The coolest new smartphone feature we probably won't see in South Africa

Oh we'll get it and use it, but not from any handsets provided by the mobile operators themselves.
 
Ninja'd said:
Sounds like a drain on the battery.
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Samsung are releasing a new sim-less phone to improve battery life, which I think is a much better idea than telling us to only use half of the battery capacity.
 
Never say never. I've got a Dual SIM Huawei Mate 9 on contract from Telkom. Yes, it is the hybrid type but has 64GB on board memory so I can survive without an SD Card. Being able to connect to two LTE networks at once would be nice, however I would settle for it being able to automatically switch to the one that has the better signal.
 
While the hardware for dual-SIM smartphones is available, operators in countries like the United States and South Africa request that manufacturers disable it in units sold locally.
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But why?

To stop the end user from having two different cellular networks for voice/data?

I don't get it.
 
Nips said:
Never say never. I've got a Dual SIM Huawei Mate 9 on contract from Telkom. Yes, it is the hybrid type but has 64GB on board memory so I can survive without an SD Card. Being able to connect to two LTE networks at once would be nice, however I would settle for it being able to automatically switch to the one that has the better signal.
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Telkom probably does this because they confident you will use their network for data, Vodacom for example makes sure you can't use the dual SIM because they sure you will not use their network for data. Wonder why? :whistling:
 
While the hardware for dual-SIM smartphones is available, operators in countries like the United States and South Africa request that manufacturers disable it in units sold locally.
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That statement assumes that network operators are the only distributors of cellphones.

Instead of committing to a lengthy cellular service provider contract primarily to get the latest and greatest cellphone, it is entirely feasible to save up and buy the cellphone you want (unless it's an iPhone) from somewhere other than the network operators and the cellular service providers.
 
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j4ck455 said:
That statement assumes that network operators are the only distributors of cellphones.

Instead of committing to a lengthy cellular service provider contract primarily to get the latest and greatest cellphone, it is entirely feasible to save up and buy the cellphone you want (unless it's an iPhone) from somewhere other than the network operators and the cellular service providers.
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You can buy iPhones cash. It's just about the same price as a car.

But then it is the same for the high end Samsungs and even the Huawei's are becoming super expensive...
 
ebendl said:
You can buy iPhones cash. It's just about the same price as a car.

But then it is the same for the high end Samsungs and even the Huawei's are becoming super expensive...
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Very true and exactly what I meant.

As for Samsung, it's not just Samsung cellphones that are overpriced, it's all Samsung products that are overpriced. Given a choice between two very similar spec'ed Samsung and LG products, in my experience the LG product will be significantly less expensive.

Samsung, Apple, Huawei and a bunch of others are all charging premium prices for their brand names instead of competitively pricing their products, eventually the market saturates with overpriced products and consumers realise that brand names are worthless and it pays to compare specifications as well as shopping around for the best price. As for differentiating factors like warranties and guarantees, the extensive list of exclusions render warranties and guarantees practically worthless.
 
Totempole said:
To stop the end user from having two different cellular networks for voice/data?
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That is exactly why, though there is a reason. Most phones that people/sheep get through contracts are effectively subsidised by the network. They don't do this out of the kindness of their own hearts. The fact that they restrict your choice is the cost you pay for getting your iPhone/Galaxy on a monthly contract without a credit record.

This is fantastic news for people who do use dual sim phones though. It is a PITA to switch between data for networks.
 
This is blatant anti competitive behavior by operators. Unfortunately probably takes years before consumer watch dogs and journalists raise this issue. Similar to the exhorbitant out of bundle data charges scam thats been going on for years at consumers expense before anything gets done.
 
I am certain I can do that with my Xiaomi note 4 already? Both networks connected and I can choose which SIM to use for data
 
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