14 DAY TRIAL // Here is something that you don't see every day, at least not in the last few years. Indian company Karbonn has just released a very cheap Android smartphone, which is already up for sale at major retailers across the country.
According to a new report, Karbonn Alfa 112 can be had for just Rs 2,890 outright, which is about $45 or €40. You might be thinking that at this price you could get two Alfa 112 devices and gift one of them.
You would make a big mistake since Karbonn's affordable smartphone comes with the lowest specs possible. Rarely are Android smartphones with a specs sheet like Alfa 112's launched on the market these days.
First of all, the handset comes preloaded with a very old Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system right out of the box. The reason might be the fact that a newer version of the OS wouldn't have worked just a smoothly, considering its hardware specs.
Is there an audience for this kind of smartphones, still?
Speaking of which, Karbonn Alfa 112 sports a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) resolution.
On the inside, the smartphone is equipped with a 1GHz single-core processor, which is complemented by 256MB of RAM and only 512MB of internal memory.
Although the Alfa 112 includes microSD card slot for memory expansion, you won't be able to get more than 32GB of storage.
Karbonn's Alfa 112 features a very modest 2-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash and video recording, as well as a secondary VGA camera on the front.
The only positive thing about Karbonn's smartphone is dual-SIM support. The device does not support 3G connectivity, but offers EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP and microUSB 2.0.
Also, the smartphone features FM Radio and 3.5mm audio jack, and it's powered by a low-capacity 1,300 mAh battery, which should be enough, considering Alfa 112's low-end hardware.