South Africa’s most popular budget smartphone
South Africa’s two biggest mobile networks and top online retailer Takealot recently told MyBroadband that the Samsung Galaxy A04e was the country’s best-selling smartphone in the first half of 2024. However, its successor, the Galaxy A05, has started to outsell it.
The Galaxy A04e was first launched in October 2022 and rolled out in South Africa in January 2023.
The nearly two-year-old smartphone’s recommended retail price has remained R1,999 since its debut, with online retailers currently selling it for under R1,800.
MyBroadband also found several listings for network-locked versions of the phone that are not much cheaper — something to watch out for.
The Galaxy A05 was announced in September last year and launched in mid-October. Its recommended retail price is R2,499, but it sells for closer to R2,000 at online retailers.
For the R200–R300 extra, the Galaxy A05 offers a larger screen, better system-on-chip, 1 GB more memory, double the storage, a higher-resolution selfie camera, and Bluetooth 5.3.
It also has a 50-megapixel (MP) main camera and dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac. However, these features were also available on the standard Galaxy A04.
The A04e is a discounted version of the regular Galaxy A04. To bring down its price, Samsung dropped the quality of the camera and opted for less advanced Wi-Fi.
Smartphones are the primary method with which most South Africans access the Internet. Given the affordability constraints of many households, well-priced entry-level devices are essential for the South African market.
Thanks to the high demand, the budget smartphone segment is highly contested, with several local and international brands competing for customers’ attention and money.
The participation of a number of Chinese brands has further intensified competition in the past few years.
Despite increased competition, Samsung still leads the pack in the segment. The table below compares the hardware specifications of the Galaxy A04e and A05.
| Specifications | Samsung Galaxy A04e | Samsung Galaxy A05 |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Android 12 | Android 13 |
| Display | 6.5-inch PLS LCD 720 × 1600 | 6.7-inch PLS LCD 720 × 1600 |
| CPU | Mediatek MT6765 Helio P35 Octa-core: 4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53) | Mediatek Helio G85 Octa-core: 2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 6×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55 |
| RAM | 3 GB | 4 GB |
| Storage | 32 GB (18.9 GB available) microSDXC (up to 1 TB) | 64 GB (44.4 GB available) microSDXC (up to 1 TB) |
| Rear camera | 13 MP, f/2.2, (wide) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) | 50 MP, f/1.8, (wide) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) |
| Front camera | 5 MP, f/2.2 | 8MP f/2.0 |
| Ports | USB-C 2.0 3.5mm headphone | USB-C 2.0 3.5mm headphone |
| Connectivity | LTE Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n Bluetooth 5.0 | LTE Wi-Fi 802.11ac dual-band Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Positioning | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS |
| Dual SIM | Yes, nano-SIM | Yes, nano-SIM |
| Battery | 5,000mAh | 5,000mAh |
| Dimensions | 164.2 x 75.9 x 9.1 mm | 168.8 x 78.2 x 8.8 mm |
| Weight | 188g | 195g |
| Price | R1,790 | R2,100 |
MyBroadband recently contacted Vodacom and MTN regarding the trends they are seeing in the market.
South Africa’s biggest mobile network, Vodacom, said the most notable change in budget buying trends was customers increasingly switching from 3G to affordable 4G smartphones.
This is good news for South African mobile operators, who are trying to migrate customers to newer technologies so they can switch off their old 2G and 3G networks.
Switching off 2G and 3G will free up precious network capacity that could be more efficiently used by newer 4G, 5G, and next-generation cellular technologies.
Part of driving the migration to 4G is offering affordable devices for consumers.
Communications minister Solly Malatsi recently said he wants to see a threshold on the luxury goods tax charged on smartphones to make it more affordable for people to switch to 4G and 5G devices.
This will help migrate traffic off 2G and 3G, after which a deadline for switching off these legacy networks can be decided.
“We’ve already had informal discussions with the Treasury about it,” Malatsi said.
“We are not saying remove all the associated luxury goods taxes on smart devices, but have a threshold.”
A threshold would make devices over a set amount considered luxury items, attracting ad valorem, while cheaper devices would be exempt from the tax.
“We need to make sure that we create the policy space for devices to be affordable so that we remove the first primary barrier to entry and then deal with the quality of infrastructure investment on broadband,” said Malatsi.
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