JioPhone 

Design

• Good build quality
• Weight is manageable and the phone fits well in the hand - the curved sides and edges mask the size of the phone quite well and it does not feel bulky to hold or carry
• The keypad buttons are well spaced and easy to reach, and offer good feedback when pressed
• You can stream music using Jio Music without any issues, and JioTV and JioMovies can also be used to stream TV shows and movies respectively - the fact that the subscription to them all is currently free is a big bonus

Display

• Although video watching experience is pretty ordinary on the small display, there will be a TV cable accessory available, which should prove to be a good investment (you can connect the phone to your TV using that, and consume the videos there)
• The screen is of course tiny at 2.4 inches and has a resolution of 240x320 pixels - vertical viewing angles are poor and colours appear washed out - all of this is pretty much expected at this price point

Software

• Good, easy to user user interface - quite easy to learn
• Comes with an app store called JioStore - although it has nothing but Jio apps at the moment
• There's a software update feature for over-the-air updates, which is rare in the feature phone segment, and should allow Reliance to introduce new features for the Jio Phone over time
• There are also other nice touches in the software - saved contacts are auto-suggested when you type in a number to dial, there's T9-style predictive text input for typing, there's a quick settings panel that you can get to by hitting the up arrow on the homescreen, you can launch video calls quickly by long-pressing the call button, and there are granular security and privacy controls in the Settings menu
• The phone comes with multiple Jio apps preinstalled. There is JioCimena, JioChat, JioGames, JioMusic, JioTV, JioPay, and JioXpressNews, JioVideoCall - there are also basic calculator, unit conversion, notes, FM radio, video player, and gallery apps
• The phone also has a voice assistant called HelloJio which can be triggered by long-pressing the D-Pad's select button - it can understand basic commands to dial a contact by their name or open a specific app (although it is slow) - this may be a handy feature for people unfamiliar with technology, helping them do things without having to learn the phone's user interface
• To be clear, the Jio Phone isn’t targeted at smartphone users but at first-time buyers and feature phone users who want to upgrade without spending much - it is aimed also at bringing people from well beyond tier-II and tier-III cities online, especially those who have never touched a computer and cannot dream of paying for Internet access even at current prices - and it has the potential to do that because the hardware is capable and the software delivers a good enough experience
• It might be packed with a lot of features, but at the end of the day, this is a feature phone, not a smartphone, so it can only be compared only with feature phones (and yes on that comparison, it does do well)
• Popular social media apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp are currently not available on the Jio Phone (although the company is reportedly working to add them) - although of course you do get an inbuilt Web browser that can be used to log in to Facebook, YouTube etc

Performance

• The performance of the Jio apps is of course dependent on Internet connectivity - if you have good 4G connectivity, you won't have to wait more than a few seconds for a movie or song to begin streaming
• Speed/performance is of course not really smartphone level - navigation is a little slow and apps take time to load - again, something that you should expect from a feature phone

Camera

• Mediocre cameras - again as you would expect at this price point - there is a fair amount of noise in the pictures, and motion blur is unavoidable

Battery

• Excellent battery life - one of the biggest batteries for a feature phone at 2000mAh - with moderate use the phone can last for four full days, before needing to be charged
• And if you want to save battery life further, there is power saving mode which switches everything off, turning this into a basic feature phone

More

• Low upfront cost - for the kind of feature set it packs - and that cost too is refundable after 3 years, depending on some terms and conditions
• You can also play a few games on JioGames and while they are incredibly basic, they don’t seem too bad
• The phone works only with 4G VoLTE networks - which basically means only Jio at this point of time - so you won't be able to use it with other networks