What the initial reviews say about JioPhone
Reliance Jio's latest gamble, the JioPhone, is one step closer to facing the ultimate litmus test.
With the deliveries of the phone already started, and the six million users who pre-booked the phone looking forward to a new "smart feature phone" before Diwali (October 19), it will not be long before we know for sure if this "essentially free" device will indeed have the sort of impact that Mukesh Ambani and Co have predicted.
The JioPhone with its smartphone-like features and a refundable price tag of Rs 1,500 has been eagerly awaited by analysts too, and with some finally getting their hands on it, it's probably a good time to take a look at what the initial reviews have been for this phone, which can very easily change the face of the telecom sector in the coming weeks in India.
Meets its promises
To kick things off is a report from IndiaToday Tech which explains how the phone lives up to the promises made during its launch event on July 21. Appearing fairly satisfied with the initial interactions with the JioPhone, its author says, "Overall, I have liked the JioPhone so far. I like what I see. I like what Jio has done with it, and the way it has conceptualised the JioPhone. Free VolTE calls with the JioPhone is going to woo a lot of consumers to Jio.
The fact that the JIoPhone is effectively free is also going to help the phone a lot. And then there are the services bundled with it. The JioTV app. The music streaming. All of it works well enough due to the high-speed connection. Sure, the screen is small and if you have watched movies on the Samsung Galaxy Note, you are not going to relish the JioPhone screen.
But then it is not for people who carry around a Note in their pockets. It is for feature phones users. The fact that the JioPhone does everything it promises to do is enough to make it a hit. The only question that I have now is whether it can do what it does day after day, month after month. My first impression of the JioPhone is very positive. Anything else depends on how the phone will hold up to day-to-day use in the coming weeks."
Loaded with goodies and high-speed internet, at lowest of prices
This report published in the Hindustan Times talks about how the JioPhone is a device that unlike the Freedom 251 is not just a gimmick, but something that's "real and makes sense". Elaborating further on the phone, the reviewer says, "At first glance, you could mistake JioPhone for any other feature phone available in the market. It has a standard candybar design and features an alphanumeric keypad and a four-way navigation trackpad at the centre... But if you’re able to move past the elementary design and feature phone-like specifications, the JioPhone has a lot to offer."
The report also takes a favourable view of the JioPhone and describes it as a device that is "a major upgrade over the 2G feature phones they’ve been using over the years", while also adding that the JiPhone does what it promises as it enables the consumer in a small town to "get access to high-speed internet, free voice calls at a price much lesser than a smartphone".
Smart feature phone that works
NDTV's Gadgets 360, in its first impressions of the JioPhone, describes it as a device that "feels completely different from the sea of phones available in the market". Talking about the build quality of the phone, the report adds that it feels well-built, considering its price, as the "quality of plastic used is good and the rubber buttons offer good clicky feedback".
Elaborating on the features and functionality of the phone, the report adds "basic functionality like calling is super-fast and the phone could place a call very quickly on the Jio VoLTE network... We tried to stream music using the JioMusic app and it worked perfectly. We also tried JioCinema and JioTV, and found that streaming over 4G was pretty smooth".
Maximum bang for the bucks
"The JioPhone is absolutely amazing out-of-the-box and provides the maximum bang for the bucks spent" is how News18 initial review of the phone describes their interaction with the JioPhone. Although it has an overall favourable view of the device, the author does point out that the phone's not perfect and lacks when it comes to the display.
"Given the value position of the JioPhone, there is nothing you could really complain. Having said that, if only the display quality of the JioPhone was slightly better to match the entire Jio experience. The current JioPhone offers poor viewing angles on the display front and under bright sunlight the device could be a bit difficult to use."
What do we have to say?
At DailyO, we have pieces that agree that the phone is a great value for money proposition. The phone brings with it some great features – 4G VoLTE, support for 22 Indian languages, Live TV streaming, NFC technology and even a voice assistant that appears to be baked right into the OS – that even until six months ago would not even have been dreamt of on a device matching the price point of the JioPhone.
Having said that, it's not the perfect phone and comes with its fair share of flaws, some that even its ridiculously low price tag cannot hide. For starters, the phone's use of Firefox's KaiOS renders it incapable of using WhatsApp and Facebook that are not currently available on the platform.
Secondly, the phone's hardware, though great for the price, does feel inadequate for the tasks that the JioPhone is tasked with. Even though initial reactions suggest that the phone's Spreadtrum/Qualcomm-based SoC handles make streaming and video playback fairly well, but questions remain over the experience on a 2.4-inch QVGA display.
Then there's also the increased competition in the market. In isolation, the JioPhone is great for its price, but with a number of Android-based devices launching around the Rs 2,000-mark in the coming months, it begs the question if the JioPhone has already been made to look second best in a market segment that it helped carve out two months ago.