A Pune-based, small yet seemingly ambitious company has said in a statement – “We are targeting sales of a million in a year…in the area of tablets PCs and smartphones, we have already invested $10 million and in the next one year, we plan to double the spend.” This is Byond Tech, a relatively new entrant in the expanding Indian consumer electronics sector.

Byond recently launched the B63 dual-SIM smartphone running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for Rs. 12,499, and before this, the 6-inch Phablet PIII priced at Rs. 14,999. These devices come with an 8-megapixel rear camera and 1GHz dual-core processor. After these big budget phones, they decided to change target to a lesser spending consumer and unveiled two more smartphones, the Byond B51 and B54.

With a not-so desirable Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread, you still get a several thousand apps to choose from in the Android market. Both the B51 and B54 have 1 GHz processors, with more or less the same specs. Although strictly not recommended for gaming or watching full HD videos, reading your favorite newspapers and ebooks on the phone should not be a problem. The presence of two SIM slots gives the user contact versatility and an FM Radio the local music flavor when outside and within transmission range of your favorite radio station. The 3MP rear camera is tacky and a tad primitive, but then, the phone itself is a low-price alternative. The B54, however, has a flashlight for capturing low-light images. The 1.3 MP front camera will enable decent quality video-calling and self-portraits. The B51 has an 89mm (3.5″) HVGA and the B54 has a 102 mm (4”) WVGA display unit, and these compact capacitive screens of both the phones will not have any difficulty fitting in your pocket. Both phones have external expansion support up to 32GB, and to give you a bit of a head start, the B54 comes with 4GB of preloaded content.  Plus they are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled and while the B51 features regional language support, the B54 has multi-language support. Quite tailor-made for the not-so-picky patriotic phone user.

Byond B51 key specifications

• 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touch display
• 1GHz processor
• 256MB RAM
• External expansion support upto 32GB
• 3-megapixel rear camera
• 1.3-megapixel front camera
• Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
• Dual-SIM
• 1,500mAh battery
• Android 2.3.6

Byond B54 key specifications

• 4-inch WVGA capacitive touch display
• 1GHz processor
• 256MB RAM
• 4GB of pre-installed content, external expansion support upto 32GB
• 3-megapixel rear camera
• 1.3-megapixel front camera
• Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
• Dual-SIM
• 1,500mAh battery
• Android 2.3.6

These phones will be competing with the likes of the Micromax Ninja phones and the more recently launched Intex Aqua Trendy, in terms of prices versus package.

“The company is targeting sales of more than 5 lakh tablets a year and a market share of close to 15 per cent to emerge as a leading player in the market.”  says a Byond representative, and their company (which has its own manufacturing base in Shenzhen, China) has the capacity to make 4 lakh mobile handsets and 1 lakh tablets every month, and they believe this productivity can effectively catapult its new devices into the heart of the affordable tablet market. Will that happen?

Abhiraami Kannan Iyer

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