Will Micromax Bharat-1 be able to challenge Jio Phone?

Handset manufacturing companies have tried hard to make cheap smartphones available to every citizen of the country. But Reliance Jio’s Jio Phone has changed the whole game. Feature phones are in the news once again. There is nothing surprising in the fact that now other companies are also experimenting with feature phones. The latest example is the partnership between BSNL and Micromax. Both have jointly introduced a new 4G feature phone Bharat-1 which also provides access to fast internet.

There is nothing new in BSNL Micromax Bharat-1. We will discuss about it in detail later. The most important question is what kind of benefits does the phone come with out of the box? It is priced at Rs 2,200 and sales will start from October 20. In its marketing, the company is saying that it will meet the needs of about 50 crore Indians.

The need for affordable connectivity

What needs can the BSNL Micromax Bharat-1 phone fulfill? Let’s find out about this. Rahul Sharma of Micromax believes that people do not want to pay just for voice calls. Now users also like to browse the web without paying any charges. For this, his company has partnered with the government telecom company BSNL. Customers will get all these facilities with Bharat-1 in a monthly plan of just Rs 97.

To be fair, people also like to listen to songs, watch videos and stream live TV occasionally. What about these needs? Micromax says that it has partnered with companies like Zenga for this purpose, which will provide such content on the phone.

Now the question is does the BSNL Micromax Bharat 1 live up to our expectations? The short and simple answer would be yes. If we want a longer answer, then yes in most cases. We spent some time with this handset. How did we like this phone at first glance? Let us tell you…

At first glance, the Micromax Bharat-1 will remind you of old-fashioned feature phones. It has the same old classic numeric keypad. Whenever you click them, there is a piercing sound in the ears.

You will need to click them frequently as the 2.4-inch screen does not come with touch support. The plastic body does not feel premium. However, it does not feel very cheap either. But things get interesting once you long-press and release the * button.

There are a number of apps that come pre-installed on the Micromax Bharat 1. For web browsing, the Opera Mini mobile browser is provided. We typed in a few webpage addresses and these loaded just fine. You also get a YouTube app. The display and sound quality are considered to be decent considering the price customers are paying for the handset.

Bharat-1 does not run on Android. Hence there is no Google Play Store in the phone. If you are thinking of downloading WhatsApp then this information is very important for you. You will be able to do things like update Facebook status, search Wikipedia and read news through Opera Mini browser.

This phone also has two camera sensors. The rear camera sensor is 2 megapixels. There is a VGA camera on the front. You will be able to take pictures with these as per your expectations. To be honest, you would not want to take pictures with these unless you have another phone. In comparison, Jio Phone takes better pictures.

The phone also has an entertainment app “Fun” where you get access to songs and videos. More than 100 live TV channels can also be accessed through this app. Due to limited time, we could not check the number of channels properly. On the other hand, videos played well on the phone. The BSNL phone also supports Bluetooth. With its help, users can share files quickly.

Bharat 1 has support for Wi-Fi. Our test unit was connected to the internet with this feature. By going into the settings, we also found out that the phone can also work as a Wi-Fi hotspot. We could not test this feature as there was no SIM card in the test device. We could not even make voice calls with it.

Talking about the SIM, let us tell you that it will come with two SIM card slots. A representative of Micromax told us that if the user wants, he can use a SIM card of any other company instead of BSNL. You cannot do this in Jio Phone and it comes with one SIM card slot. If you are thinking of buying Bharat-1 handset, then you can also use Airtel or Reliance Jio SIM instead of BSNL.

Micromax has given this phone the title of ‘India’s 4G phone’. But the truth is that BSNL does not provide 4G network right now. If you want to browse the web at 4G speed, then you will have to use the SIM of Airtel, Vodafone, Idea or Reliance Jio.

This rival handset of Jio Phone has a 2000 mAh battery. Considering a feature phone, this is a very big battery. According to us, the battery will easily last for two days in normal use. During testing, we did not see any significant impact on battery life.

Should you buy the Bharat-1 phone?

This will depend on you. If you have a smartphone, you may not want to buy the Bharat-1 handset. You will find that its camera does not take good pictures and the phone’s display is hardly pleasing to your eyes. The phone is very small and the keypad may spoil your experience. But it is also clear that Micromax has not made this phone for a smartphone user.

Bharat 1 is made for those 50 crore Indians who cannot afford a smartphone, or the data plan is very expensive. The phone has been introduced for the elderly, children and those who have not yet had the opportunity to use a smartphone. For such people, Micromax Bharat 1 will be a profitable deal, even with BSNL’s 3G speed.