Jio or Airtel, which 4G smartphone offer is better?

Both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are trying to make India a 4G only nation by rolling out new smartphone offers. Airtel came with its smartphone offer in October, while Jio announced the JioPhone Next a few days later. Analysts have already commented on the pricing of the JioPhone Next and have called it non-disruptive. Many might be confused between the JioPhone Next and the Airtel smartphone offer. Here’s a short analysis of which company’s 4G phone offer is better for you.

Reliance Jio’s JioPhone Next offer
The JioPhone Next has been launched for a price of Rs 6,499 in India. Jio has released the smartphone at an unbelievably high price point. People expected it to be more affordable. Further, if you are going with the EMI option, you will have to pay Rs 1,999 upfront and, on top of that, a processing fee of Rs 501. Further, the EMI options will make you pay large sums of money for a pretty basic Android device.

Note that I haven’t reviewed the JioPhone Next and since it is being promoted by the company for its software optimisation, remember that I am here only talking about the price and not the device’s features.

The EMI schemes also come with data and voice calling benefits. If you want to know about the EMI schemes and the complete JioPhone Next offer, and the device’s features, click here.

Bharti Airtel smartphone offer
Bharti Airtel’s smartphone offer is pretty simple. Purchase an Android device of up to Rs 12,000 and get a cashback of Rs 6,000. However, users will have to continuously keep recharging with the Rs 249 plan or more for 36 months or two years to be eligible for the cashback.

There is a list of select smartphones that are available under the offer. But the good thing is, you can choose from multiple brands and more than 100 devices. Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel, has already said that Airtel’s cashback offer is getting a lot of interest from the users.

If you want to know the complete details about the Airtel smartphone offer, click here.

Which offer is better?
So if you are thinking about which one is a better offer, here are some pointers. You will have to spend upwards of Rs 8,000 on any EMI scheme of the JioPhone Next. One EMI plan even asks the users to pay more than Rs 15,000. At this price point, even though the consumer is getting data and voice calling services, it just becomes too expensive.

Airtel’s smartphone offer, on the other hand, keeps the purchasing power in the hands of the customers themselves. Customers can go for a device of their choice amongst hundreds of devices and then also get a cashback of Rs 6,000. Even here, customers will have to pay for the mobile recharges, and that too quite a hefty sum. But the good thing is, most of it will come back in the form of cashbacks. So if the JioPhone Next isn’t very well optimised when it comes to software, there’s really no solid case that the smartphone makes for itself. It would be better to go for the JioPhone Next in one go rather than purchasing its EMI plans.

On a regular day, Airtel’s 4G smartphone offer looks better. TelecomTalk