14 DAY TRIAL // Indian OEM Karbonn and major retailer Flipkart have teamed up to offer customers the world’s cheapest Android smartphone, Karbonn A50S.
Karbonn A50S is exclusively available for purchase through Flipkart online store for only Rs 2,699 outright, which is about $45 or €33.
“It is our continuous endeavour to make technology available easily and at affordable prices to the greater masses of India. In this digital age, we believe every Indian should have access to a smartphone.
“These Karbonn phones that have been made exclusively for Flipkart customers are a step in that direction,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, SVP Retail at Flipkart.
The A50S is aimed at those who want to switch to an Android smartphone from a feature phone, which is why Karbonn and Flipkart priced the handset so low.
Making the transition from a feature phone to a smartphone easier for customers in India seems like great move for Karbonn, especially that the Indian market still has huge potential when it comes to smartphones.
Obviously, the A50S does not offer too much in terms of specs, but it’s more than enough to satisfy the demands of a new smartphone user that has just switched from a feature phone.
Software-wise, Karbonn A50S ships with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box, but that was to be expected from an entry-level handset.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that Karbonn is very unlikely to offer any major software upgrades for the A50S, but then again, this shouldn’t matter for those who purchase such an affordable smartphone.
On the inside, Karbonn A50S is equipped with a decent 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Unfortunately, it only packs 256MB of RAM, which means it will have major troubles in running some of the most popular apps and games available on Google Play Store.
The good news is the smartphone includes 2GB of internal memory and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB). It also offers dual-SIM capability, which is another mandatory feature for the Indian mobile phone market.
On the back, Karbonn A50S packs a sub-par 2-megapixel photo snapper with LED flash, while in the front there’s a VGA camera for selfies. Given that the smartphone lacks 3G connectivity, users won’t be able to take or make video calls.
The smartphone sports a 3.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports 320 x 480 pixels resolution, and it’s powered by a rather low-capacity 1100 mAh battery.