With Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announcing the launch of an affordable ‘intelligent’ JioPhone, industry analysts have given thumbs up to the move. In addition they said this will bring a new era of innovation for the feature phone market in the country.
As the smartphone industry is going through a massive revolution, the feature phone market has not seen many innovations while internet connectivity grew from 2G to 4G. To protect against misuse, customers have to pay a fully refundable Rs 1,500 security deposit while taking a JioPhone.
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JioPhone release date and other availability details
- The phone will be available from August 15 for testing, in beta.
- It will be up for pre-booking from August 24 from the MyJio app and Jio offline stores.
- Users who pre-book will be able to buy the phone from September, on a first come first serve basis.
- It will come with a couple of different data packs.
JioPhone plans
- Users can either pay Rs. 153 per month, for which they will get free voice and SMS, and unlimited data (high-speed data FUP is 500MB per day), along with Jio apps.
- They can also choose to pay Rs. 309 per month to get all this, plus the support for mirroring your screen on a TV, via a cable that can even be plugged into CRT TVs.
- After three years, you can return the phone, and get a full refund on the deposit.
- Aside from that, the company will also have two sachet packs, at Rs. 24 for two days, or Rs. 54 per week.
- This will be for users who don’t want to commit to Rs. 153 as an upfront payment.
JioPhone features and specifications
- The JioPhone was introduced by Akash and Isha Ambani.
- They revealed the phone’s support voice commands, along with standard feature phone functionality.
- Isha Ambani said that the phone looks familiar by design, to ensure that it is easy to use.
- The phone comes with a number of apps and browser installed aside from Jio’s offerings too.
- On stage, some glimpses of the JioPhone browser, Facebook, and also PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat broadcast were seen.
- The company will also be adding NFC support to the JioPhone to allow tap and pay solutions with a linked bank account.
- This will also support UPI payments, and debit and credit card payments, similar to Samsung Pay.
- The phone will have a 2.4-inch display, panic button, expandable storage, and FM radio, among other features.
- Furthermore it will have dual SIM functionality, 2-megapixel rear camera, VGA front camera, FM radio, and Bluetooth connectivity.
- The JioPhone has also been tipped to come with a 4GB of internal storage, and 512MB of RAM.
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