Smartphones Priced Between Kshs 20,000 and Kshs 25,000 are the Real Deal

Techweez

EDITORIALOPINION

By Kiruti Itimu - July 19, 2019

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Huawei Y9 Prime 2019

You can get a smartphone from basically any price bracket. Cheaper phones usually have basic specs and expensive phones have relatively better specifications. However, hanks to the law of diminishing returns, the value of what you’re paying for decreases as you get a more expensive phone.

This is why I believe there is a sweet spot in the Kenyan smartphone buying scene. It is the sub-bracket that I’ve experienced to offer the best value for people looking for a smartphone. This is the Kshs 20,000- Kshs 25,000 price bracket.

The first question I’ll be asked is: “Hold up, wait, that is expensive for me.”I do understand. But wait, I need to make my case.

First of all, a little back story. The smartphone industry has matured in an interesting way over the years. We had two distinct categories before: smartphones and feature phones. Smartphones were expensive and could only be bought by a few.

Over time, smartphones started becoming cheaper. Feature phones started dying out. Manufacturers started populating the price categories with cheaper phones while their flagships continued to be expensive. Such features like USB C, 1080p screens, great battery life, lots of RAM and powerful processors were the reserve of the expensive phones.

Our scenario right now is having smartphones at different price categories, from sub Kshs 10,000 smartphones to smartphones that exceed Kshs 100,000.

In 2019, we have a very interesting scenario. On Android, flagship phones have OLED touch screens with 1080p resolution or greater, at least 6GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, USB Type C ports, powerful processors and stereo speakers.

However, this has led to former ‘flagship level’ specs to trickle down to the 20-25k market. This is the main reason I say that this has become the sweet spot for price and the features you are getting.

At this price range, you get such features like:

1080p screens
Relatively powerful processors like the Kirin 710 which benchmarks quite well
4GB of RAM
64GB or 128GB of internal storage
USB Type C
Premium builds like glass metal sandwich that we see in flagship phones
Good enough cameras and the inclusion of such features like wide angle cameras
A number of devices have 4000mAh batteries which result into great battery life
Some also have features we saw in more expensive devices like pop up cameras.
A great example to use is the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 that I have been using for the past few weeks or so. This phone is the quintessential reason why the 20-25K price bracket for smartphones has become so good lately.

Huawei Y9 Prime 2019
The phone has a good 1080p screen, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, a fast Kirin 710F processor, USB type C port and a 4000mAh battery. It also adds a motorized pop up camera, surprisingly decent main camera and the inclusion of a wide angle camera that is incredibly useful in some situations.

Huawei Y9 (2019)_2

Nokia 7.1 Screen
xiaomi redmi note 7
Also in this range, you will see other great smartphones like the Huawei P30 Lite, Huawei Y9 2019, Nokia 6.1 Plus, Nokia 7.1, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 and many more.

The reason why to upgrade to a phone on this bracket

To drive the home further, let me show you a comparison between two phones: The Y9 Prime 2019 and the Y7 Prime 2019. The Y9 Prime is around 25K and the Y7 Prime is around 18K.

Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 back
huawei y7 prime 2019
What are you getting more with the Y9 Prime for an additional 7K? Well, you are getting:

A sharper screen (1080p vs 720p)
33% more RAM (4GB vs 3GB RAM)
400% more internal storage (128GB vs 32GB)
The newer USB type C over the older micro-USB connector
Way more powerful processor that is 100% more powerful in single core tasks and over 40% more powerful in multi-core tasks
Better main shooter (quite noticeable)
A wide angle lens
Selfie camera that pops up unlike the traditional one on the Y7 Prime.
Better screen to body ratio
The jump from the 17K phone (in this case the Y7 Prime 2019) to the Y9 Prime 2019 is pretty huge and you are damn well getting more for your money.

It is rare to see such huge jumps when you compare phones between other price brackets. Like for example, the main jump between phones in the 60K price bracket (OnePlus for example) and flagships like the Galaxy S10 (around 90K) is pretty small and is limited to wireless charging capability, stereo speakers and the camera quality. They share the same pretty fast UFS2.1 storage and storage capacities, same top tier processors (Snapdragon 855) and almost similar build quality.

On the low end, the difference between a 10K phone and the one at is 17K is also not that massive. The main differences are more RAM (1GB/2GB vs 3GB), a slightly powerful processor and more internal storage (32GB instead of 16GB). They share features like 720p screens, micro-USB ports and similar cameras with 2MP depth sensors.

Who is this article for

This article is for that consumer who has money for a 17K phone, but is also contemplating to spend a bit more for a much better phone.

With Kes 17,000, you can get a pretty good smartphones (like the Y7 Prime 2019) which will get the job done. However for a minimum of Kes 3,000, you can get a smartphone like the Y9 2019 or the Nokia 6.1 Plus or the Nokia 7.1 Plus which are pretty good and upto 7K more, the person might score a great deal with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 or the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019.

We are lucky to have such great phones at this ‘mid-tier’ price bracket and I hope that such features trickle down to even cheaper devices in the coming years

Why buy a Huawei phone na Tunajua Drumf ametoa Android zao? Bila Android that phone is useless.
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any phone below 30K is trash …

ignorance ni kitu mbaya. Ngojea September uone Huawei will Mass release Android Q for all of their devices. Faster than Samsung and almost all other Non-Google OEMS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thM5ONVGlyk

I’m honestly saying this from real experience guys … i repeat trash!

according to research done by which university?

And we are supposed to believe you because wewe ni nani?

It can’t access play store na YouTube. It’s useless

The guy is just marketing Huawei.

I agree. The best smartphones, features-wise and price-wise are those sold between 35K and 55K. If my budget is below 30K I would rather go back a year or 2 and select the best flagship smartphone from there. Right now , Samsung Galaxy S8+ inauzwa around 30K.

Nani amesema it can’t access Playstore and Youtube? Kwani walitoa Android Q source code wapi?

agreed and he is not even hiding it. There are several options on that price range like Samsung A50 or Xiaomi Redmi Note 7, the New MI A3, Galaxy M30, Asus Zenfone Max Pro 1, Oppo A7, etc. Should have given us a detailed article with phones from various OEMs. Hii ni sponsored advert tu

Wewe unatumia iPhone 6 refurbished alafu unafungua mdomo mbele ya wazee

@cortedivoire hii hapa ni Apple store?

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Hehe … Avicii huyu mujamaa anaanika bei ya phone yako aje hivyo

:D:D:D:D:D

For this price bracket realme x is the isht

Mimi siezi kua nabeba 30k kwa mfuko kila saa tena. i lost an expensive phone last month ikaniuma sana. Am not buying a costly one very soon.

@Deez Nuts says that , if a phone can call , has most bands , a decent camera and a huuge battery , then [SIZE=7] it’s perfect[/SIZE] , hio KIRIN , polished body or whatever bells and whistles chieth won’t add value if you aint an avid phone user , app developer or intense feature specific phone user … it’s like buying a huuge all terrain 4 * 4 SUV kuenda ofisi CBD na unaishi hapo karibu …what’s the use ?
… bure kabisaa meffi nyinyi matacore brare fwakin tucker tucker …

I am still using this and not dumping it soon.
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