Bharti Airtel launches 4G smartphone priced at Rs 1,399; operates on Android Nougat

Bharti Airtel launches its counter to Reliance JioPhone in the form of a smartphone called Karbonn A40 Indian which is effectively priced at Rs 1,399. Airtel is however, upping the game by launching a 4G smartphone instead of just a 4G feature phone. Similar to the JioPhone, the price tag of Rs 1,399 is the effective price. To purchase the device in the first place, the user will have to pay a total sum of Rs 2,899.

Airtel has paired with Indian smartphone manufacturer, Karbonn to launch this device and provides bundled Airtel offers along with it. The buyer will initially have to pay a sum of Rs 2,899 to purchase the phone. Subsequently, the owner will have to make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169.

If the user continues to do the recharge for a period of 18 months, they'll get a refund of Rs 500. If the user manages to continue recharging the device for 36 months, they'll get an additional sum of Rs 1,000. This takes the total to Rs 1,500 and takes the device's effective price down from Rs 2,899 to Rs 1,399.

Users can also go for other recharges if the Rs 169 pack does not fit their requirements. However, they'll have to a recharge their device with a minimum of Rs 3,000 in the first 18 months to claim the refund. To claim the rest of the Rs 1,000 the user will have to do a minimum recharge of Rs 3,000 for the period of next 18 months.

"As the market leader and pioneer of 4G services in India, Airtel's aspiration is to digitally empower every Indian with high speed data access. We are delighted to partner with Karbonn to remove barriers to smartphone adoption and enable millions of Indians to leapfrog to a full touchscreen smartphone experience. We plan to partner with multiple manufacturers to bring affordable smartphone options to the market and build an 'open ecosystem' of low cost devices. This is yet another step in our ongoing journey to deeply understand customers and bring innovation that delights them," Raj Pudipeddi, director, Consumer Business & CMO, Bharti Airtel said.

Unlike the JioPhone, consumers who purchase the device will remain in possession of the smartphone even if they fail to recharge the device. The company claims that it takes Rs 3,499 to build the new Indian Karbonn A40 Indian. The device features a 4-inch display with a processor clocked at 1.3GHz. The processor is supported by 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.

The device even comes with a 2Megapixel primary camera and a 0.3Megapixel camera of the front panel. The device can connect to WiFi and has both Bluetooth and GPS. The device extracts power from a 1,400mAh battery. The device also features a MicroSD card slot which can handle cards of up to 32GB. The Karbonn A40 Indian runs on Android Nougat and also has a dual-SIM slot.