Airtel-Karbonn A40 Indian vs JioPhone: Who wins the ultra affordable 4G phone battle
The telecom sector in India is going through an unprecedented phase of upheaval. The entry of Reliance Jio caught existing players in the market off guard and eventually led to a price war that may have been great news for customers but created plenty of troubles for operators such as Airtel and Idea.
Backed by the deep pockets of Mukesh Ambani, Jio in a matter of months poached over 100 million subscribers from its competitors by handing out freebies. This resulted in heavy losses for the competition, with Airtel reporting its lowest quarterly profit in four years back in May 2017 with its net earnings falling as much as 72 per cent in January-March.
But things have taken a turn for the better for these operators since then. On the back of increased spending to improve infrastructure and aggressive moves such as partnering with Karbonn to bring ultra-affordable 4G smartphone in the form of the A40 Indian, Jio is being made to fight harder to keep hold of its subscribers.
The Karbonn A40 Indian launched at an "effective" price of Rs 1,399, on paper at least, looks to be a silver bullet that could kill Mukesh Ambani's JioPhone dreams.
Let's take a look at both the phones and see how they compare against each other.
Design
Both the JioPhone and the A40 Indian are devices that don't offer much in terms of design. These are basic phones, built for functionality and not looks, and as such their outward appearance should be the last consideration in deciding between these devices.
Having said that, it cannot be ignored that the JioPhone with its smaller 2.4-inch TFT display arguably loses out to the Airtel-backed product when it comes to looks. This is majorly because the device looks more like a feature phone, while the A40 Indian with its 4-inch touchscreen display and smartphone-like looks, appears more modern.
Specifications
In terms of specs, the Karbonn A40 Indian comes with a 1.3 Ghz processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage which is expandable by up to 32GB via micro-SD card, while the JioPhone only comes with a lower speed dual-core processor paired with 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage that's expandable up to 128GB.
The dual-SIM Karbonn phone is powered by a 1,400mAh battery and comes sporting a 2-megapixel camera on the rear and a 0.3-megapixel camera on the front. All features that outshine Jio's offering.
As is clear by the numbers, with a faster processor, bigger touchscreen display, beefier battery pack and more onboard storage along with a better camera, the Airtel backed A40 Indian is the clear winner here.
Software and application
Another area where the A40 Indian scores a win is the software and applications that the phone supports. Quite frankly this was an unfair fight to begin with as the smart feature phone just does not have the tools to fight the battle with Karbonn's smartphone.
While the JioPhone runs a version of the KaiOS, which does not support popular apps such as WhatsApp and Youtube, Airtel-backed A40 Indian comes with Android that will support all these applications.
The A40 Indian essentially promises the trusted experience of Android and comes with a promise of running games, movies and more on the go like any Android-based smartphone can – something that the JioPhone cannot bring with itself.
The deal with the price
So understanding pricing of the two phones is decoding the new trick of the industry – "effective pricing".
As Airtel explains, the Karbonn A40 Indian's actual price is Rs 3,990. However, they can get the phone for Rs 2,899 – which the consumer will have to fork out for this 4G smartphone at the time of purchase – and recoup Rs 1,500 more in cash benefits by getting the device with an Airtel connection.
In comparison, the JioPhone which is available at a downpayment of Rs 1,500 is available at an effective price of Rs "0" after factoring in the cash back benefits.
However, one key difference here is that with the JioPhone if the customer decides to get the Rs 1,500 amount back from Reliance, they do it only after surrendering the phone to the company. This is not the case with the A40 Indian which remains the customer's property.