The Penta Smart PS650 features a large 6.5-inch display, which is the biggest seen on a smartphone in India. It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and supports single SIM (micro-SIM). It is powered by 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex A7 processor with Mali 400MP GPU. The Penta Smart PS650 sports a 2-megapixel rear camera and also includes a VGA front-facing camera. It comes with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of inbuilt storage. The phablet packs a 2500mAh battery with standby time of up to 100 hours. BSNL is offering 3GB of 3G data and 300 minutes of talktime free on BSNL network.

The Penta Smart PS501 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box and is a dual-SIM device with support for GSM+GSM. It features a 5-inch display with a resolution of 480x854 pixels. It is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex A7 processor alongside 512MB of RAM. The Penta Smart PS501 sports a 5-megapixel rear camera and also includes a VGA front-facing camera. It comes with 4GB of inbuilt storage that can be expanded up to 32GB with microSD card. It packs a 1800mAh battery.

BSNL is offering a pre-bundled pack for both the Penta Smart PS650 and Penta Smart PS501 Android smartphones of 1200 minutes free talktime on the BSNL network.

Penta also launched its T-Pad WS707C tablet with updated OS and lower price. The company announced the tablet in February.

Commenting on the launch, R K Upadhyay, BSNL CMD said, "We are delighted to offer latest technology products in a reverse data bundling marketing alliance with Pantel Technologies. Products like the Penta Bharat Phone will now offer the Indian consumer the power of Internet access at an affordable price. Likewise, with the highly affordable 3G Penta Smart device, the PS650, BSNL can now look forward to offering its world-class 3G data services to a wide cross section of Indian society."

Penta Bharat Phone key specifications

Penta Smart PS650 key specifications

Penta Smart PS501 key specifications

Nokia was recently rumoured to be working on a smartphone dubbed Moneypenny, supposedly among the first devices to run Windows Phone Blue, aka Windows Phone 8.1. Now, a new rumour suggests that the Finnish major is also planning to release a dual-SIM variant of the Moneypenny smartphone.

Phone tipster @evleaks said on Twitter, "Nokia planning a dual-SIM version of Windows Phone Blue-powered Moneypenny." The tweet hints that Nokia might release two variants of the alleged Moneypenny smartphone targeted at different markets.

Earlier this month, a report revealed that two Nokia smartphones, codenamed Goldfinger and Moneypenny, would be the first smartphones to run Windows Phone Blue. Interestingly, both the alleged Nokia Goldfinger and Moneypenny smartphones codenames are linked to the James Bond movies.

In addition, the report claimed that out of the two Nokia phones, Goldfinger was the higher-end device. The report also suggested that the rumoured Goldfinger smartphone would feature Nokia's '3D Touch' technology, which would let users navigate the touchscreen interface without actually touching the display, while other gestures under consideration included flipping and scrolling. The report also speculated that Microsoft might reveal the Windows Phone 8.1 update at MWC 2014.

Earlier this week, the alleged Nokia Normandy and an unnamed Asha device were purportedly leaked in renders. The leaked render revealed the phone codenamed Normandy in Red, and showed the device's front and rear panel in full glory. The leaked render suggested that Nokia might be gearing up to bring the Lumia design to Asha phones with the alleged Nokia Normandy. While the second leaked render showed a completely revamped Asha full-touch phone that didn't bear any codename.

Prior to this, a leak claimed that a dual-SIM variant of the Nokia Lumia 720 is in the works.

For its upcoming mid-range smartphones, HTC will be using chipsets from players other than its long-time partner, Qualcomm, to counter competition from affordable handset manufacturers, as confirmed by a company executive.

Focus Taiwan has cited Jack Tong, HTC's head of China and North Asia, who shed some light on the company's plans for its upcoming mid-range smartphones.

According to Tong, the Taiwanese handset maker will start pricing its high-end smartphones at a more affordable level. Coming to the company's mid-range smartphones, Tong revealed that the three mid-range Desire smartphones the company launched on Wednesday, are using chips from ST-Ericsson, Spreadtrum and Broadcom, instead of Qualcomm.

Specifically, the HTC Desire 501 is powered by ST-Ericsson's U8520 dual-core processor, the Desire 601 dual-SIM is powered by Broadcom's Java quad-core processor, and the Desire 700 dual-SIM is powered by Spreadtrum's Shark quad-core processor.

"HTC will evaluate the situation. If most players in the industry are seeking high performance to cost, then we would not be able to ignore such a trend despite good design and applications," Tong told Focus Taiwan.

A recent report revealed that the Taiwanese smartphone maker would slash costs of its devices by nearly a quarter, and plans to sell cheaper devices in a bid to bounce back to profit in the October-December period.

Samsung seems all set to release a new affordable smartphone, the Galaxy S Duos 2, the successor to the Galaxy S Duos in India. The rumoured Galaxy S Duos 2 has been leaked in full via leaked images, prices and specifications.

Hungarian Tech 2 site has published some images of what is being called the Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2, revealing the handset in its full glory. As per the leaked images, the dual-SIM Galaxy S Duos 2 will come with identical design as seen in the original Galaxy S Duos.

Further, the site has leaked some specifications of the Galaxy S Duos 2, which include a 4-inch display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels; a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (with no word on the chipset); 5-megapixel rear camera; expandable storage support (microSD card), and 1500mAh battery. The site claims that the Galaxy S Duos will run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The site has also leaked a promotional material of the Galaxy S Duos 2 which shows that the smartphone would feature Multi-Window feature, generally seen on premium smartphones and tablets.

In addition, a Twitter user named Manish Khatri, who is a retailer in Mumbai, has posted the price of Galaxy S Duos 2 on Twitter. Khatri writes, "#Samsung New launch: Galaxy S Duos 2: MRP Rs. 11,230 Best buy price Rs. 10990/-(stocks in few days)." The tweet clearly suggests that the smartphone would be launched in India soon, however does not mention the exact price of the smartphone. The tweet was first spotted by Android OS blog.

Samsung launched the Galaxy S Duos in India in September 2012 at a price of Rs. 17,900.

Earlier this week, Samsung announced the successor to the Galaxy Grand, the Galaxy Grand 2. The South Korean handset maker did not reveal the price for Galaxy Grand 2 and did not announce the availability details for the smartphone.

A team of ex-Nokia engineers is launching a smartphone based on the former world No. 1 cellphone maker's old software, hoping to grab a share of a highly competitive market.

"The launch does not mark the end to product development, it goes on in cooperation with the consumers," Jolla CEO Tomi Pienimaki said.

The Jolla handset's Sailfish operating platform is based on MeeGo software, which Nokia abandoned in 2011 when it switched over to using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows system. Earlier, Jolla had announced that its Sailfish smartphone operating system was compatible with Android's application and hardware compatibility.

Jolla bears a 4.5-inch Estrade (540x960 pixels) display, and is powered by a 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. It features an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera alongside an LED flash, while there is a 2-megapixel front-facing camera as well.

Other specifications of the Jolla smartphone include 16GB inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (no maximum capacity mentioned), and a 2100mAh battery. It is also compatible with roughly 85,000 Android apps, and supports fast 4G Internet connections.

The Jolla smartphone will sport It also features changeable smart covers, and includes Nokia's HERE maps covering 180 countries.

It will first launch in Finland on Wednesday and then in 135 other countries.

Since May 2013, the first batch of Jolla phones were completely pre-booked by consumers from Finland as well as from many other countries in Europe and Asia.

Jolla was founded in 2011 after Nokia laid off thousands of workers as it lost market share to rivals. It has over 90 employees in Finland and Hong Kong.