HIGHLIGHTS

• The JioPhone Next will run the latest Android 11 (Go Edition).
• It will have 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM along with 32 GB of eMMC 4.5 storage.
• The JioPhone Next will have a single 13-megapixel camera in the rear and an 8-megapixel front camera.

The JioPhone Next that was unveiled two months ago during the 44th Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries in June of this year, is scheduled to go on sale from September 10. It is Jio’s entry-level product and was developed in cooperation with Google Inc.

Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Chairman, and Managing Director had said that the JioPhone would be the most affordable smartphone globally. While Jio already has launched two feature phones, the JioPhone Next, which will be released on September 10, will be the company’s very first smartphone.

Jio barely revealed any specifications during the announcement of this smartphone. However, fresh leaks have hinted at some of the key specifications of the upcoming affordable smartphone. The JioPhone Next will ship with Android 11 (Go Edition) and feature a single rear camera, along with an HD+ display.

The smartphone will have a 1440×720 resolution display and Qualcomm’s entry-level 215 chipset which also powers Nokia 1.4. It will also come with Google’s Camera Go and Duo Go apps pre-installed.

It will have 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM along with 32 GB of eMMC 4.5 storage. More features on the JioPhone Next add dual SIM support, dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.2. In the camera department, the JioPhone Next is expected to have a 13-megapixel OmniVision OV13B10 lens at the back that supports HDR, FHD+ video recording, and it even has a night mode. It has an 8-megapixel GC0834W front camera by GalaxyCore.

As Mukesh Ambani has precisely suggested that the smartphone would be the cheapest 4G smartphone in the world, At Rs 4,999, the iTel A53 Pro is currently the cheapest 4G smartphone available in India. So it is likely that the new smartphone by Jio would be priced at less than Rs. 5,000.

The JioPhone Next is the company’s attempt to make 4G handsets more accessible to those in India who are still reliant on 2G networks. Reliance Jio has announced that the smartphone will be available for purchase beginning on September 10, the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi in India.

Jio, which was launched by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani back in 2016, has disrupted the Indian telecom sector, bringing the prices of telecom services down drastically. In the years that followed the launch of Jio, the telecom sector consolidated with several loss-making companies selling their business.

Now there are only 4 players left in the sector; Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and state-run BSNL. Currently, Jio is the market leader with over 431 million (43.1 crores) subscribers.