The home-based brand Micromax has indeed joined hands with BSNL to be able to launch 4G LTE (VoLTE) that would enable the feature phone to be dubbed as the Bharat 1. The new Bharat 1 from the Micromax as well as BSNL has given a call to contest against Jio that has actually stirred the feature phone segment with the launching of the effectively free JioPhone.
Features of Micromax Bharat 1 Mobile
The Micromax Bharat 1 is priced at Rs 2,200 and comes along with a BSNL’s Rs 97/month unlimited voice and data plan along with support for net banking, 22 Indian languages, a suite of entertainment apps and a BHIM app.
Unlike the JioPhone, the Micromax Bharat 1 is not considered to be a carrier-dependent device which implies that it can be made use of the help of any SIM card, even a Jio 4G SIM card would do and not just with the help of a BSNL SIM.
The phone will be now available for buying from October 20 across the physical retail stores.
No doubt, both the companies do promotions of their products in very distinctive ways, and the similarities between the two 4G feature phones cannot be actually ignored. Airtel is in partnership with the Karbonn and has also launched the Karbonn A40 Indian which is, in fact, a full-scale smartphone that is running on Android Nougat and is powered by a 1.3GHz processor. Basically, the budget phone segment in India is currently seeing a clash of interest among these three phones, and each of them is coming up with several alluring offerings. The question that arises is which one is better? Whether Airtel, Jio, and BSNL offer with their respective phones? Should one get the JioPhone or the Bharat 1 or the Airtel A40?
JioPhone vis-à-vis V Bharat 1: Price
Jio claims that the JioPhone is effectively free of cost. A buyer has to pay up Rs 1,500 as the security deposit for the JioPhone which will be actually refunded after 36 months of usage. This will make the effective cost of the JioPhone as 0. If one returns the JioPhone within the first 12 months, Jio will not be able to refund one any money. If the phone is returned between a span of 12-24 months, one will get Rs 500 and it is Rs 1,000 in case if it is returned within 24-36 months time period. For a full refund of Rs 1,500, one as to make use of the phone for 36 months.
Micromax at the launch of Bharat 1 explained the calculation where it is also compared to the price of the with the JioPhone.
- Micromax Bharat 1 price- Rs 2,200
- BSNL recharge every month- Rs 97
- Rs 2200+ Rs 97X12 months = Rs 3,364
The total cost of Bharat 1 for 1 year is about Rs 3,364 while the JioPhone does add up to Rs 3,336. After 2 years, the cost of Bharat 1 would be about Rs 4,528 whereas the JioPhone’s cost would be Rs 5,172. And, finally, after about 3 years, the cost of ownership for Bharat 1 would be Rs 5,692, while it would be costing about Rs 5,508 for the JioPhone.
