Back in July this year, Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio announced the JioPhone – a 4G VoLTE enabled feature phone – which is ‘effectively free’. To counter JioPhone, other telcos also started thinking about launching their 4G phones. Telecom operator Airtel launched its 4G smartphone around two weeks ago. And now today, Vodafone has announced its partnership with Micromax to bring us the affordable 4G smartphone – Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra.
How is Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra available at ₹999?
The Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra is priced at ₹2899, however, after taking recharges and cash backs into consideration, it’s effective price comes down to ₹999. Customers will get a total cash back of ₹1900 after 36 months – ₹900 after first 18 months and ₹1000 after another 18 months.
This amount will be transferred to the customer’s Vodafone M-Pesa wallets, which they can spend on digital transactions like doing recharges, or can simply withdraw it.
Having said that, to be eligible for these cash backs, customers will have to do a minimum recharge of ₹150/month for 36 months. The recharge can also be of any denomination that would total to an amount of ₹150 per month.
Also, unlike the JioPhone which is a feature phone, the Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra is a smartphone running Android Marshmallow which means you can use apps like WhatsApp on it which are unavailable on the JioPhone.
“The Bharat-Series, has been aimed for acquisition of the first generation smartphone users. This partnership with Vodafone will help bring in the next phase of smartphone adoption by hand-holding consumers to upgrade them from feature phones to smartphones. We believe that greater device affordability and low cost data packs will drive increased smartphone adoption, as there is still a huge gap. At Micromax we want to give superior device experience in an affordable way and Bharat range is a testimony of the same, having already sold more than 2 million handsets.” said Mr. Rahul Sharma, Co-Founder, Micromax.
“We are delighted to partner with Micromax to democratize the 4G smart phones at a never before price of under Rs. 999/-This will help fulfill the aspirations of several million phone users across the country who desire a smart phone but couldn’t afford one. It will also encourage current non users of 4G to upgrade and enjoy a richer user experience with Vodafone SuperNet 4G.” said Mr. Avneesh Khosla, Associate Director – Consumer Business, Vodafone India.
Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra Specifications
- CPU: 1.3 GHz Spreadtrum SC9832 quad-core processor
- RAM: 512 MB
- Operating System: Android Marshmallow
- Display: 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) display
- Rear Camera: 2 MP with LED flash
- Front Camera: 0.3 MP
- Internal Storage: 4 GB
- External Storage: Expandable up to 32 GB via microSD card
- Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, micro USB
- Battery: 1300 mAh
Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra Price and Availability
- Price: Effective price of ₹999
- Availability: Available from November through retail stores across the country
