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  Tecno have launched their latest smartphone in Kenya; the Tecno Camon 17 which is already available for sale with an initial retail price of Ksh. 17,899 for the 4 + 128GB variant and Ksh. 18,777 for the 6+128GB. The Camon 17 takes over from last year's Camon 16 and has a number of exiting specs including a big screen, 90Hz refresh rate and a powerful MediaTek Helio G85 processor.  It features a 6.6 inch IPS LCD screen exactly the same size as the Infinix Hot 10 lite. The highlight of this phone is the 90Hz refresh rate, an exiting feature that we saw in last year's Camon 16 Premier. However comes with a disappointingly low display resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels resulting in a low pixel Density of 267 ppi. We expected that Tecno would give us a full HD display in this phone but it looks like we will still have to wait for a long time before we see a budget Tecno phone with such level of display quality.  The phone is made of a Glass front, Plastic back and a plastic frame, an

  Vivo V21 is a 5G smartphone currently retailing at around £399.00 in the UK. The phone was announced together with the Vivo V22 and the two phones have a number of similar specs and closely resembles last year’s Vivo V20 except for a more trendy design which closely resembles a gaming phone. They have good displays, powerful Cameras and a good big Memory.  Just like with the Vivo 20, Vivo focused on the Selfie camera performance which is a 44MP lens with a number of AI enhancements including AI image stabilization, autofocus and AI Night portrait for night selfies. Vivo also claims they have included a ground breaking Light sensor that greatly improved the performance of this camera. It features a 6.44 inch AMOLED display with 90 Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support.It has a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and 409 pixel Density the same as the V20.   The V21 ships with Android 11 atop the Funtouch 11.1 skin, and is likely going to receive Android 12 update. It spots the Media

  Vivo China have announced two phones, the Vivo V22 and V21 5G expected to retail at around Ksh. 44,500 once they become available in the country. The two phones have a number of similar specs and closely resembles last year’s Vivo V20 except for a more trendy design which closely resembles a gaming phone. display, powerful Cameras and a good big Memory.  Just like with the Vivo 20, Vivo focused on the Selfie camera performance which is a 44MP lens with a number of AI enhancements including AI image stabilization, autofocus and AI Night portrait for night selfies. Vivo also claims they have included a ground breaking Light sensor that greatly improved the performance of this camera. It features a 6.44 inch AMOLED display with 90 Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support.It has a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and 409 pixel Density the same as the V20.   The V22 will ship with Android 11 atop the Funtouch 11.1 skin, and is likely going to receive Android 12 update. It spots the Med

  Mediatek Dimensity 800U is an affordable 5G System On Chip (SOC) announced December 2020 by Mediatek, a chip maker that targets to lower Smartphone prices by producing highly efficient chipsets at competitive prices. It is a 7 nm fabricated chip with a 64-bit architecture and Octa-core CPU with a top clock-speed of 2.4 GHz.  According to MediaTek z this is the first chipset to support Dual Standby 5G Sim Conncetivity with 5G-CA (2CC 5G Carrier Aggregation) enabling a seamless handover between two 5G connection areas across a coverage layer. Knowing how 5G connectivity drains battery at an alarming rate, MediaTek included a number of power saving technologies in order to lower power consumption this lengthen the battery life of the device.  It supports upto 12GB RAM LPDDR4X memory with 2133 MHz memory frequency and a Full HD+ display resolution of up to 1080 x 2520 pixels and upto 240Hz refresh rate.  Mediatek Dimensity 800U Key features. Announced December 2020. 7 nm fabricated Octa-

  Released March this year, the Samsung Galaxy A72 is now available in Kenya at a price of Ksh. 49,999. It is a mid-range phone that has a number of good specs including a Full HD+ display, powerful Cameras and a good big Memory.  The Galaxy A72 was Launched together with the Galaxy A52 and is not surprising that both phones have a number of similar specs including the same Snapdragon 720G, same cameras and the same Operating System.  The Galaxy A72 features a 6.5 inch Super AMOLED screen, the same size as it’s predicessor the Galaxy A51. It is also slightly bigger than that of the Galaxy A5 by just 0.2 inches. The display a Full HD + with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and a 394 pixel density.  The phone is made of a Glass front, Plastic back and a plastic frame. It is also IP67 rated making it fully dust resistant and water resistant upto to 1 meter for 30 minutes. This is the same IP rating as the Galaxy A52.  Being a 2021 phone it ships with Android 11 atop the one UI 3.1 skin.

