Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio disrupted the Indian telecom sector with its entry last year by first offering its services for free to the customers, and then offering them at rates which were deemed “predatory” by the incumbents. Later in July this year, Reliance Jio surprised everyone again with the launch of JioPhone. While other telecom operators were already catching up with Jio’s affordable plans, they are also planning to counter the JioPhone by launching their own 4G phone. And, Airtel, who is one of those operators, is now reported to launch its 4G smartphone in India in the first week of next month.
According to the information received by 91Mobiles from “trusted sources”, Airtel will launch its 4G smartphone in India before Diwali. Well, in the first week of October to be precise. Past reports have suggested that this Airtel 4G smartphone would be priced at ₹2500, however, according to the latest information, it will be priced below ₹2000.
Also, it’s worth noting that while the JioPhone is a feature phone, Airtel’s phone will instead be a 4G smartphone and will come with better specifications which should attract more customers as opposed to JioPhone. However, specs alone may not be enough as it also boils down to how attractive and affordable plans Airtel comes up with for its 4G smartphone. The ones offered by Reliance Jio for JioPhone start from as low as ₹153/month with free voice calls.
Having said that, the source who tipped pricing and launch details of Airtel’s 4G smartphone to 91Mobiles has also confirmed the rumored specs of this smartphone. According to past rumors, the Airtel 4G smartphone will come with a 4-inch display, have quad-core processor which would be paired with 1 GB RAM, and most importantly, it will will run Android 7.0 Nougat which would give more freedom to users over downloading apps. This also means that Airtel 4G smartphone users will be able to use WhatsApp which currently isn’t available on JioPhone.
Airtel 4G smartphone specifications [Expected]
- CPU: Quad-core processor
- RAM: 1 GB
- Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat (Android Go)
- Display: 4-inch
- Camera: Front and Back
- SIM: Dual SIM
- Other: 4G VoLTE
- Battery: Between 1400 and 1600 mAh
Well, going by these specs, the Airtel 4G smartphone sure looks like an attractive buy for under ₹2000. However, like we said, it also depends on how much attractive plans does Airtel bundle along with this smartphone.
If launched for under ₹2000 with aforementioned specs, would you prefer buying the Airtel 4G smartphone? Or would you rather go for JioPhone? Do share your thoughts in the comments down below.
