Afrihost Zest T1 a massive hit

“We initially only planned to sell 1,000 on today’s exclusive offer to clients but decided to make more available when they sold out within 30 minutes,” a spokesperson for Afrihost said when asked about the day’s sales.
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Me suspect Afriman be fibbing. Surely they were prepared for this. They updated the website within minutes. Either way, well done to them. Good products means good business. Looking forward to the courier knocking on the door!
 
masters of hype. The phone is very similar to gobii IVP being sold by kalahari
 
zeely said:
masters of hype. The phone is very similar to gobii IVP being sold by kalahari
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How?
There are a few significant differences: biggest one for me is operating system. The IVP is probably going to stay on 4.2 forever, whilst the Zest has 4.4 and OTA updates.
The OS is very significant in a phone at this price level, especially with KitKat having lower requirements than Jellybean.

Other differences:
Better camera
Less bloatware
Higher resolution screen.
Slightly faster processor

The other, slightly more subtle thing for me was the lack of a decent review of the device. The only reviews I could find were ones by kalahari and a brief video one by EWN. No camera photos, no benchmarks, no videos of games being run.

Compare that to MyBB's thorough review of the Zest...

The choice is pretty obvious :D
 
Massive hit? I expected to read about several hundred thousand units preordered/sold.
Put units in stores. I'd buy it just for the data.
 
jax_maxit said:
Massive hit? I expected to read about several hundred thousand units preordered/sold.
Put units in stores. I'd buy it just for the data.
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Based on the very limited marketing I would say they have done well. Shifting R6million in sales in a single day is something they should be proud of.
 
moklet said:
I would have gone for it, but I still got very capable (better) phone which I only have for 7 months now. So I couldn't justify it.
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Me too, if I were on the market I'd have grabbed it in one go
 
Skerminkel said:
Me suspect Afriman be fibbing. Surely they were prepared for this. They updated the website within minutes. Either way, well done to them. Good products means good business. Looking forward to the courier knocking on the door!
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Afriman never fibs!

We were prepared to sell more - but originally it was going to be to the general public. We never expected our offer to the general public to sell out in 20 minutes. It's so awesome that our clients continue to surprise and delight us :)
 
moklet said:
I would have gone for it, but I still got very capable (better) phone which I only have for 7 months now. So I couldn't justify it.
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For the price and free data, it's well worth it. If you consider that the data is worth R1,182 (and that's at our crazy low prices) you're actually getting a full android smartphone for R810. That's awesome any way you slice it :)
 
konfab said:
How?
There are a few significant differences: biggest one for me is operating system. The IVP is probably going to stay on 4.2 forever, whilst the Zest has 4.4 and OTA updates.
The OS is very significant in a phone at this price level, especially with KitKat having lower requirements than Jellybean.

Other differences:
Better camera
Less bloatware
Higher resolution screen.
Slightly faster processor

The other, slightly more subtle thing for me was the lack of a decent review of the device. The only reviews I could find were ones by kalahari and a brief video one by EWN. No camera photos, no benchmarks, no videos of games being run.

Compare that to MyBB's thorough review of the Zest...

The choice is pretty obvious :D
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1) OS updates is pure speculation. You cant factually state that IVP will or wont update, same with zest. As an end user, what do you specifically need in 4.4.2 that you dont get in 4.2?
2) 5MP = iphone 4 camera, 8mp = 4s camera. The IVP is software enhanced to 8mp. I wonder if this is the same on ZEST
3) I cant comment as I haven't seen the zest bloatware. Hardly a factor tho - theres less bloatware on IVP than on any samsung
4) ivp = 854 x 480 (410Kp), zest = 960 x 540 (520Kp)
5) 100mhz difference

I cant really compare further because there are NO specs listed on zest info page

Considering the zest will sell for R2500, no data bundle, and the IVP sells for R1699, +200mb/month * 12, I'd say the obvious choice would be the IVP.

like i said - masters of hype. People are fanatical disciples of the phone and they havent even got it in their hands yet...

disclaimer - I have 2 x gobii IVP's for development testing
 
Seriously said:
The agenda is very clear now! ;)
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I also have galaxy note 3, iphone4, ipad 2, ipad 4, ipad air, galaxy note 10 tab and 4 x titan phones

the IVP isnt the greatest thing ever, but for the R900 rand cheaper its definitely a great choice
 
zeely said:
I also have galaxy note 3, iphone4, ipad 2, ipad 4, ipad air, galaxy note 10 tab and 4 x titan phones

the IVP isnt the greatest thing ever, but for the R900 rand cheaper its definitely a great choice
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So they paid you R90 a pop to take it off their hands? :rolleyes:



AfriMan said:
For the price and free data, it's well worth it. If you consider that the data is worth R1,182 (and that's at our crazy low prices) you're actually getting a full android smartphone for R810. That's awesome any way you slice it :)
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AirWolf said:
So they paid you R90 a pop to take it off their hands? :rolleyes:
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some people are a little slow today...

Can I go buy a zest 1 in 3 months time for 1999 + 1gb data * 12?

no - its a launch special. The standard device price is nothing special, considering whats out there...

masters of hype...
 
zeely said:
some people are a little slow today...

Can I go buy a zest 1 in 3 months time for 1999 + 1gb data * 12?

no - its a launch special. The standard device price is nothing special, considering whats out there...

masters of hype...
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Everyone looks for specials on most items when buying.
You snooze you lose :p.
 
zeely said:
1) OS updates is pure speculation. You cant factually state that IVP will or wont update, same with zest. As an end user, what do you specifically need in 4.4.2 that you dont get in 4.2?
2) 5MP = iphone 4 camera, 8mp = 4s camera. The IVP is software enhanced to 8mp. I wonder if this is the same on ZEST
3) I cant comment as I haven't seen the zest bloatware. Hardly a factor tho - theres less bloatware on IVP than on any samsung
4) ivp = 854 x 480 (410Kp), zest = 960 x 540 (520Kp)
5) 100mhz difference

I cant really compare further because there are NO specs listed on zest info page

Considering the zest will sell for R2500, no data bundle, and the IVP sells for R1699, +200mb/month * 12, I'd say the obvious choice would be the IVP.

like i said - masters of hype. People are fanatical disciples of the phone and they havent even got it in their hands yet...

disclaimer - I have 2 x gobii IVP's for development testing
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1) Afrihost have explicitly said that Zest will get updates. There has not been a peep from Kalahari, so drawing on my experience with low end phones and their usual dearth of updates I am pretty confident that there is not going to be few, if not any updates.
1b) "As an end user, what do you specifically need in 4.4.2 that you don't get in 4.2?" Better performance is precisely the feature I am looking at, its like asking which operating system is better: Vista or Windows 7 (and no I am not just referring to the version, I am looking at system performance)
2) Using software to increase the resolution does not really improve the picture quality. If you say that the Zest might have a software enhanced camera, without any evidence then you should also question every cellphone's use of software enhancement. They simply state that it is an 8MP camera.
3) Can you remove the Kalahari apps? As far as I can see, the only thing that comes with the Zest is Afrihost's app and a couple of wallpapers.
4) Still a better screen :3
5) Still a better processor :3

Look for the special deal, paying 300 more for a better device, and 5 times as much data was enough to convince me. And Afrihost is a very known quantity to me,

I am not saying the T1 is the best phone on the market and you should
 
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