Best smartphones in South Africa for under R1,200

South Africans looking for a smartphone for R1,200 or less have several options — including some recognisable brands.

One such device is a dual-SIM Samsung Galaxy A3 Core, available for R1,199 from Makro.

If you’d like to buy a locally assembled device, there is the Mara S. However, you may not receive official support beyond a store warranty — at least for now.

This is due to the company’s financial difficulties, which have led to the closure of its Durban factory.

Phone prices were taken from Takealot and Makro and excluded promotions.

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Samsung 16GB Galaxy A3 Core dual-SIM — R1,199

Samsung’s Galaxy A3 Core offers up to 14 hours of Internet usage.

The budget phone has an 8 megapixel (MP)  rear camera with autofocus and an F2.4 front camera.

It also features a 1.5GHz quad-core CPU and 16GB of internal storage.

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ZTE Blade L210 — R1,095

The L210 features a quad-core 1.3GHz CPU and power-saving technology that promises to prevent the  CPU from overloading and detect and limit high power consumption.

The L210 has a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera.

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Hisense 16GB U40 — R899

The Hisense U40 features a quad-core CPU and offers up to 15 hours of 3G usage, a 5MP autofocus camera with face detection, and a 5MP front camera with facial identification.

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Mara S 8GB dual-Sim — R899

The Mara S offers up to 8 hours of usage on 3G, a 2MP front camera with an F1.8 aperture and a 5MP rear camera with LED flash.

On paper, the Mara is outclassed by the Hisense U40’s specifications.

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