Poco, Airtel to Launch India’s Most Affordable 5G Smartphone Soon

Poco India Head, Himanshu Tandon has hinted at the arrival of a new budget 5G smartphone in the country. Tandon on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday (March 5) posted that Poco is extending its partnership with Airtel to launch a new handset. Poco released an Airtel-exclusive variant of the Poco C51 in July last year. It offers an Airtel Prepaid connection and includes exclusive benefits from Airtel. The handset runs on the MediaTek Helio G36 SoC and is backed by a 5,000mAh battery.

Himanshu Tandon teased Poco’s forthcoming handset as part of the partnership with Airtel. “Poco X Airtel’ another partnership! Coming soon!” he posted. It is claimed to be the most affordable 5G phone ever to be launched in India. While replying to comments on the posts, he said the upcoming smartphone will not be an “Airtel version” of an existing device, hinting at a new phone. However, when a user asked Tandon whether it would be the Airtel edition of Poco M6 5G, he replied “true”.

Poco launched the Poco C51 in April last year with a price tag of Rs. 8,499 for the sole 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant. The Airtel-exclusive version later debuted in July for Rs. 5,999. It comes bundled with an Airtel Prepaid connection and 50GB of one-time free mobile data.

The Poco C51 features a 6.52-inch HD+ (720×1,600 pixels) display with 120Hz touch sampling rate. It is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio G36 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM. The inbuilt RAM can be virtually expanded up to 7GB by using 3GB of unused storage.

It features a dual rear camera unit comprising a primary 8-megapixel primary sensor and a secondary depth sensor. The Poco C51 includes a 5-megapixel sensor at the front. It packs 64GB of onboard storage and is backed by a 5,000mAh battery.