Best smartphones for under R3,000 in South Africa

South Africans don’t have to splurge on an expensive flagship smartphone to use popular mobile apps, browse the web, take high-quality photos and videos, and use social media and streaming services.

Local consumers are generally price-sensitive, as many cannot afford to spend multiple thousands of rand on a mobile device.

There is fierce competition for customers in the budget smartphone category segment, with numerous manufacturers battling it out for their market share.

In addition to the country’s best-selling mobile brand — Samsung — the budget category is brimming with offerings from Chinese tech heavyweights like Honor, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

Smartphones from these more prominent brands must contend with heavily budget-focused brands like Blackview and Tecno.

In MyBroadband’s most recent assessment of available devices, we found several budget smartphones with specifications that were previously unheard of in this category.

This included Tecno and Oppo models with 128GB capacity, typically found in mid-rangers and even as the entry-level storage configuration for some flagships.

The Tecno model also offered 8GB RAM, over double the 3GB or 4GB commonly found in this segment.

One model from Samsung boasted an FHD+ resolution, another rarity in the budget segment.

Several budget smartphones offered refresh rates up to 90Hz — faster than what’s available on the non-Pro iPhone 15 models.

Given that batteries are among the cheapest parts of a smartphone, all the budget models featured large 5,000mAh packs.

Below are 10 of the best smartphones you can buy for under R3,000 in South Africa.

We focused specifically on models that were only up to a year and a half old.

Xiaomi Redmi A2 — R1,499 (Takealot)

Tecno Spark Go 2023 — R1,799 (Bash)

Blackview A52 — R2,299 (Rugged SA)

Honor X5 Plus — R2,299 (Bash, Incredible, Takealot)

Samsung Galaxy A04s — R2,299 (Takealot)

Xiaomi Redmi 12C — R2,299 (Makro)

Tecno Spark 10C — R2,499 (Takealot)

Samsung Galaxy A14  — R2,799 (Takealot and Makro)

Huawei Nova Y61 — R2,899 (Takealot)

Oppo A18 — R2,999 (Takealot)

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