EE produces a 4G smartphone, just £49 on PAYG

An Indian electronics company has launched a smartphone that only costs 251 rupees - or around £2.60.

The Freedom 251, manufactured by Ringing Bells, launches on 18 February and will bring a "revolution to the industry," a company spokeswoman told AFP.

Considering it costs about as much as a cup of coffee, the 251 boasts some fairly decent specs - it runs the Android Lollipop 5.1 operating system, and is powered by a 1.3 GHz quadcore processor.

It also has a 4-inch screen, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal memory (expandable to 32 GB) and a 3.2 megapixel front camera.

Freedom 251 owners will have access to all the apps on the Google Play Store, although some of them might push the phone to its limits.

The 251 also comes with a number of pre-installed programs like farming and fishing apps, which are designed to suit the phone's target market.

The Ringing Bells spokeswoman told AFP that the phone was assembled in India with parts produced overseas - however, the company reportedly intends to manufacture its devices entirely in India within a year.