Sometime you want to upgrade to a better phone after realizing your phone is lacking in terms of better features, or you just tired of having the same phone for a long time. Most likely you will go for either an expensive Smartphone with a lot of good features or you will choose to stay on budget and get yourself a midrange Smartphone. The advantages are better quality photos, ability to run many applications without experiencing problems and even the screen size matters sometime. If you in Nairobi Kenya and you plan to spend 10,000 – 20,000 on a Smartphone, then check this list.
I will go through some of the best midrange Smartphone that you can get locally in Kenya or even import them.
Huawei Ascend W1 (4afrika)
This is one of the pioneer windows phone in Kenya. This phone comes with a 4 inch LCD capacitive screen. Some of its outstanding feature that I would consider buying the phone for is its 5MP camera that supports touch focus and face recognition. Huawei ascend w1 is powered by a 1.2GHz dual core processor to run your applications smoothly. It also has 4GB internal memory storage. One of the strongholds of this feature phone is its long lasting 1730mAh battery that can go for 10 hours on talk time. Other features include front vga camera, 512 MB ram, 21 Mbps HSDPA 3g connectivity, Adreno 305 GPU for those interested in playing games; this phone doesn’t come with a radio though. For people intending to install few and necessary applications the 4GB storage will handle this comfortably considering the price of this phone.
Samsung Galaxy Trend
Galaxy trend is a midrange Smartphone by Samsung that boasts of good features to outshine other brands that are competing for midrange phones. Its powered by a 1GHZ processor and runs on Android 4.1 jelly bean operating system. This phone is retailing at safaricom shops at 18,399/=.In terms of memory it has lesser memory of 768MB ram and 4GB rom. This may slow it down a little bit as most smart phones have a 1GB ram these days. Its 4 inch display makes it view photos and browsing very comfortably. The 5MP camera can also produce very good photos with auto focus available. This phone comes on color variations of black or white. Note there are two models the Samsung Galaxy trend S7560 and S7572 (3.15MP camera, 1.2 GHz Duo core processor). Other features include wi-fi, 3G HSDPA with up to 7.2Mbps, expandable up to 32GB microSD, 1500mAh battery and Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0 connectivity via Samsung kies.
HTC desire 200
It’s designed to give the best music experience using the Beats audio and htc headset. Music lovers are gonna love this phone, besides that it’s a powerful midrange Smartphone powered by a 1 GHz qualcom processor with 512 ram and 4GB rom. The screen size is 3.15 inches with a 165ppi pixel density.HTC desire 200 packs a 5.0MP intuitive camera with technology to recognize smiling faces and take a photo even without pushing the button. That’s cool ?.Other cool features include the HTC data manager that helps to keep your data plan on track. Its browser is also responsive and adjusts websites to fit well on its screen. Other features are HSDPA 7.2Mbps 3G connectivity, microSD up to 32GB,Beats audio sound enhancement, Bluetooth 4.0,wi-fi and USB 2.0.Compared to Sony Xperia Tipo it beats the tipo on the camera. The HTC desire 200 goes for around 15,200/= in Kenya.
Nokia Lumia 520
This phone is one of the first entry level windows 8 phones introduced by Nokia. It comes with pretty good features starting with its 8GB internal storage. Lumia 520 is powered by a 1GHz duo-core snapdragon processor to run your windows application smoothly. Its 512MB ram also performs well with windows 8 and you will not experience hanging or sluggish performance. Compared to the Huawei Ascend W1 that I talked about earlier it’s twice big in terms of memory with an 8GB rom. You can install many applications before it gets full. It has a 5MP camera takes excellent photos during the day but at night it will depend on lighting since it doesn’t come with flash. The camera has a feature to switch between different lenses by Nokia, means you can play around with different modes on photos. The phone is retailing in Kenya for around ksh17,000/=.Other features include Bluetooth 3.0,1430 mAh battery with up to 14hrs of talk time on 2G,7GB free SkyDrive cloud storage, GPS, Fm radio and 21MBps HSDPA connection on 3G.
LG optimus L5
This midrange Smartphone is part of a series of LG phones the came with different features to distinguish the L series pricing; that is Optimus L3, L5 and L7.We are not going to delve into LG optimus L3 and L7.Now the LG optimus is powered by an 800Mhz cortex-A5 processor and runs on Android 4.0(ice cream sandwich).That doesn’t make it any slower since it has a 512MB ram. It also has a 4GB internal memory to install all your favorite apps. The major distinct features to this phone are; its 4.0 inch capacitive touch screen display. Also it has a powerful 5.0MP camera with panorama view and LED flash that comes in handy at night. Remember it doesn’t support the front camera though. It also has an inbuilt Webkit browser that supports TAB browsing and HTML 5, which means you can switch between different open WebPages as you browse. This phone will be retailing at ksh15, 000/= in Kenya. By now it should have gone down. Other features of the optimus L5 include microSD up to 32GB, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, Wi-fi, GPU Adreno 200, GPS, FM radio and a 1500mAh battery with 9hrd of talk time while browsing on 3G networks. The phone also comes in two variations the Single sim and the Dualsim version.
Tecno Phantom A f7
Tecno is taking Africa by storm in terms of low budget and midrange Smartphone. At first people were skeptical about them but they have taken a firm grip on Kenya’s market share for android phones. The Tecno phantom A(F7) is one of its answer to expensive smart phones like Samsung Galaxy S II , S3 or the likes of HTC one. At only ksh19, 000/= around $220 this phone packs a mean features such as a 5” inch touch display and a Dual core processor of 1 GHz speed. The resolution on the screen may not be that crisp and clean compared to a Galaxy S3 but it’s not bad either. The phone has a 1GB ram and 4GB internal ROM that has a 2.5GB user available memory. Its camera is a whooping 8.0MP autofocus, digital zoom and HD video recording capability. It runs on Android 4.1.1 jelly bean operating system. Just like other smart phones it has a front 1.2MP camera. Most of the android applications come pre-installed on this phone such as Opera mini, Adobe PDF reader, Chrome and an optional MS-office suite via premium upgrade. Other features of this awesome phone include up to 21Mbps download speeds, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, built in GPS with support for Google maps, Free 8GB memory card and a battery of 2100mAh.Almost forgot it also comes with a powerpack battery, this means you can recharge the phone when you don’t have access the main electricity source using the battery.
Sony Xperia Tipo
Sony Xperia Tipo is medium range Smartphone with almost all features that make up a good Smartphone. With a 3.2 inch capacitive screen display of 180pixels its display is crisp and clean. It’s powered by an 800 MHz Cortex-A5 processor and a 512MB ram. It also comes with a 2.9GB internal memory with 2.5GB ready for user installed applications. It comes with music applications loaded inbuilt and runs android 4 ice cream sandwich operating system. Experience the Xloud audio filter technology by Sony while you listen to your favorite music. Most of Sony Xperia cameras are very powerful, and the same goes for this 3.15MP camera that has a 4x digital zoom capability. Other features include an Adreno GPU, HSDPA at 7.2Mbps, wi-fi, GPS, stereo FM obviously, HTML and Adobe flash ready browser and a battery of 1500mAh.Since most Sony Xperia smart phones are expensive this is your midrange at only ksh16, 000/=. Around $186.This phone is available at Sony authorized dealers in Kenya such as Ansuma Electronics ltd