  Released March this year, the Samsung Galaxy A52 is now available in Kenya for Ksh. 36,999. It is a budget phone that banks on the display, Cameras, storage and the processor  as it’s major selling specs.  It features some of the specs expected of a phone at it’s price and is the successor to the 2019  Galaxy A51 which had a number of similar specs as the Galaxy A50. The Galaxy A52 features a 6.5 inch Super AMOLED screen the same size as the A51 and smaller than that of the Galaxy A72 by just 0.2 inches. It also comes with a Full HD + display of 1080 x 2400 pixels, a standard display resolution of almost all phones at this price range.  Apart from the Plastic back and the plastic frame, the Galaxy A52 features an impressive Corilla Glass 5 screen something that is commendable considering that many phones at this price have a Gorilla Glass 3 like the Realme 7 Pro . This high level protection ensures zero screen scratches and gives your phone the maximum durability that is a preserve

  Released January this year, the Infinix Hot 10 Play is now available in Kenya with an average retail price of Ksh. 11,499. It is the third phone in the budget Infinix Hot series after the Hot 10 and Hot 10 Lite released late last year.  It has a number of similar specs as the Hot 10, but there are also a number of diffrences that one should be aware of before deciding which one of the three Hot 10 phones is best for them.  The Infinix Hot 10 Play features a 6.82 inch IPS LCD screen, the biggest in the Hot 10 series with the Hit 10 having a 6.78 inch and the Hot 10 Lite having a 6.6 inch display. This is a big display exactly the same as that of the Hot 9 and is a few inches shy of the 7.0 inch screen if the Tecno Spark 5 Air. Despite it's huge size it has a HD + display resolution of 720 x 1640 pixels resulting in a very low pixel Density of 263 ppi. We are yet to see an Infinix budget phone with a Full HD display, and adding a few shillings gets you Xiaomi's Redmi 9T which h

  Asus have launched their latest flagship gaming Smartphone; the Asus Rog Phone 5 which has some of the best specs including a Snapdragon 888 processor and advanced gaming features.  It is the predicessor to last year's Rog Phone 3 and is already selling at Flipkart with a retail price of between Ksh. 71,499 and Ksh. 114,399 depending on the memory size.  The Rog Phone 5 features a 6.78 inch AMOLED display with a Full HD resolution of 1080 x 2448 pixels and a pixel density of 395 ppi. Being a Gaming-centric phone, it has a 144Hz refresh rate and a 300 Hz touch sampling rate making it's display one of the most sensitive ever in a smartphone. It also has gaming tricker pressure sensitive zones to enhance your gaming experience.  The phone ships with Android 11 atop the ROG UI and is powered by the powerful 5nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, the best smartphone processor so far and already powering a number of flagships including the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, Oppo Find X3 and the One

   Mediatek Helio G70 is a budget System On Chip (SOC) released January 2020 by Mediatek, a chip maker that targets to lower Smartphone prices by producing highly efficient chipsets at competitive prices. It is a 12 nm FinFet fabricated with a 64-bit architecture and quad-core CPU with 2 x 2 GHz Cortex-A75 and 6 x 1.7 GHz Cortex-A55 cores. This is a quite good combination for it's sub 10 K price target, outperforming most of it's rivals. The Helio G70 is a gaming chipset with a powerful Arm Mali-G52MC2 GPU with a top clock-speed of 1800 MHz, and coupled with the Mediatek HyperEngine Game Technology it provides an excellent gaming experience. It ensures fast high graphics rendering, as well as other inbuilt AI gaming functions for better gaming experience. It even allows you an option to defer incoming calls while in-game without the connection dropping for a moment. It supports upto 8 GB RAM LPDDR4X memory with a emmc 5.1 storage type. It also allows dual camera setup of upto 1

