Freedom 251 rerun: ChampOne to sell C1 smartphone at ₹501 | HT Tech

Freedom 251 rerun: ChampOne to sell C1 smartphone at 501

The smartphone, ChampOne C1, comes with a 5-inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with a 2GB RAM unit. It also comes with a fingerprint sensor. In terms of optics, the phone sports a eight-megapixel camera. There is no mention of the pixel size of the front camera nor the internal storage.

By: ANIRBAN GHOSHAL
| Updated on: Aug 29 2016, 17:53 IST
image caption
The smartphone, ChampOne C1, comes with a 5-inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with a 2GB RAM unit. It also comes with a fingerprint sensor. In terms of optics, the phone sports a eight-megapixel camera. There is no mention of the pixel size of the front camera nor the internal storage.
image caption
The smartphone, ChampOne C1, comes with a 5-inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with a 2GB RAM unit. It also comes with a fingerprint sensor. In terms of optics, the phone sports a eight-megapixel camera. There is no mention of the pixel size of the front camera nor the internal storage.

Do names of dubious smartphone companies such as Ringing Bells, Freedom 251, Namotel and Docoss set off an alert in your head? Then get ready to add another name to your list -- ChampOne.

Just like Ringing Bells, this company has made headlines as it claims that it will sell its ChampOne C1 smartphone priced at 7,999 at an unbelievable price of 501.

The smartphone, ChampOne C1, comes with a 5-inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with a 2GB RAM unit. It also comes with a fingerprint sensor. In terms of optics, the phone sports a eight-megapixel camera. There is no mention of the pixel size of the front camera nor the internal storage.

Sounds too good to be true? It just might be so as the company has still not revealed how it is offering the phone at such a low price. It also doesn't say how many units it will sell for that price which Ringing Bells did with the Freedom 251 and failed miserably. Maybe ChampOne took a lesson from Ringing Bells' failure. It might be an intoductory offer combined with a marketing scheme to draw more eyeballs.

Ringing Bells in mid-February this year planned to deliver 25 lakh handsets before June 30. Ringing Bells received mammoth over seven crore registrations before the payment gateway crashed. The company has only been able to deliver 2,229 smartphones yet.

The ChampOne website also looks shady. "Only existing customers are eligible for flash sale. Only cash on delivery," the website reads. But if this is a new company, there cannot be any existing customers.

Also, HT tried calling the numbers provided at the site for support. While one number was always busy, the other number was switched off. Déjà vu, just like Ringing Bells, their registration process has also crahsed.

"We are facing technical issue with our payment gateway partner [Ccavenue (Avenues India Pvt. Ltd.)]. You would not be able to register for the application for next 24 hours. We sincerely regret for your inconvenience and would try to get it fixed as soon as possible. Thank you for your support," the site informs.

Be that as it may, it also lists out the process of registering for the phone which sounds a little dubious. The company wants users to download its own cleaner app in order for people to get a code and use it for registering for the flash sale. Several reviews of the app on Google's Play Store sounded a fake and fraud alert. The app is not available in the Apple store yet but it might not be there as Apple has more stringent rules of testing apps.

The company's website also lists out other products, which it claims are coming soon, such as tablets and wearables. The company claims that it's tablet is going to sport a display of 9.6-inches, 1.3GHz quad-core processor along with 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory, five=megapixel rear and two-megapixel front camera. The watch is expected to come with SIM-card support, VGA camera, Bluetooth, Pedometer and heart-rate monitor.

Catch all the Latest Tech News, Mobile News, Laptop News, Gaming news, Wearables News , How To News, also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

First Published Date: 29 Aug, 17:51 IST
NEXT ARTICLE BEGINS