, and the occasional accessory tucked away in a corner. Honestly, this works for most people who show up knowing exactly what they need and just leave.

So, when Infinix invited me to Bali for the grand opening of its first global flagship concept store, I was curious to see what the company had planned. I expected an elaborate showroom and a few extra things, like eye-catching installations to celebrate the occasion. And while there were a few of these, a lot of the things that actually caught my eye were permanent parts of the store.

Phones

Apple’s supply chain power is legendary, but a new report says it’s downright brutal

Whatever you've heard before, the reality is a lot more shocking.

Teradown view of an iPhone.

Ever wonder just how powerful Apple’s market status is? To give you an idea, here’s a passage from a searing report published by The Wall Street Journal published a few days ago:

“Around the end of 2015, Sandisk refused Apple’s requests to send additional supply because it already had customers willing to pay more. Blevins threatened a Sandisk salesman with retaliation, saying he would have Sandisk’s chief executive, Sanjay Mehrotra, “crawl on his knees” back to Apple, according to a person familiar with the call."

Phones

Android’s new ‘SMS of Death’ exploit can crash your phone without you doing anything

A malicious text message can disrupt calls and leave an Android phone stuck in a reboot loop, without the owner knowing what happened.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone in blue color.

A security researcher has uncovered a serious vulnerability in Android that allows an attacker to remotely crash a smartphone using a specially crafted text message. Dubbed "SMS of Death," the flaw can disrupt cellular services, disconnect ongoing calls, and even leave a phone stuck in a reboot loop. The troubling part is that the recipient doesn't have to interact with it at all.

The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-58882, was discovered by security researcher Mark Blaszczyk, who first notified Google about it in May. On October 29, he published his findings alongside a working demonstration, after successfully reproducing the attack on Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Google has already developed a fix, but its availability across Android devices is another matter.