A key element of today's 4G mobile services is poised to see a significant upgrade this year — one that will help us make a smooth transition in one or two years, to the promise of 5G. Reliance Jio was the first to bring VoLTE or Voice over LTE (for Long Term Evolution) to India last year. The technology essentially converts the 4G network into a data-only pathway: Voice calls travel as data before being heard at the other end. This makes telephone voice quality, better, sharper— and as the Jio service showed it benefits customers who only pay for data — voice calls, local or roaming are free and unlimited.
In the last three months, other providers like Airtel, Idea and Vodafone, have caught up: every week sees them extending VoLTE services to yet another state. No matter who your service provider, chances are by June, you can experience the technology on your handset, with one possible caveat: If you have a dual-SIM phone, only one slot will support VoLTE, the other gets downgraded to2G or 3G. This is set to change. Mobile chip makers like Qualcomm and MediaTek are launching what is called DSDS — Dual SIM Dual Standby: both SIMs can be 4G VoLTE. Zenfone Max Pro M1 and Honor View 10 are the first handsets to reach India with DSDS. The list is growing by the day.
But wait! There is more in the offing before the lurch to 5G. MediaTek has already launched a chipset that lets phone makers offer not just VoLTE but ViLTE — that is, Video on LTE. You can soon experience "conversational video" — routinely "seeing the person you are taking to (if you want to, that is)! Voice and video will soon merge seamlessly to create a very superior experience. When you next tell someone "See you!" — it will take on a whole new meaning.
Alongside we review two recently launched and very affordable 4G VoLTE phones.
Tecno Camon i Sky: A phone for video chat
The Hong Kong -based Transsion Mobiles is just a year old in India — but is already the number 5 mobile phone in India, by market share. The Tecno Camon i Sky is an updated version of the Camon i launched in January, that retains its special video chat function, but upgrades the onboard memory to 16GB and the Android OS to 8.1 ,keeping the front and rear cameras more or less the same at 13MP/8MP with dual flash.
It now offers both fingerprint authentication as well as Face Unlock, a feature that you are unlikely to find in this price band. The 5.5-inch phone also enables 4G VoLTE and has separate slots for two nano SIMs and a microSD card. The very reasonable asking price is Rs 7,499.
InFocus Vision 3: Shoot a 'Dualfie'!
Its name — InFocus — gives a hint of its strength in great displays — and the latest handset, InFocus Vision 3 Pro, lives up to its reputation. The 5.7-inch HD plus (1440x720 pixels) display seems bigger than it is, thanks to a very thin bezel. The 120-degree wide 13MP + 8MP dual rear lens combo is difficult to find in this price band, with a 13MP front camera.
Also very useful is the Dualfie feature that lets you shoot front and rear at the same time, making for interesting results like setting the locale of your selfie. The 4GB RAM and 64GB storage (expandable to 128GB) is good even for hardcore clickers. The 4000mAh battery too is slightly bigger than normal.
The 4G VoLTE network will come in useful in the months to come, as all providers offer the service, but I would probably upgrade the OS from Android 7 to 8 to get the best out of this phone, reasonably priced at Rs 10,999.
—IndiaTechOnline
