Author: Kaluka wanjala

If you are looking for a smartphone for less than Ksh 10,000, you have a good number to choose from. This does not necessarily mean that all the phones are good and worth your money. There are some phones that will end up frustrating you but there are others that will leave you impressed. This is what I wanted to find out with the Huawei Y5 Prime 2018 during my review period. The Huawei Y5 Prime 2018 is the latest entry level smartphone from the company to be launched in Kenya. The phone has a recommended retail price of Ksh…

In his IFA 2018 keynote titled “The Ultimate Power of Mobile AI”, Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO Mr. Richard Yu introduced the Kirin 980, the system on a chip (SoC) that will bring about the next evolution of mobile AI. As the world’s first commercial SoC manufactured with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturer Company’s (TSMC) 7nm process, Kirin 980 combines best-in-class performance, efficiency, connectivity features, and Dual NPU AI processing power. “Last year, we showed the world the potential of On-Device AI with the Kirin 970, and this year, we’ve designed an all-round powerhouse that not only features outstanding AI capabilities, but…

If you have Ksh 105,000 to spend on a smartphone, you may be happy to know that the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is finally available in Kenya. The phone was officially launched in Kenya yesterday and you can get it from all Samsung Experience Stores, Safaricom shops and authorised dealers across the country. You can even get it from Masoko for Ksh 101,999 which is interesting as I was expecting Safaricom to sell the phone for more than this as it did with the Note 8 and the Galaxy S9 earlier this year. Samsung is only selling the 128GB model…

Last week, I told you that Infinix was planning to launch its own e-commerce site, Xmall, this week. Well, the company has officially launched the platform which it will use to sell its devices. One of the devices that is debuting on Xmall is the recently announced Infinix Hot S3X. The Infinix Hot S3X has been in some Infinix retail stores for Ksh 21,599n but is now available on Xmall for Ksh 17,399. The Infinix Xmall will take a bite into Jumia’s market share as the latter has been the unofficial ‘Home’ of Infinix smartphones online. The two companies have…

LG Electronics has launched its first B2B showroom in Kenya. Located at 14 Riverside, the center will display the vast array of LG’s leading B2B products and solutions. The new center will give business owners, integrators, and contractors a chance to engage and learn about how LG’s leading line of commercial solutions can contribute to an increased bottom line. The opening forms part of the company’s on-going commitment to provide innovative business solutions to Kenyan customers. The center that is also targeted at government and business partners, will be sectioned according to LG’s business units and include all the latest…

Jumia Food customers can now pre-pay for their food deliveries, as the online food delivering company commences online pre-payment options (credit cards and mobile payments) in Kenya and Uganda. This new payment option leverages the prominence of online payments in Africa, a continent that boasted 100 million active mobile money accounts in 2017. “The process of paying for your food just got a lot easier, with the introduction of online pre-payments. This is in addition to the post-payment option, which highly featured cash and Mpesa on delivery. We are now providing our customers with the security and freedom to pay…

Infinix is set to officially launch its own e-commerce platform, Xmall, in Kenya this coming week. I am meant to understand that everything is in place and we should see the platform go live as early as next week. Having its own channel for online distribution is an interesting strategy that makes sense if you think about it. Infinix has always and still pushes sales online better than most of the other brands we have locally. The company partnered with Jumia since the beginning to push sales online and this worked well for both companies. It got its name and…

Google today announced the launch of its second Launchpad Accelerator Africa class as part of its ongoing efforts to support entrepreneurship on the continent. The accelerator, which is housed in Lagos, Nigeria, has already demonstrated its value. The first Launchpad Accelerator Africa class saw 12 startups graduate, with more than 20 teams from Google and 40 mentors from nine countries supporting them. The startups have directly created 132 jobs and, between them, have raised over US$7 million in funding. Their products are being used by approximately 4.5 million people. “The growth of entrepreneurship in Africa is critical to the survival…

If you have been searching for a budget smartphone to buy in Kenya, you may have seen some manufacturers saying their smartphones are powered by Android Oreo (Go Edition). What does this mean and should you care about it? Some devices such as the Nokia 1, Nokia 2.1, Tecno Spark 2 are referred to as Android Go smartphones that you can get in Kenya. So, what does Android Go means and should you care about it? I will try and answer these two questions in this post. I will also use the words Android Oreo (Go Edition) and Android Go…

Towards the end of every year, we normally get a new flagship smartphone from Tecno. This device normally falls under the Tecno Phantom series and is usually the most expensive device from the company. Last year we had the Tecno Phantom 8 that was available for Ksh 37,000 and you can read all about it here. This year, we may not be seeing a Phantom 9 or any Phantom device according to insider sources. It is not clear why this is so but I am told there are no plans to bring a new Phantom device to the market just…