Airtel launches two new Karbonn-branded smartphones at feature phone price

Karbonn A41 Indian and Karbonn A41 Power smartphones, at an effective price of Rs 1,799 and Rs 1,849, respectively, come bundled with a cashback offer from Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel, in partnership with Karbonn Mobiles, has announced two smartphones – the A1 Indian and A41 power -- at an effective price of Rs 1,799 and Rs 1,849, respectively. This is a second time the telecom operator has partnered with Karbonn to launch smartphones under ‘Mera Pehla 4G smartphone’ initiative, aiming to provide affordable 4G smartphone to people seeking to move from feature phones to smartphones.

The Karbonn A41 Indian and Karbonn A41 Power smartphones, which have retail prices of Rs 4,390 and Rs 4,290, respectively, come bundled with a monthly pack of Rs 169 from Airtel, providing unlimited local and STD calls and 0.5GB of data per day, valid for 28 days.

To avail of the smartphone bundled with Airtel benefits, a customer needs to make a down payment of Rs 3,299 for A41 Indian and Rs 3,349 for A41 Power, respectively. The effective price of the smartphones is calculated after deducting the cashback from the principal amount.

Airtel is offering a total cashback of Rs 1,500 on both the smartphones, subject to certain terms and conditions. To avail of the cashback, Airtel customers need to make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169. At the end of 18 months, the customer will get a cash refund of Rs 500 and another Rs 1,000 after 36 months, taking the total cash benefit to Rs 1,500.

In case the customer does not wish to opt for the Rs 169 bundled plan, she/he has the flexibility of doing recharges of any denomination and validity as per individual requirements. However, to claim the cash refund benefit, recharges worth Rs 3,000 must be done within the first 18 months (to claim the first refund instalment of Rs 500) and another Rs 3,000 over the next 18 months (to claim the second refund instalment of Rs 1,000).    

The ownership of the smartphone is completely with the customer and there is no need to return the device to Airtel/Karbonn at any point to claim the cash benefit.

Both devices come with full touch 4-inch screens, 1 GB RAM, dual-SIM slots and cameras on the back and front. The 4G smartphones, which are Google-certified, run on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat OS and offer full access to all apps on Google Play Store, including YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. In addition, both smartphones come pre-loaded with MyAirtel App, Airtel TV and Wynk Music.

The two smartphones under the Airtel-Karbonn partnership will be available on Amazon India starting next week.

“We are delighted to deepen our partnership with Karbonn to fulfill the smartphone aspirations of India. We saw very strong demand for our first offer under the ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ initiative, which validates the broad appeal of this innovative proposition. We are also delighted to have Amazon on board as a partner in this exciting journey and look forward to working closely with them. We believe these partnerships will help us make a significant contribution towards transforming India into a smartphone nation.” Said Raj Pudipeddi, Director – Consumer Business & CMO, Bharti Airtel