  Released December last year, the Lenovo K12 Pro  is now available in Kenya for Ksh. 18,999. It is a budget phone that banks on the Cameras and the battery as it’s major selling specs.  It features some of the specs expected of a phone at it’s price including a big screen, HD display and a huge battery which are charectaristic of a sub 15K Smartphone.  The Lenovo K12 Pro features a 6.8 inch IPS LCD screen the same size as the Motorola Moto G9 Power, a phone they share a lot of similarities. Despite the big display, it features a HD+ display resolution of 720 x 1640 pixels which is likely to work against this phone as compared to other similarly priced phones like the Redmi Note 8, the Redmi 9 and Oppo F17 among others. The big display and low resolution results in a low pixel density of 263 ppi and honestly we won't recommend such a display quality to any video lover or heavy gamer.   The phone is made of a Glass front, Plastic back and a plastic frame. There is no IP rating but t

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 is a top budget Smartphone chipset launched January 2020 together with the Snapdragon 460 and Snapdragon 720G. It is an 11 nm fabricated Chipset with Kryo 260 CPU that has a top clock-speed of 2Ghz. It also features the Qualcomm Snapdragon X11 LTE modem with peak Download Speeds of 390 Mbps and Peak Upload speeds of 150 Mbps. It also supports WiFi calling with call continuity between LTR and Wi-Fi. The Snapdragon 662 can support a Full HD+ display of 1080 x 2520 pixels @ 60 Hz or HD+ of 900 x 1600 pixels @90 Hz. The Motorola Moto G9 was the first phone to feature the Snapdragon 662 chipset. The phone was announced and released August last year. Immediately other brands released their own phones featuring The chipset as from  September. The smartphones with Snapdragon 662 processor are: The Motorola Moto G9. Oppo F17. Realme 7i. Oppo A73. iQoo U1x. Xiaomi Redmi Note 9. Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power. Xiaomi Poco M3. Lenovo K12 Pro. Nokia 5.4 Motorola Moto G9 . The Moto

  Announced June 28th 2017, the Snapdragon 450 became one of the best budget Smartphone chipsets with a wide list of phones to show for it. The Snapdragon 450 is one of the few Snapdragon 4 series, and has been used in many budget phones from almost all Smartphone brands including Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Realme and Xiaomi among others. The Snapdragon 450 is an Octa-core 14 nm fabricated chipset with a 1.8 GHz CPU clock speed and uses the Adreno 506 GPU. It's Qualcomm Snapdragon X9 LYE modem can achieve speeds of up to 300 Mbps dowloads and upload speeds up to 130 Mbps. The chipset can support up to 21MP single camera with 2x image signal processing (ISP) and 1080p video playback. It also supports Quick Charge 3.0 Technology. The latest Smartphone to feature the Snapdragon 450 is the Samsung Galaxy M02S launched few days ago in India. Smartphones with Snapdragon 450 Processor. Samsung Galaxy A11. Samsung Galaxy M11. Samsung Galaxy J8. Samsung Galaxy A20s. Samsung Galaxy S6 Plus (2018).

