Olive Unveil the OliveSmart V-S300: India's First Android Gingerbread Phone

The day has finally come - Olive have announced the release of the OliveSmart V-S300, India’s first 3G HSPA+ phone and more importantly, India’s first smartphone that will be powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread. We’d been thinking about Gingerbread ever since we’d caught wind of Olive launching a smartphone, but we’re elated it has now come true.

Smart Move, Olive

The OliveSmart V-S300 will be powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 CPU and an Adreno 205 GPU – which makes it identical to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (the PlayStation Phone), so you know it’s pretty powerful. Not as powerful as the Tegra 2 powered phones, but it’s powerful nevertheless. Other features include a 4.1-inch multi-touch capacitive touchscreen at 480x800, 3G and HSPA+ connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, a 5 Megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, 1400mAh battery and memory expandable to 32GB. Apart from this, the phone will also support 720p video playback and recording, noise cancellation with the help of two microphones, will have an HDMI port, etc. Check out the full list of specs below.

• 3G HSPA+ 900 / 1900 / 2100

• GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

• 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 processor

• Adreno 205 GPU

• Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)

• 122 x 66 x 9.9 mm in size

• 4.1-inch, 480 x 800 WVGA display

• Supports 720p HD video

• 5MP+ VGA (Front camera), with 720p video recording

• LCD capacitive touch screen with Multi-touch interface

• Accelerometer sensor, Proximity sensor

• Fluence noise cancellation

• Dual microphone for advanced echo & noise cancellation

• 3.5 mm headset jack

• 2GB Storage Memory + 512 MB RAM + microSD, up to 32GB

• BT/GPRS/EDGE/Wi-Fi/HSPA+14.4 Mbps;

• SMS, MMS, E-Mail, Push Mail, IM

• GPS, Digital compass, Google Maps, MapMyIndia

• Music Player, MP3 ringtones

• HDMI Type D Port

• DLNA for remote playback of HD content and Live TV

“We are pleased to introduce a breakthrough convergence device which is more than a conventional smartphone and offers cutting edge services that will appeal to generation-Y. This device promises to be a game-changer with its rich looks and advanced features like 3G HSPA+, Android Gingerbread, Adobe Flash (10.1), DLNA, HD video and surround sound,” said Arun Khanna, Olive Telecom Chairman, commenting on the launch.

The OliveSmart V-S300 is being launched in association with Aircel and will be priced under Rs. 20,000 i.e. Rs. 19,999 While this honestly sounds too good to be true, we certainly hope it is, because this will spark a downward trend in smartphone prices. Either way, we’re just glad we’re getting our hands on Gingerbread.

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