Hands on with Jio Mi-Fi device: First impressions

We’ve been getting a lot of requests for a hands on review of the Jio Mi-Fi personal hotspot which will be sold by Reliance Jio at the time of commercial launch. So here we would like to give you just a bird’s eye view of the device and its features without delving deep into the tech specs.

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So out of the box the device looks and feels like a large sized pebble with the Jio branding on one side and the LED indicators for battery level, 4G signal strength and WiFi signal strength on the other side. There are two physical buttons, one for the WPS pairing and the other to power on or switch off the device. There is a single micro USB charging port on the device and there is a standard Micro USB charger included in the box along with the quick start guide.

The Device houses a 2600 mAh battery and can connect to 10 WiFi devices at a time. The device can comfortably fit in the trouser pocket and can be carried around with ease. Jio MiFi device supports all three bands (850/1800/2300MHz) which Jio will be using to deploy its LTE services and also supports Voice over LTE (VoLTE) functionality in combination with Jio Join app running on your smartphone. Below is a screenshot of the speed test conducted using the WiFi network set up by the Jio MiFi device in Mumbai circle with full LTE signal strength as visible in the LED network indicator in the first pic.

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Apart from carrying high speed internet on the go, another handy application of the MiFi device is that it enables voice service on devices which do not support VoLTE. A large number of 4G handsets in the market today only support Data services on LTE network but fall back on 3G or 2G networks for Voice calls. This device bridges that gap and with the help of the Jio Join app the user can make or receive regular calls on any WiFi enabled smartphone (Even non 4G). VoLTE calls will have HD voice quality and be on an IP network with higher bit rate compared to the analogue voice quality of cellular calls.