iBall has got around to launching two Android phones in its Andi lineup called the 2G Velvet and 3G Gem, with the Andi 2G Velvet having hit availability status at a best buy price of Rs 4449. On the other hand, the Andi 3G Gem is priced at Rs 4999. If you refer to the 2G and 3G clue in their names, that’s mostly what sets apart these two smartphones from each other since there’s little to differentiate one from another based on their specifications.
The Velvet and Gem each have a 4-inch IPS 800 x 480p resolution touchscreen spread across the front. They run with the help of dual core 1.3GHz Cortex A7 processors and assisting in the various tasks you decide to put the phone through is a predictably measly 256MB of RAM. Each comes with has 2GB onboard memory, almost half of which 1GB is taken up by the Android OS and applications.
But don’t worry about falling short of space as iBall has slid in a microSD card slot for expanding the storage by up to 32GB. The Velvet and Gem handsets have 5MP cameras with LED flash units stuck to their rear panels. Users can also avail of front-facing cameras which is most likely to be a VGA ones. Unfortunately, the smartphones run on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean only. The usual connectivity options such as GPS with AGPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are available, of course.
The Velvet can support 2G networks, while the Gem will play along with 3G too, and they’re both dual SIM dual standby devices. The Andi 2G Velvet and 3G Gem are powered by 1300mAh batteries and are bundled with special UI themes. They’re very nondescript in terms of appearance, something that most people on the hunt for budget phones are likely to expect in the first place.
Early this month, the homegrown company had announced the IPS Tiger priced at Rs 6599 and also working on the Jelly Bean OS in spite of the fact that it’s been raining cheap KitKat devices lately. Some of its key features include a 4-inch screen, quad core processor and 5MP main camera.