Reliance JioPhone is yet to be made available to all those who pre-booked. However, prior to that, Airtel has joined hands with domestic handset maker Karbonn to offer a 4G smartphone called Karbonn A40 Indian at an ‘effective price’ of Rs 1,399.
Airtel partnered with 4G device manufacturers in India for its ‘Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone’ initiative, and the first product born out of it is the resultant Karbonn A40 Indian smartphone. It is directly targeted at the Reliance JioPhone, however, with its touchscreen display is apt for those who are migrating to the ‘smart’ phone interface.
The Karbonn A40 Indian was launched in July at a market price of Rs 3,499. However, under the initiative, it will be available at the lesser cost of Rs 1,399. The fine print here is that unlike JioPhone, there’s no refund on returning the device. If you want to purchase the phone, you will be required to make a down payment of Rs 2,899 and then take a minimum amount of recharges over the course of three years to receive cashback totaling to Rs 1,500. This essentially means, you essentially pay Rs 1,399 for the phone. It is worth noting the cashback amount will be credited to your Airtel Payments Bank account. 
Now here are a few things to take into account. First, you will be required to make monthly recharges from Airtel, which will be worth Rs 3,000 in the first 18 months to avail Rs 500 as cashback. This needs to be followed with further recharges further Rs 3,000 for next 18 months to get the remaining Rs 1,000 as cashback. To sum up, you pay Rs 2,899 as first payment, followed by Rs 6,000 worth recharges in the three-year time period, to avail a cashback of Rs 1,500. Secondly, you must make recharges every month to be eligible for the cashback. With the Karbonn A40 Indian, Airtel is offering a bundled plan of Rs 169 per month which offers unlimited calling, 0.5GB of high-speed data per day. 
As for the Karbonn A40, the smartphone will be available in offline stores. In terms of specifications, the smartphone features a 4-inch WVGA display and is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core SoC with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. For optics, there is a 2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front camera. It is fueled by a 1,400mAh battery. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11 B/G/N, Hotspot, and Micro USB. It supports dual SIM, and is compatible with 4G LTE. The smartphone is available in color choices of Blue, Coffee Brown, Black and Champagne.