Lava Mobiles, the domestic smartphone brand in India, has rolled out a new type of marketing offer for those who own a specific Realme smartphone. As part of the 'Desh Bhakti' offer, Lava Mobiles said those who register on the official Lava Mobiles website by January 7, 2022, can exchange the 'Realme 8s for free' with a Lava AGNI 5G handset.

The company tweeted the limited time deal to promote its Indian-made 5G smartphone.

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The tweet read "The wait is finally over! Your Realme 8s will be replaced for free with AGNI, India's first 5G smartphone. The deadline to register is January 7, 2022. T&C Use the hashtag #ChooseASide. The offer is valid till stock is available.

Lava Mobile urged buyers to “choose a side” saying Indians should only buy mobiles from Indian brands. "India is my homeland. My smartphone, on the other hand, is Chinese. In a tweet, Lava asked, "Is that the real me?" The AGNI 5G, as per the company Lava, is the country's first 5G-enabled handset.

The Lava AGNI 5G comes with a quad camera setup, an 8GB RAM and 6.78-inch Full HD+ display, as well as 128 GB of internal storage. The phone is powered by Android 11 operating system and has a 5,000mAh battery with fast charging capabilities. The phone is available for Rs 19,999 on Flipkart and Amazon.

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While Realme's parent company, BBK, is based in China, the company already manufactures phones in India at a shared facility in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Realme also exports its Made in India smartphones to countries such as Nepal. Almost all of the Chinese smartphone brands in India, not just Realme, have assembly plants in the country for local sales, employing thousands of people.

As soon as Lava Mobiles announced this offer on Twitter, social media users criticised the move saying Lava was merely using the ‘Proudly Indian’ tag to sell its products rather than focusing on the capabilities of Lava's smartphones.

"Let products speak for themselves," a smartphone user tweeted.

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(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Jan 4, 2022 5:37 PM IST