JioPhone Next has a feature called ‘Lock’ feature. This ‘Lock’ feature will not allow you to access the phone if you are unable to meet the EMI payment. Initially the company did not announce this feature. This feature has been added to Geophone Next via an onscreen banner.
Last week, the company announced the price of JioPhone Next. This 4G smartphone from Jio and Google is priced at just Rs 6,499. However, customers can bring the phone home by spending only Rs 1,999 on the EMI offer. Customers will be able to pay the price of this phone in the next installment in a very easy installment of 24 months later.
The feature is intended for those customers who are unable to pay the full price of JioPhone Next through EMI. If you can’t pay, this feature won’t allow you to access the phone. However, instead of giving this feature in the background, the company has given it in the form of a banner in the notification panel of the phone. This is where the ‘Lock’ feature is highlighted and it is written, ‘Device provided by the financer’ or ‘Device provided by the financier’.
However, one can rest assured that this lock feature of JioPhone Next will be limited to those units which will be purchased through EMI option and this feature will not be available if a customer pays the full price of the phone at once.
JioPhone Next is not significantly the first Android phone in the Indian market to come with a preloaded lock feature and will limit its access in case of payment default. Some finance companies and private lenders in India have also come up with similar solutions on phones bought through their EMI options for debt recovery.
In addition to the regular EMI option, Jio has combined the installments for JioPhone Next with its dedicated prepaid plans. The cost for these plans starts from Rs 300, which is Rs 600 per month for 24 months and Rs 18 per month for 18 months. Each plan comes with JioPhone Next’s EMI option as well as data and voice calls.
Incidentally, last year Google was also seen creating an app called Device Lock Controller, the purpose of which was to restrict access to the device if the user could not pay his installment. Jio has created a device lock feature available on JioPhone Next in a native way to avoid the occurrence of bad loans due to non-payment of EMI in the future.
