Micromax Bharat-1 First Impressions, Micromax Bharat-1 first look…

Handset manufacturing companies have worked hard till now to provide cheap smartphones to every citizen of the country. But Reliance Jio’s Jio Phone changed the whole game. Once again feature phones are in discussion. There is nothing surprising in the fact that now other companies are also experimenting with feature phones. The latest example is the partnership between BSNL and Micromax. Together they have introduced a new 4G feature phone Bharat-1 through which fast internet can also be accessed.

There is nothing new in BSNL Micromax Bharat-1. We will discuss about this in detail later. The most important question is, what kind of benefits does the phone come with out of the box? Its price is Rs 2,200 and the sale will start from October 20. In its marketing, the company is saying that it will cater to the needs of about 50 crore Indians.

Need for affordable connectivity

What needs can the BSNL Micromax Bharat-1 phone fulfill? Let us know about this. Rahul Sharma of Micromax believes that people do not want to pay just for voice calls. Now users also like to browse the web without paying any charges. For this, his company has partnered with government telecom company BSNL. Customers will get all these facilities with Bharat-1 in a monthly plan of just Rs 97.

To be honest, sometimes people also like to listen to songs, watch videos and stream live TV. What about these needs? Micromax says that for this it has partnered with companies like Zenga which will provide such content in the phone.

Now the question is, does BSNL Micromax Bharat-1 live up to our expectations? The simple and short answer would be, yes. If you want the long answer, in most cases yes. We spent some time with this handset. How did we like this phone at first glance? Let us tell…

At first glance, Micromax Bharat-1 will remind you of old-school feature phones. It has the same old classic numeric keypad. Whenever you click them, there is a piercing sound in the ears.

You’ll need to click them a few times, as the 2.4-inch screen doesn’t come with touch support. The plastic body does not feel premium. However, it doesn’t seem very cheap either. But as soon as you release the * button by long pressing it, things get fun.

There are many apps which are pre-installed in Micromax Bharat-1. Opera Mini mobile browser is provided for web browsing. We typed in a few webpage addresses and they loaded fine. You also get a YouTube app. The display and sound quality will be considered decent considering the price customers are paying for the handset.

Bharat-1 does not run on Android. Therefore there is no Google Play Store in the phone. If you are thinking of downloading WhatsApp then this information is very important for you. You will be able to do things like update Facebook status, search Wikipedia and read news through the Opera Mini browser.

This phone also has two camera sensors. The sensor of the rear camera is 2 megapixels. There is a VGA camera on the front. You will be able to take pictures as per your expectations. To be honest, you wouldn’t want to take pictures with these unless you have another phone. In comparison, Jio phone takes better photos.

The phone also has an entertainment “Fun” app where you will get access to songs and videos. More than 100 live TV can also be watched through this app. Due to limited time we could not check the number of channels properly. Videos, on the other hand, played fine on the phone. BSNL phones also support Bluetooth. With its help, users can share files quickly.

There is support for Wi-Fi in Bharat-1. It was with its help that our test unit was connected to the internet. By going into the settings, we were also able to know that the phone will also work as a Wi-Fi hotspot. We couldn’t test this feature because the test device had no SIM card. We couldn’t even make voice calls from it.

If we talk about SIM, let us tell you that it will come with two SIM card slots. A representative of Micromax told us that if the user wants, he can also use any other company’s SIM card instead of BSNL. You cannot do this in Jio phone and it comes with one SIM card slot. If you are thinking of buying Bharat-1 handset, then you can also use Airtel or Reliance Jio SIM instead of BSNL.

Micromax has given this phone the title of ‘India’s 4G phone’. But the truth is also that BSNL does not provide 4G network right now. If you want web browsing at 4G speed, then you will have to use Airtel, Vodafone, Idea or Reliance Jio SIM.

This rival handset of Jio Phone has a 2000 mAh battery. Considering a feature phone, this is a pretty big battery. According to us, the battery will easily last for two days in normal use. During testing, we did not see any significant impact on battery life.

Should you buy Bharat-1 phone?

It will depend only on you. If you have a smartphone then you may not want to buy Bharat-1 handset. You will find that its camera does not take good pictures and the display of the phone is hardly pleasing to your eyes. The phone is very small and the keypad may spoil your experience. But it is also clear that Micromax did not make this phone for smartphone users.

Bharat-1 is designed for those 50 crore Indians who cannot buy a smartphone, or the data plan is too expensive. The phone has been introduced for the elderly, children and those who have not yet had the chance to use a smartphone. For such people, Micromax Bharat-1 will be a profitable deal, even with BSNL 3G speed.