Reliance Jio unveiled JioPhone, the company’s first VoLTE feature phone back in July and started pre-bookings in August. The company started delivering the pre-ordered units for customers from last week. The phone comes with a new Jio SIM card and has Dhan Dhana Dhan Rs. 153 plan that offers unlimited voice and data. We have unboxed the phone in both English and Hindi. Check out the videos below.
Box contents
- JioPhone in Black color
- Jio SIM
- 2-pin charger (5V-700mA)
- 2000mAh battery
- Quick Start Guide and user manual
JioPhone has a 2.4-inch (320 x 240 pixels) QVGA display and is powered by 1.2 GHz Dual-core Spreadtrum SP9820A processor with Mali-400 GPU or 1.1GHz Dual-Core Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform (MSM8905) with Adreno 304 GPU depending on the units and has 512MB RAM. It has a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) camera on the front.
It has a T9 keypad with shortcuts for Jiomoney and Jio apps. It runs on KAI OS with support for 22 major Indian languages and also has support for voice commands to call someone, reject a call, browse internet, open apps and more.
On the top there is a torchlight and the 3.5mm audio jack and a micro USB port are present on the bottom.
On the back there is a 2MP camera with a loudspeaker grill next to it. There is also LYF branding below it.
Opening the back cover shows the 2000mAh removable battery. In addition to 4G VoLTE support, it also has support for WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 LE and NFC, and the company already said that tap-and-pay payments through UPI, credit and debit cards will be enabled through software update soon. Sadly it doesn’t support WiFi hotspot.
Removing the battery shows the nano SIM slot and a microSD card slot. At the launch the company said that it will offer JioMediaCable that connects JioPhone with any TV. But we will have to wait for Jio to start selling the cable.
“Along with this accessory, users can opt for the existing Jio Dhan Dhan Dhan 309 pack that would allow users to watch almost 3-4 hours of videos daily, of their choice, on a large screen,” said the company at the launch.
JioPhone is effectively free with refundable deposit of Rs. 1500 after 3 years. Jio recently updated its terms that says that there will be penalty charges if it’s returned before 36 months.