Reliance JioPhone First Impressions: The 4G VoLTE Feature Phone Unlike Any Other

Technology

Reliance JioPhone with 4G VoLTE capabilities is a feature phone unlike any other in the market. This is supposed to be a big disruptor for India, which could ensure that even feature phone users in the country come on the 4G VoLTE network. For Reliance Jio, the Jio Phone is a necessity, after all their entire network is based on 4G VoLTE. There’s no 2G or 3G like other players. In order to get the feature phone user base, which is still a large majority of users in India, the JioPhone is needed.

We had a chance to see the Reliance JioPhone in action. Now officially deliveries have started for this device and it looks like the focus is on the rural areas, with urban areas and metros being second in the list. This makes sense given the feature phone base is larger in these areas. Also Reliance Jio has not resumed pre-bookings for the Jio Phone and there’s no word on when this will happen.

Here’s what we learnt about the JioPhone and what it offers to users. Now JioPhone is supposed to be free. However, the phone can be purchased with a refundable security deposit of Rs 1500 which will be returned after three years, provided the user hands over the JioPhone, which will have to be in a working condition.

First, the JioPhone will also come with a pre-loaded Jio SIM and users will have to get a Rs 153 recharge when they first buy the feature phone. Again Aadhaar data or eKYC will be needed to verify and activate this feature phone. JioPhone users who get this recharge will get unlimited voice calls, video calls, SMS and 1GB data per day. Initially Jio had said the plan would be limited to 500 MB data per day, but as we saw with the Reliance JioPhone unit that was shown to us, the limit now stands at 1GB per day.

Users can’t put in another network’s SIM on this JioPhone. However, if you have an earlier Jio SIM that can be used on the feature phone. JioPhone comes with a dedicated battery, which has to be inserted in the device, a charger in the box, a SIM inside the phone and there’s also a dedicated microSD slot.

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Source: indianexpress