Indian startup Smartron unveils its next smartphone, the srt.phone

In a press event in New Delhi, Smartron, an Indian startup aiming to build a product ecosystem in the country, announced the launch of srt.phone, following on its first Android smartphone – t.phone – launched in May last year.

The phone is by Sachin Tendulkar, one of the country’s most revered cricketers, and hence the name. Tendulkar is a strategic investor in the company and a brand ambassador for the same.

Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, the srt.phone looks pretty good on the specifications sheet. The smartphone runs on Android N and the company promises 3 major Android updates with with regular security updates, along with an ‘almost native’ Android experience. It packs in dual LTE SIM slots with VoLTE support, and there’s NFC built-in too.

Like the t.phone (and the company’s Windows 10 convertible – t.book), the smartphone comes equipped with tronx, the company’s service ecosystem. tronx aims to transcend the boundaries between different devices and the cloud, and bundles tcloud, tcare, and tstore. The phone offers unlimited cloud storage on tcloud which is a pretty neat deal.

Smartron srt.phone Specifications

• Operating System: Android 7.1.1 Nougat
• Processor: 1.8 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 | Adreno 510 GPU
• Display: 5.5-inch Full HD (1080 x 1920) IPS | 401 ppi | Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• RAM: 4 GB LPDDR3
• Internal Storage: 32 GB or 64 GB; unlimited tcloud storage
• Rear Camera: 13 MP | Auto focus with PDAF | Single LED flash | F2.0
• Front Camera: 5 MP | Wide angle
• Battery: 3,000 mAh | Quick Charge 2.0 | 18W adapter (5V/2A and 9V/2A)

Unlike other domestic OEMs targeting the budget smartphone market, Smartron aims to deliver a high-end, convergent product ecosystem including IoT devices as well as computers and smartphones which are designed and engineered in India.

Smartron was founded with a vision to build India’s first true global technology OEM brand that is designed and engineered in India for India and the world and that can disrupt the current trend of Indian market flooded by cheap Chinese brands. All our products are conceptualized to take technological innovation a notch above to compete with other brands globally and the srtphone is no different. It is a phone made for the future with Mastery at the Core. Sachin is the inspiration behind the srtphone. The srtphone is a gift from Sachin to his fans, hence, we made sure we have the best possible features to resemble his characteristics.

– Mahesh Lingareddy, Founder & Chairman, Smartron India

Available exclusively on Flipkart, the 32 GB storage variant of the srt.phone is priced at ₹12,999 ($203) while the 64 GB variant is priced at ₹13,999 ($219). There are also two limited edition Sachin Tendulkar covers available as part of the launch offer on Flipkart.

What are your thoughts on the srt.phone? It’s a very capable phone and the pricing is just right. I quite liked the t.phone launched last year and while it did a lot of things right, there were few misses here and there. What do you think? Tell us in the comments!