BlackBerry KEYone
Price: Rs 39,990; Rating: 7/10
What it is: Over the past few years, BlackBerry has seen its market share dwindle to non-existence even as it tried the ‘throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks’ approach with a number of devices like the Passport, the Priv and the DTEK50. The KEYone is the result of a licensing deal which sees other companies — Optiemus Infracom in the case of India — producing the device, but the latest ’Berry ends up appealing to too slim a niche for it to script any sort of turnaround story.
Pros: The KEYone feels premium in the hand if you have a thing for the rather vintage vibe the full QWERTY keyboard gives off. Although a tad cramped, the keyboard is classic BlackBerry and has a bunch of neat tricks up its sleeve — the surface is touch sensitive (so you can use it like a trackpad), the spacebar has an integrated fingerprint sensor and you can assign shortcuts to each of the letter keys (plus a dedicated Convenience key) to open an app, call a contact, or change settings. BlackBerry’s custom skin atop Android 7.1 has a bunch of security-oriented features, and despite the mid-range hardware, apps run smoothly with no issues in multitasking on the 4GB memory. Battery life is respectable too, as is the camera. Stick to shooting in good light and you won’t be disappointed.
Cons: At Rs 39,990, you’d be expecting high-end hardware, but the KEYone is decidedly mid-range in that regard, packing in a now-dated Snapdragon 625 chip. The unusual 1,620 x 1,080 resolution on the 4.5-inch display works well for productivity apps, but it’s too small for media streaming and gaming, not to mention using the phone in landscape mode gets awkward... fast! Keyboard mavens will like the physical keys, but most of us have moved on and touch-type faster and more accurately.
Gionee A1 Plus
Price: Rs 26,999; Rating: 7/10
What it is: It was one of the first Chinese brands to enter India, but with the high-volume marketing by its online-only brethren, brand Gionee has slipped behind in recent years. The A1 Plus is Gionee’s all-out attempt to win favour with offline consumers, but it’s priced dangerously close to the OnePlus and Honor flagships for anyone who has the option of buying online.
Pros: Behind the generic near-full-metal body design and curved glass that is now standard in this segment, Gionee has thrown in everything and the kitchen sink into the A1 Plus, with a bright 6-inch, 1,080p IPS LCD display, an octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 processor with 4GB of memory, and 64GB of internal storage (expandable by up to 256GB via a hybrid micro-SD card slot). Performance on Amigo 4.0 UI (based on Android 7.0) is good, but the user interface, while well-intentioned in terms of features, is rather unintuitive and cluttered, which mars the experience. The 4,550mAh battery doesn’t disappoint, and most folks will easily see two days of use.
Cons: It’s built like a tank, an overweight one at that, and the phone feels chunky and quite a handful, the kind you could use to defend yourself with. Gaming performance leaves a bit to be desired, and the phone runs into warm territory over extended gaming sessions. The dual camera renders a pleasing bokeh effect but it’s inconsistent and a hit-and-miss affair, much like the fingerprint sensor.
EVERYTHING ABOUT JioPhone...
...that you didn’t know whoM to ask
» What is the JioPhone?
Reliance JioPhone is really a ‘smart’ phone that has been shoehorned into a feature phone form factor and is squarely targeted at bridging the vast digital divide that currently exists between those with mobile data connectivity and those without. And yes, it’s likely to cause a feeding frenzy in the low-end feature phone segment which has pretty much been stagnant since smartphones came along.
» Wait a minute, we’ve had data on feature phones previously. What’s so special about this one?
From what Reliance has announced, the JioPhone will offer 4G VoLTE support with free voice calls for life, preloaded Jio apps for content (JioCinema, JioTV, and JioMusic), NFC support for digital payments, and voice commands for sending messages, making calls, searching the Web, and so on. Granted, it’s got a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, but the phone runs KaiOS, which has an app store and access to ‘lite’ versions of Facebook, YouTube…and WhatApp is likely to come on board as well! Then there’s the “effectively free” pricing — buyers will have to shell out a refundable, upfront deposit of Rs 1,500 for the device and get a full refund on the deposit three years later.
» And then? Prepaid recharges every month?
Well, you either pay Rs 153 every 28 days, for which you get free voice, SMS and unlimited data (500MB per day is high-speed), along with the full ecosystem of Jio apps, or pay about double (Rs 309) for support for mirroring all this content onto a TV via a cable that is compatible even with older CRT TVs. Commitment-shy consumers can pick up sachet plans — Rs 24 for two days or Rs 54 for a week’s worth of usage, activated when you need it.
» Is there a catch?
The Rs 153 that Reliance intends to charge is a fair bit higher than the ARPU (average revenue per user) we’ve come to expect from Indian telecom players, and this might be the high-stakes bet Reliance is making with the JioPhone. Add to that a three-year lock-in for a single SIM phone that works only on the Jio network and SIM, not to mention Jio’s family of proprietary apps, and you’ll probably wonder if the other upcoming 4G unlocked feature phones from Intex, Lava and the like may be worth holding out for.
» How do I get my hands on one?
Come August 24, JioPhone bookings will open for pre-order, both online and offline, via the MyJio app or via an offline Jio retailer nearest to you, with the phones reaching customers in September.
Tushar Kanwar is a tech columnist and commentator. Follow him on Twitter @2shar. Mail your tech queries to t2onsunday@abp.in
