Many smartphone manufacturers have chosen to rely on low-priced smartphones to increase sales and market share. In Uganda, low-priced smartphone manufacturers like Tecno benefit a lot from this. Many manufacturers release cheap-priced phones with quite similar specs as their high-end counterparts, putting up a favourable competition.
If you have a low budget and are interested in getting something to help you through or are new into the smartphone world and aren’t interested in very complex devices, I will, in this piece, walk you through factors you should consider when making your purchase decision and recommend a few devices as well.
What to consider
The first thing to consider before deciding is your budget. How much are you willing to spend? Your budget will give you a range of phones in which to make a choice. After all, you cannot buy a smartphone you cannot afford. Here we will focus on a budget below Shs500,000.
Next, we will consider the device manufacturer. The world’s most popular smartphone manufacturers are Samsung, Huawei and Apple. Apple phones which are always referred to as the iPhones are mostly high-priced and shouldn’t be considered for a budget below Shs500,000. Unless you are looking to purchase a second-hand phone. In fact, you might end up purchasing a counterfeit iPhone.
Huawei, Alcatel, Tecno, Lenovo, Xiao MI, Samsung, etc., will provide a wide pool to choose from. All these have one thing in common, they all run the Android operating system. By choosing a device manufacturer, you might be choosing an operating system as well. The operating system serves as the base on which the phone runs.
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Narrowing down
You should go ahead and narrow down the list further through these next factors. However, these factors to consider cannot be organized in an order. Every User will have a factor they value more than the other. Sometimes it depends on what functions the user intends to use most. They include internal storage, RAM, camera, battery life, Sim card slots, etc. Depending on what functions you intend to use most, a large internal memory is usually preferred by individuals looking to store a lot of photos and videos, a high RAM is usually preferred by those interested in multitasking, phones providing higher pixels always deliver better quality pictures and are preferred most by those who intend to take lots of pictures or record lots of videos, a device providing a higher battery power say 3000mAh allows users more usage time without needing to charge while those who haven’t yet decided on a service provider to stick to will opt for a dual-sim phone. Many other factors must be considered and weighed giving much weight to those that are more important to the user/ buyer.
Also see: How to make your phone battery last longer
Other factors like memory card capacity, front and back camera, screen size, and many more should also be considered.
After deciding on all that, a user will now have narrowed down the list and the next option will be deciding where to make the purchase. Most telecom service providers in Uganda sell phones in their service centres and this is a recommended place to buy. This is because they always offer promotional prices, warranty and other smartphone-related support which always comes in handy. However, other official distributors exist in Uganda and have distribution points in most areas of Kampala.
Midcom is one of the biggest smartphone distributors in Uganda and other device official distributors have distribution points along Kampala road.
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Regardless of where you choose to purchase, always check to confirm that the device is an original device before you pay your money. Credit should always be given to registered distributors and should be trusted.
Low priced smartphones currently sold in Uganda
Below are the current devices available in telecom service centres along with their prices and important specs as per the official websites.
MTN Fero A4001 Plus 512MB RAM, 2MP front & back, 8GB storage, 1300mAh – 129,000
MTN KaFit 4.5”, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, 5MP camera 2300mAh – 165,000
Tecno N5 4.5”, 1GB RAM, 5MP back, 2MP front, 8GB storage – 270,000
iTel A11D 4”, 512MB RAM, 8MP back, 2MP front, 8GB storage – 129,000
Zuri C52 5”, 512MB RAM, 8MP back, 2MP front, 8GB storage, 1500mAh – 299,000
iDroid Royal v5 5”, 1GB RAM, 8MP back, 2MP front, 8GB storage – 349,000
iDroid Balr X7 5.5”, 1GB RAM, 8MP back, 5MP front, 16GB storage – 349,000
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