UPDATE (October 25th, 2021):

It is finally official that the much-awaited JioPhone Next will launch on November 4th. The phone was originally set to arrive in September but the release got delayed due to chip shortage issues. It is a phone aimed at delivering many of the modern smartphone features at a budget price. It is expected to ship with Android 11 (Go edition) which is what makes it different from the previous offerings.

Original (September 10th, 2021)

JioPhone Next affordable 4G smartphone that was meant to launch this month will now launch during the Diwali festival in India. The exact launch date is still unknown but you expect it to launch sometime at the end of October. The prime reason for this delay is said to be the semiconductor shortage.

Jio has reportedly said the following in a statement,

Both companies (Google and Jio) have begun testing the Jio Phone Next with a limited set of users for further refinement are actively working to make it available ore widely in time for the Diwali festival season. This additional time will also help mitigate the current industry-wide, global semiconductor shortages.

It should be noted that the global chip shortage has caused a lot of disruption in the supply chain of not only smartphones but also automobiles, PCs, and other segments. So, a little pause in the launch of the devices is inevitable.

Coming back to the JioPhone Next phone, almost everything is exposed about it already. It is expected to be a sub-$50 smartphone. It may feature a 5.5-inch HD display and a low-end chipset from Qualcomm- Snapdragon 215 processor with up to 3GB RAM, up to 32GB storage. It is expected to run an optimized version of Android OS and includes features such as Google Assistant, automatic read-aloud and language translation for any on-screen text, a smart camera with India-centric filters. It might feature a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera. The battery capacity is expected to be 2,500mAH.