  The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra currently the best Samsung Android Smartphone  witha number of high end flagship features that only few phones can match. It was announced January 14th and as from 22nd the same month the phone was already available for pre-order in Kenya with a price of Ksh. 174,000 for the 12 + 512 GB variant. Since then the S21 series price in the country have drastically dropped and now the 12 + 128 GB Galaxy S21 Ultra is selling for just Ksh. 124,950 at Jumia Kenya. At it’s launch many could not help but marvel at the S21 revolutionary design with a unique rear design that set the phone apart from the rest. The S21 Ultra also became the first Samsung phone outside the Note series to have an S-pen and while the international variant is powered by the Exynoss 2100, the US variant features the Snapdragon 888 Chipset becoming the second phone to be announced with the powerful processor after the Xiaomi Mi 11 announced December last year. The Galaxy S21 Ultra features a 6

  The Snapdragon 678 is a mid-range Smartphone chipset announced December last year as the successor to the 2018 Snapdragon 675. It is an 11 nm fabricated chio with a 64-bit Octa-core Cortex CPU cores with up to 2.2 GHz which is slightly better than the 2.0 GHz of it’s predecessor the Snapdragon 675. Though it has the same Adreno 612 GPU, it is more efficient and faster. The Snapdragon 678 can support Full HD display with upto 1080 x 2520 pixels with a 60Hz refresh rate. It can also support up to 48MP rear main camera and 16MP selfie camera with video recording of upto 4K at 30 frames per second. The first phone to feature the Snapdragon 678 is the Motorola Moto G Stylus (2021), followed by Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 10. Other phones are expected to launch with this chipset. Phones with Snapdragon 678 Chipset are: Motorola Moto G Stylus 2021. Xiaomi Redmi Note 10. Motorola Moto G Stylus 2021. The Moto G Stylus 2022 was the first smartphone to feature the Snapdragon 678 processor. It was launc

  The Nokia X20 is the best of the six phones announced by HMD Global on April 8th with an expected price of Ksh. 44,500. Others Launched on the same day are the Nokia C10, C20,  G10, G20 and the X10. The X20 is a mid-range 5G Smartphone that has a number of promising specs with some compromises that might cost the phone considering there are already a number of cheaper 5G phones in the market including the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 5G. It features a 6.67 inch IPS LCD screen with a Full HD resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and a pixel Density of 395 ppi. This is exactly the same display as it’s smaller sibling the X10. One of the highlights of this phone is it’s good storage made of a 6 or 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage with an option for an SD card for the Dual Hybrid version. The X20 will ship with Android 11 and going by Nokia's past trends the phone could be entitled to an Android 12 update as well as timely security updates that will keep your device safe and clean. It also spo

  Released May last year, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 is now available in Kenya for Ksh. 18,999. It is a budget phone that banks on the display, Cameras and the battery as it’s major selling specs.  It features some of the specs expected of a phone at it’s price and is seen as the successor to the 2019 Redmi Note 8 which is still one of the best budget Smartphones till date.  The Redmi Note 9 features a 6.53 inch IPS LCD screen, the same size as the Redmi Note 8 Pro, Redmi 9 and the Redmi 9c. It also comes with a Full HD + display of 1080 x 2340 pixels, the same as the Redmi 9 and Redmi Note 8 Pro, making these phones the very few high quality display budget phones. Many smartphones at this price tag come with 720p displays including the likes of Infinix Note 8. Apart from the Plastic back and the plastic frame, the Redmi Note 9 features an impressive Corilla Glass 5 screen, something that is also hard to come by at this price. This ensures zero screen scratches and gives your phone the ma

  Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 has finally launched in Kenya with an initial retail price of Ksh. 19,499 for the 4 + 64 GB and Ksh. 21,499 for the 4 + 128 GB variant. The Redmi Note 10 was first released March 16 as the successor of the Redmi Note 9 and is the first of the Redmi Note 10 series with the other being the Redmi Note 10 Pro and the Redmi Note 10 Pro max. Only the Redmi Note 10 and Note 10 Pro were launched today in Kenya, and we must give it to Xiaomi for giving Kenyans a chance to own the phone  under one month since it’s release.  The phone features a 6.43 inch Super AMOLED display with a Full HD resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and a good pixel density of 409 ppi with an aspect ratio of 20:9. There’s no doubt the display is one of this phone's strengths, considering that many phones at this price still have an IPS LCD screen with 720p resolutions. This was the second phone to feature the Snapdragon 678 processor after the Moto G Stylus 2021. It is a mid-range chipset that is