Micromax Bharat 5 launched at Rs 5,555, comes with 5MP camera with bokeh mode & 5,000mAh batter

MMicromax on Friday unveiled the Bharat 5 along with the tagline "The Power Of 5". Interestingly, this comes a day after Xiaomi launched the "Desh ka smartphone" Redmi 5A. While the Xiaomi budget phone has been launched at Rs 5,999 (Rs 4,999 for the first 5 million customers), the Bharat 5 comes at Rs 5,555 and highlights a 5-megapixel camera with Bokeh Mode and a large 5000mAh battery and will be available through offline channels starting Tuesday in a Black colour option.

At the launch of the Bharat 5, Micromax said that existing Vodafone customers will get an additional 10GB of data on any tariff plan they are using for a period of 5 months. The 4G VoLTE phone runs on Android 7.0 Nougat. In terms of design, the Bharat 5 looks similar to the predecessors with bezels all around the display, a selfie camera and earpiece on the top and navigation keys on the chin. The back is slightly different as the rear camera is pushed to the top left side.

The Bharat 5 is the successor to the Bharat 4 that was launched in September. The latest addition to the Bharat lineup of affordable phones comes with some minor updated specs. It features a 5.2-inch HD display and is powered by a quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.

As the phone is launched with the "Power Of 5" tagline, it highlights a 5000mAh battery capacity with OTG support and 500 hours of standby time. This is also twice as big as found on the Bharat 4. Additionally, the Bharat 5 features a 5-megapixel sensor on the back with LED flash and Bokeh Mode, and a 5-megapixel sensor on the front with Flash as well as well.

Micromax has partnered with BSNL and Vodafone in the past to bring out the Bharat 1 and Bharat 2-Ultra 4G VoLTE phones in a bid to challenge the JioPhone with 'effective pricing' strategy. The company has been focussing on bringing affordable phones with the Bharat-series in a bid to move feature phone users to smartphone, and the Bharat 5 aims to do the same. The company says that it has sold 3 million Bharat phones so far and plans to sell 6 million phones by the end of March.

As far as pricing is concerned, the Bharat 5 will look to take on the newly launched Redmi 5A. Since the 5A is priced at Rs 4,999 right now for the first 5 million customers, the Bharat 5 will likely have a tough initial period. However, it is likely to perform better once the Redmi 5A goes back to Rs 5,999.