Obi Mobiles makes India debut with octa-core smartphone Octopus S520, available for Rs 11,990

Within days of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi making its debut in the Indian market with a range of low-cost devices, another contender has entered the already crowded smartphone market of the country. A venture of ex-Apple CEO John Scully's Inflexionpoint, Obi Mobiles has launched its flagship device Octopus S520 in the country.

As of now, it is exclusively available on Indian e-commerce major Snapdeal.com for Rs 11,990 (taking a cue from the Motorola-Flipkart deal are we?).

"This flagship device is an affirmation of our stated commitment to extend the best in class smartphone experience. From hardware specifications to the quality of accessories there are no compromises whatsoever, because we know our young customers conduct their lives around their smartphones," said Ajay Sharma, CEO, Obi Mobiles.

Obi Mobiles joins a long list of players eyeing for supremacy in the low and mid-price segment of the Indian smartphone market. Apart from home grown original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like Micromax and Karbonn, etc., the company will also face off against Chinese entrants like Gionee and Xiaomi.

As per reports doing the rounds, going forward, the company will also look to launch a smartphone running on the Firefox OS.

Here is a look at the specifications of the device.

The smartphone sports a 5 inch HD IPS touchscreen display (1280x720 pixels resolution) and runs on the latest Android KitKat 4.4.2 operating system. It is powered by a 1.7GHz octa-core processor MediaTek MT6592 processor and has 1GB of RAM. The internal memory of the device is 8GB that can be further expanded up to 32GB with a microSD card.

Octopus S520 has an 8 megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED Flash that can also record HD videos (720p) at 30 frames per second, and a 2MP front facing camera for video calling. On the connectivity front, it has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and 3G, as well as a microSD card slot and a microUSB port.

The dimensions of the device are 145mm x 75mm x 8.4mm but its weight has not been disclosed by the company. Obi Mobiles has provided a 1,800 mAh battery in the device that it claims will provide up to 4 hours of talk time and 180 hours of standby time. It comes with dual-SIM capability, FM radio and has GPS (with A-GPS support). It is available in a combination of white and silver colour.

In addition to the smartphone, the company is also offering a flip cover, a screen protector along with in-ear soft bud type stereo earphones with mic as a standard offering. For providing after sales support, the company claims to have set up a country wide network of over 95 service centres.

While Octopus S520 is one of the cheapest octa-core smartphones in the market as of now, its niche positioning won't last long, primarily because of the soon to be launched Xiaomi Redmi Note that will be available for as low as Rs 9,999.