The JioPhone Next is a phone co-created with Google for the Indian market!

It’s like an ultrabudget Pixel phone!

Reliance Jio is a company you may have never heard of, but they are a known brand in India known for their telecoms services as well as smartphone lineup. The company has recently announced their newer smartphone, the Jiophone Next that was co-created with Google.

The phone was first announced as early as June but has not made any report since. Google and Reliance Gio has finally released the phone. There’s even a trailer of it available in YouTube!

The phone has specs of what you have to come to expect for an ultrabudget phone. While almost every phone nowadays, including ultrabudget ones, come with a waterdrop notch, however this phone uses a 5.45in. HD+ IPS LCD 18:9 display full screen design that was quite common in 2018 and waned in 2019. These days, the design is considered outdated but we can forgive it as it doesn’t look as ugly and the fact that it is intended for simple, casual users. The phone uses a polycarbonate plastic build.

The performance side isn’t the best either, but it works for the phone given the price. It uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 processor which never appears on any mainstream budget phone nowadays. This is coupled with 2GB RAM and 32GB storage. There’s a single 13mp back camera with LED flash and an 8mp selfie camera.

The main selling point of the phone is its software which includes the PragatiOS Android fork, system-wide translation, voice typing and read-aloud features with 10 supported local languages. In a sense, it brings some Pixel-only features down to the ultrabudget line for Indian users. Google said they will also continue to support the device via software updates in the same fashion as the Pixel’s feature-drops.

For the battery, it uses a 3500mAh battery charged via MicroUSB. While it isn’t the largest, this capacity can still last you for at least a day of use. It runs Android 11 Go Edition.

The phone starts at INR 1999 (~Php 1.3K) but the company also offers four different installment packages that range from INR 300 (~Php 202) to INR 600 (~Php 404) per month (up to either 18 or 24 months) with a processing fee of INR501 (~Php 540). If you plan buying the phone in full, without installment, the retail price would be INR6,499 (~Php 4.4K) which is a more realistic price for a phone like the Next.

Source: Reliance Gio