Reliance Launches JioPhone 2 At 2018 AGM: Here’s What’s New

How different is Reliance’s JioPhone 2 compared to the original JioPhone that was launched in 2017? A comparison.

Reliance’s Jio Phone was launched last year as the "effectively free" feature phone from the cheapest network provider in the country. The mobile phone was targeted towards the masses and garnered a huge response among tier 3 and tier 2 cities. At Thursday’s AGM, Reliance introduced the second version, the Jio Phone 2.

Priced at Rs 2,999, the second version of the effectively free mobile phone is a 4G VoLTE enabled feature phone that has been upgraded with a QWERTY keypad this time around.

Let’s take a look at how different the two versions are:

Pricing

Price wise, the Jio Phone will be launched at Rs 2,999 as opposed to the first phone's Rs 1,500 price tag. The new phone is not "effectively free" like the last version where the Rs 1,500 price tag was basically a refundable security deposit that the customers would get if they return the phone within 3 years. The new Jio Phone does not come with such an option.

Looks

The most evident difference between the two phones are the looks. The first variant was a regular dial pad feature phone with the 2.4 inch screen placed vertically, while in the new version, Reliance has given a full-size QWERTY keypad and placed the 2.4-inch screen horizontally.

Specifications

When it comes to specifications, there is really no difference between the two phones. They use the same display, they both come with 512 MB RAM and 4GB of storage. Both run on the KaiOS, which is a Linux based operating system. In fact, both house similar cameras as well – a front 0.3-megapixel camera as well as a 2-megapixel primary camera.

What’s New

Also, one thing the JioPhone lacked was the absence of WhatsApp within the phone. The second version however, has finally adapted to the trend and does come with WhatsApp messenger built in. This time around, the JioPhone has also been given YouTube as well.

The JioPhone 2 is expected to launch on 15 August. Since the first mobile phone garnered 25 million customers, this one is also expected to be a hit. Although since the phone costs double the price of the first variant, it might not be able to reach the 25 million mark but with WhatsApp and YouTube on board, it might just do the trick.