Reliance JioPhone 2 vs Micromax Bharat 1: Price, specifications compared

Reliance Jio earlier this week introduced a newer version of its popular smart feature phone, JioPhone. The latest variant, conveniently called JioPhone 2, comes with a horizontal display, VoWi-Fi, and support for popular apps like Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp. Priced at ₹2,999, the smartphone is scheduled to go on sale in India from August 15.

Reliance JioPhone is credited with creating a new mobile phone segment for entry-level feature phones with smart features such as LTE support, internet browsing and multimedia streaming among others. For instance JioPhone can run Google's voice-based assistant, Google Assistant.

Reliance JioPhone 2 will have a limited competition from a handful of non-Jio smart feature phones. With JioPhone 2 officially announced, rivals are expected to launch more smart feature phones in the future. For now, we can take a look at the Micromax Bharat 1 smart feature phone which launched in October, last year.

JioPhone 2 vs Bharat 1: Price
Micromax's Bharat 1 was officially launched for ₹2,200 in partnership with BSNL to bundle a ₹97 monthly-plan that included free unlimited voice calls and data. The smart feature phone is available online for as low as ₹1,999.

Reliance JioPhone 2 is priced at ₹2,999. The operator hasn't announced any bundled data plan with the new phone. It's highly likely the company will introduce a plan similar to JioPhone's where customers can buy the phone at a smaller sum or a refundable scheme.

JioPhone 2 vs Bharat 1: Design
As pointed out by various users online, JioPhone 2 looks very similar to older BlackBerry phones with a QWERTY keypad and a four-way navigation pad. The screen appears to be wider as it's now horizontal. At the centre of the navigation pad is the button to trigger the voice browser, which is most likely powered by Google's Assistant. There are shortcuts to Jio Money and other Jio applications.

Micromax Bharat 1 comes in the traditional candy form with an alphanumeric keypad and a four-way navigation button at the front. It has a removable back panel that houses a detachable battery, slots for dual SIMs and microSD memory card.

JioPhone 2 vs Bharat 1: Camera
JioPhone 2 comes with a 2-megapixel rear camera and VGA front-facing camera as in Micromax Bharat 1.

JioPhone 2 vs Bharat 1: Specifications
Reliance JioPhone 2 runs on KaiOS. There's no word on the processor as yet. The phone features a 2.4-inch display and comes with 512MB RAM and 4GB of ROM. The smartphone supports SD card for expandable storage up to 128GB.

Micromax's Bharat 1 runs on KaiOS as well and is powered by Qualcomm 205 processor. It has 512MB RAM and 4GB built-in storage (32GB expandable).

Both JioPhone 2 and Micromax Bharat 1 are powered by a 2,000mAh battery.

JioPhone 2 vs Bharat 1: Connectivity
Reliance JioPhone 2 comes with a few advanced connectivity options such as NFC, LTE, VoLTE, VoWi-Fi, dual SIM, GPS and Bluetooth. It also has superior LTE connectivity as it uses Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS).

Micromax Bharat 1 comes with lesser options and has Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot,dual SIM, dual 4G, VoLTE, and Bluetooth.