Feature phones have become a thing of the past. However, with the JioPhone's 25 million sales figures, it is certain that there is still a market left in India.
Given the performance of the first JioPhone, Reliance announced the JioPhone 2 at this year's Reliance Annual General Meeting.
So far it has had very little competition in the smart feature phone market. But that could change. Enter Xiaomi. The Qin AI feature phone the Chinese manufacturer recently unveiled through its crowdfunding platform in China looks like a suitable competitor to the JioPhone 2, if it makes to the Indian market.
Let's see how both feature phones fare against each other:
Design
The JioPhone 2 comes with a QWERTY keypad. With a 2.4 inch screen that is placed horizontally, the JioPhone 2 looks a little like the Blackberry. However, it doesn't look as premium as a Blackberry handset.
The Qin AI on the other hand, looks quite good. With a better looking finish and a bigger 2.8 inch screen placed vertically, the Qin AI does look like it has good build quality. It has a track pad in the centre and large keys on the T9 keypad.
Specifications
The JioPhone 2 comes with 512 MB of RAM with 4GB storage, which is expandable through a micro SD card. The second version of the JioPhone runs on the tried and tested KaiOS, a Linux based operating system. It also comes with a 2 megapixel rear as well as a 0.3 megapixel front camera. This time around, Reliance will also give users an option to use apps like WhatsApp and YouTube, something the first JioPhone lacked.
Xiaomi’s Qin AI on the other hand, has lower configurations with only 256 MB of RAM and 512 MB of storage, which is expandable and it has no cameras.
Xiaomi's phone, however, runs on Android which might make the user experience more seamless. The Xiaomi feature phone will also have AI integration, with the AI voice feature that can translate up to 17 different languages. Apart from the AI, the Qin AI will also have an infrared sensor to let you control your TV and other appliances with the phone itself.
The Qin AI will also come in a 2G variant that will have 8MB of RAM and 16MB of internal storage.
Battery
The JioPhone 2 sports a 2,000 mAh battery, which is bigger than the Xiaomi QIN AI's 1,480 mAh battery that claims to give up to 420 hours of standby time. With a USB type-C port for charging, the Qin AI will also offer faster charging.
Verdict
With an established market, the JioPhone has a clear advantage over the Xiaomi phone which, if launched, will have to gain a consumer base.
But since Xiaomi smartphones are fairly popular in the country, it might just dent the JioPhone’s sales.
Specification wise, the JioPhone is clearly the better phone, but the Linux-based KaiOS is again not as user friendly as Android. Hence, if there are any Android fans within the JioPhone consumer base it might benefit Xiaomi there as well. Besides that, with the AI integration and the infrared sensor and cleaner looks, Xiaomi may have a chance.
But the absence of a camera on the Xiaomi phone will definitely work against it.
With the JioPhone 2 set to launch at a price of Rs 2,999 the Xiaomi phone also needs to be priced aggressively to be able to give the JioPhone competition.
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