Airtel planning to launch 4G smartphones for Rs. 4,000

Telecom major Bharti Airtel is planning to launch 4G branded smartphones in India, reports PTI (Press Trust of India). Airtel 4G smartphones will launch in the country with a price range of Rs. 4,000 - Rs. 12,000 by October-Novemeber this year. This move may be to counter Reliance's Jio initiative (launch 4G mobiles for less than Rs. 4,000).

Airtel is in advanced stages to finalize vendors to launch 4G handsets with dual-SIM slot in the country. The company is in  talks with Chinese vendors and Taiwan based Foxconn for the deal. Airtel is also deciding whether the phones should be Airtel branded or co-branded handsets.

Further the report stated that the Airtel 4G handset will come with long term bundled plan but may not be locked only to Airtel network, it will support both FDD and TDD LTE network.

Airtel has started launching 4G service in India in a phased manner. Kolkata was the first state to get the 4G service three years ago. It has launched services across cities like Nagpur, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chandigarh, and Patiala among others. Further, 4G trials have been launched for existing Airtel customers in Delhi, Hyderabad, Vizag, Madurai, Chennai, Coimbatore and Mumbai.

Xiaomi Redmi 1s 4G LTE Variant to Launch on January 4

Xiaomi is all set to launch a 4G LTE variant of the Redmi 1s. The handset will be announced in China On January 4.

There is no official details of the new variant of the Redmi 1s but the device was spotted on TENAA certification and AnTuTu benchmark website. Live images surfaced on TENAA of the new Redmi 1s variant show thin bezels on either side of the display panel but the rest of the design is similar to that of Redmi 1s. The device was rumored to be the successor of the Redmi 1s.

From the image it looks like the device will be available in  different colours - Pink, Green, Yellow, etc.

As for the specifications of the 4G LTE variant of Redmi 1s, it features 4.7-inch HD display and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 LTE-enabled 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor with Adreno 306 GPU paired with 1GB RAM with 8GB internal storage [micro SD card support upto 32GB]. The handset runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat with the MIUI skin.. Other features include an 8-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front facing camera and 2200mAh battery. The device measures 134x67.21x9.2mm and weigh 132 grams. The dual-SIM phone is also listed to feature 4G LTE support on both SIM cards.