Vodacom will sell you a smartphone for R399

Vodacom, in partnership with Google, has revealed two new smartphones running on the Android Go OS, which is designed to run on devices that have as little as 512MB of RAM.

Android Go – or Android Oreo Go to give it its full name – is a streamlined version of the Android operating system, which aims to save users data storage on their devices. Essentially owners of low-spec smartphones can have a similar experience with Android Go as their high-end Android Oreo counterparts.

Google says that Android Go users will have twice the amount of storage on their devices as those running Android Nougat.

The more expensive device revealed is the Huawei Y3 (released last year). Priced at R999, the phone has a 2MP front camera and an 8MP rear camera, with a 5-inch display. Under the hood, the Y3 has Mediatek MT6737M chipset, a 200mAh battery, 1GB of RAM and 8GB storage. Those specs don’t exactly blow the roof off, but the phone offers 4G/LTE connectivity at a decent price.

The lower priced device is Vodacom’s fourth iteration of its Kicka line. It’s a four-inch display smartphone with 512MB RAM and 4GB storage, containing a Mediatek MT6580M chipset and a1 500mAh battery. The cameras aren’t much to write home about – 2MP on the back, 0.3MP on the front – but the price certainly is: this 3G smartphone costs just R399.

It’s all part of a push from Vodacom and Google to upscale South African smartphone users. According to the telco, of the 13 million handsets that were sold for around a R1 000 last year, 6.5 million were 2G,  6 million were 3G and around half a million were 4G. To move South Africans to faster and better smartphones, Vodacom has decided to use some rather bullish tactics.

These are reflected in the packages offered too. Vodacom announced its ‘Vaya!’ packages alongside its new phones, which offer free data for the first three months and then 200MB of data and a daily allowance of 250MB specifically for the YouTube Go app for 4G device owners, and 100MB of data and 100MB for the YouTube Go app for 3G handset owners.

Of course, the elephant in the room here is data costs. In order to address these, Vodacom is offering a recharge tariff for the above deals; users need to recharge their accounts every 30 days at a cost of R29.00 for 4G users and R12 for 3G users.

Vodacom says it has a third smartphone offering in the pipeline, from Indian manufacturer Micromax, and will announce the details for that handset at a later date.