After BSNL, Micromax has now partnered with Vodafone to launch Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra 4G Smartphone at an effective price of Rs. 999/-. At present, Bharat 2 Ultra is possibly the lowest priced 4G smartphone in the market, among all the offerings.
Micromax had a major share in the smartphone market a few years back, which it lost to its Chinese counterparts. The domestic handset maker is desperate to take back its place among the top five smartphone makers by the end of the year, and is leaving no stone unturned.
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Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra: Vodafone’s Bundled 4G Smartphone
The Bharat 2 Ultra from Micromax will be a Vodafone exclusive, bundled with calling and data plans from the telecom operator. The effective price of the device will be Rs. 999/- as customers who buy this smartphone will get cashback over a period of three years, bringing down the price from Rs. 2,899/- to Rs. 999/-.
How Will It Work?
All the existing, and new, Vodafone customers will have to buy the Bharat 2 Ultra at at Rs.2,899/-. After that, they have to do a recharge of at least Rs. 150/- per month for the next three years. At the end of 18 months, users will get a cashback of Rs. 900/- and after the next 18 months, they will get a cashback of Rs. 1,000/-. The cashback will be added to their Vodafone M-Pesa wallets. The cashback can then be used in digital transactions or can be withdrawn as cash from the nearest Vodafone M-Pesa retailer.
Micromax And Vodafone Partnership – The Advantage
This partnership will give both companies an advantage. The domestic handset maker will add more volume to their sales, while the carrier will add more customers. Micromax wants to take the fight to its Chinese rivals. Vodafone wants to one-up Jio and Airtel. While Jio has it’s own 4G feature phone, Airtel has recently partnered with Karbonn Mobiles to launch their own bundled 4G smartphone. With Micromax and Vodafone partnering, this will provide both the companies a major boost in their quest for market supremacy.
Micromax Banking On BSNL And Vodafone
Micromax has recently tied up with BSNL to launch their bundled Bharat 1 4G Feature Phone. The tie-up with state run telco, BSNL, will help them to penetrate deeper into the 530 million feature phone user market. Micromax has both, a 4G Feature Phone with BSNL (Bharat 1) and a 4G Smartphone With Vodafone (Bharat 2 Ultra). It is hoping to benefit from both these trends – if a feature phone user moves to smartphone or if a user decides to stick to the feature phone. Micromax already stands at the third position when it comes to feature phones (by volume) after Samsung and Intex.
Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra – Features And Specifications
Let us take a closer look at the specifications of Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra and see what we will be getting at an effective price of Rs. 999/-.
Display
The smartphone will come with a 4 inch WVGA display with a screen resolution of 480 x 800 pixels.
Hardware
Under the hood, the Bharat 2 Ultra will be powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core Spreadtrum SC9832 processor coupled with 512MB of RAM.
Software
The Bharat 2 Ultra is expected to run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.
Storage
The smartphone will be equipped with 4GB of on-board storage which can be further expanded up to 32GB with an external memory card.
Camera
Coming to optics, the Bharat 2 Ultra has a 2 megapixel primary camera at the back and a 0.3 megapixel selfie shooter. The camera app offers different shooting modes like scene, frame, burst and so on.
SIM Support
Bharat 2 Ultra is a dual SIM (GSM + GSM) smartphone. It will not be locked to Vodafone network and can be used with other SIM cards as well. It accepts a Micro SIM and a Regular SIM.
Connectivity
The smartphone includes most of the connectivity options including Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, headphone jack, FM and 4G with support for Band 40 LTE networks in India.
Media Support
It will support full video viewing for a better media experience, with all social networking and chat apps on board, which will offer a complete smartphone experience.
Battery
Micromax Bharat 2 Ultra will house a 1300 mAh non-removable battery which is expected to offer a decent battery life.
With specifications which are at par with its cost, the main attraction here is the cashback offer and the no network lock. The cashback significantly lowers the effective price of the phone. Will you buy this latest bundle from Vodafone? Do let us know in the comments below.