JioPhone Next Review

Orbital

It’s finally here — the fruits of Jio and Google’s partnership have come home this Diwali with a new entry-level phone that Reliance hopes will be the 4G smartphone for everyone.

Gadgets 360 video producer Aditya Nath Jha and senior reviewer Sheldon Pinto join host Akhil Arora to discuss the JioPhone Next.

We talk about the phone’s 5.45-inch 720p display and the 1.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 quad-core processor, neither of which is class-leading. The JiPhone next is also stuck with Android Go — rebranded here as Pragati OS — though thanks to Google, the camera’s AI processing is definitely class-leading.

Watch: JioPhone unboxing, in Hindi

But there are problems elsewhere too. The JioPhone Next must have Jio as its primary SIM, Jha tells us, while the secondary SIM is restricted to 2G network. So much for Reliance’s ‘2G-Mukt Bharat’ vision.

And though Jio is bringing EMIs (that can also be paid in cash) to low-cost phones with the JioPhone Next, there are catches. With the most affordable EMI plan, the JioPhone Next will end up costing you over Rs. 13,000. Yes, that includes Jio data and voice plans but they are quite limited.

Additionally, if you fail to pay EMIs on time, the phone can be locked by the financier. No word on whether that will affect basic features such as calls too.

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Chapters

• Intro (00:00)
• Basic build (00:23)
• Removable battery (01:33)
• Jio 4G, rest 2G (02:45)
• Performance? (04:11)
• EMI plan combos (09:03)
• Defaulting locking (13:30)
• Google camera AI (15:35)
• Custom features (18:22)
• Alternatives (23:30)
• Made for India (26:18)
• Outro (33:31)

Photo credits: Aditya Nath Jha/Gadgets 360

章

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Basic build (00:00:23)

3. Removable battery (00:01:33)

4. Jio 4G, rest 2G (00:02:46)

5. Performance? (00:04:11)

6. EMI plan combos (00:09:03)

7. Defaulting locking (00:13:30)

8. Google camera AI (00:15:35)

9. Custom features (00:18:22)

10. Alternatives (00:23:30)

11. Made for India (00:26:18)

12. Outro (00:33:31)