Airtel Karbonn 4G smartphone vs Reliance JioPhone: Price, data plans, terms and conditions

So, how does Airtel Karbonn A40 Indian fare against Reliance JioPhone? We compare specifications, terms and conditions, recharge offers, and more of the two phones.

Airtel and Karbonn have come together to announce an entry-level 4G smartphone called Karbonn A40 Indian. Priced effectively at Rs 1,399, users will have to pay Rs 2,899 upfront and will get the rest Rs 1,500 as cashback within a period of 36 months. Karbonn A40 Indian comes bundled with Airtel’s Rs 169 plan as well, which gives unlimited calling plus 0.5GB data per day for 28 days.

Karbonn A40 Indian competes closely with Reliance Jio JioPhone which is a 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phone. JioPhone is effectively priced at Rs 0. However, users will have to pay Rs 1,500 which is refundable after 36 months or three years given the JioPhone is returned. In case of Karbonn A40 Indian, users do not need to return the device.

So, how does Karbonn A40 Indian fare against Reliance JioPhone? We compare specifications, recharge offers, and more of the two phones:

Karbonn A40 Indian vs Reliance Jio: What’s the deal with effective pricing?

Karbonn A40 is effectively priced at Rs 1,399. However, people will need to pay Rs 2,899 to get the phone, and the company intends to return Rs 1,500 as cashback over a period of three years. There’s no need to return the phone after three years to get cash back.

Reliance Jio JioPhone’s effective cost is Rs 0. The company is asking people to pay Rs 1,000 at the time of booking and Rs 500 at the time of delivery, and the amount is refundable. However, the deal with JioPhone is that users will have to return the device after using it for three years to claim the refundable amount of Rs 1,500.

In order to get a full refund, JioPhone must be in a working condition and should be returned within three months of completion of three years.

Karbonn A40 Indian vs Reliance Jio: Recharge offers

With Karbonn A40 Indian, Airtel is giving people two options – to buy it bundled with Airtel’s Rs 169 plan or without it. People who choose to buy A40 Indian with the Airtel plan will have to recharge with Rs 169 per month consecutively for 36 months in order to get cash back. According to the company, people will get Rs 500 after 18 months and the rest Rs 1,000 after completion of three years.

Reliance Jio has listed a couple of data plans for JioPhone users, which includes a monthly Rs 153 recharge plan as well as sachet packs worth Rs 24 and Rs 54.

Now users who do not want Airtel’s Rs 169 plan along with the device will have to recharge worth Rs 3,000 within the first 18 months to get Rs 500, and worth the same amount within the next 18 months as well to get the rest (Rs 1,000). The cashback amount will be credit to user’s Airtel Payments Bank account.

For other handset users (apart from Karbonn A40 Indian), Airtel’s Rs 169 plan offers unlimited local and STD calls along with 0.5 GB data per day. Validity is 14 days.

Coming to Reliance Jio JioPhone, the most important thing to keep in mind with this one is it only works with a Reliance Jio SIM card. Karbonn A40 India, on the other hand, can work with SIM card from any telecom operator. Also, people who wish to return JioPhone before 36 months won’t get Rs 1,500 deposit back.

Reliance Jio has listed a couple of data plans for JioPhone users, which includes a monthly Rs 153 recharge plan as well as sachet packs worth Rs 24 and Rs 54. Jio’s Rs 153 plan offers 500MB data per day for 28 days (prepaid users), and until bill cycle for postpaid users. Unlimited voice calls and SMS is bundled as well.

It is important to note that people will have to recharge with a minimum of Rs 1,500 per year for three years in order to be eligible for the refund. In case, a user fails to do so, then Jio can take back the phone. If the phone is taken away before 36 months, then the company will also levy an ‘Early charges’ on security deposit. Assuming, a user is recharging with Rs 153 per month, the total amount adds up to Rs 1,836 per year which is in compliance of Jio’s terms and conditions.

Karbonn A40 Indian vs Reliance Jio: Specifications

Karbonn A40 Indian features a 4-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. Powered by 1.3 Ghz processor, the phone features 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM, which is expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. This is a dual SIM smartphone, available in four colour options – Blue, Coffee Brown, Black and Champagne. It runs Android 7.0 Nougat.

Karbonn A40 Indian gets a 2MP rear camera and 0.3MP front shooter. It measures 122.95 x 64.3 x 10.5 mm, and weighs 118 grams. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, Wi-fi 802.11 b/g/n, hotspot, and a micro USB port. It supports 4G connectivity, GPRS, and EDGE.

Karbonn A40 is effectively priced at Rs 1,399. However, people will need to pay Rs 2,899 to get the phone, and the company intends to return Rs 1,500 as cashback over a period of three years.

Reliance Jio JioPhone has a 2.4inch QVGA TFT screen with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. It runs Kai OS, which is a forked version of the Firefox OS. The feature phone is powered by a Dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz with 512MB RAM and 4GB ROM. The storage is expandable up to 128GB via a microSD card slot. This is a single SIM phone that supports a nano SIM card. There’s a 2MP rear camera, while the front shooter is 0.3MP.

Reliance Jio JioPhone packs a 2000 mAh Li-ion battery, claimed to offer up to 12 hours of talk time and up to 15 days of stand by time. In terms of connectivity, JioPhone supports Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 with BLE, GPS, a USB 2.0 port, and NFC. It can be bough in Black colour variant.

Karbonn A40 Indian vs Reliance Jio: Apps and other features

Karbonn A40 Indian ships with a host of apps from Airtel like MyAirtel, Airtel TV, and Wynk Music. Additionally, users can access all apps on the Google Play Store including YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

Reliance Jio JioPhone comes pre-loaded with Jio’s suite of apps like MyJio, JioMusic, JioTV, JioCinema, JioXpressNews etc. Users can download more apps from JioStore app. JioPhone doesn’t support social media apps like Facebook and WhatsApp as of now, but we can expect it soon.

Additionally, JioPhone gets company’s voice-assistant Hello Jio, which can be used to carry out specific tasks such as compose SMS, open app, etc using voice commands. These commands can be given in either Hindi or English. JioPhone can be connected to Smart TV using JioMediaCable (needs to be bought separately) to watch movies.

Both the smartphones support a total of 22 Indian languages which includes Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, and more.

Karbonn A40 Indian vs Reliance Jio: Availability

Karbonn A40 Indian smartphone is available via major retail stores across India.

In comparison, Reliance Jio is currently completing the deliveries of over six million units of JioPhone, post which pre-bookings will open for users. This means, people who did not order the phone on the first round will have to wait a little longer for the device. The company intends to complete the delivery process by Diwali, which is on October 19.