The Infinix Hot S, the company’s first smartphone with a fingerprint scanner globally, will be making its way to the Kenyan market soon.
According to Infinix co-founder Benjamin Jiang, the Hot S will likely go on sale between the end of August and the start of the next month.
The lack of commitment on the device’s definite availability is because the company is finalizing arrangements with a local network operator which will have an exclusivity on the device.
Even though the Infinix Managing Director could not confirm to us the exact mobile network operator they were in talks with to provide the device, there’s a precedent and as such it is not that hard to figure that out.
Infinix has previously partnered with Safaricom as was highlighted in our interview with Country Manager Carter Tang. The Hot S must also be the same “new smartphone” hinted at in that interview. According to reliable information we have, the Hot S will be heading Safaricom’s way.
The Infinix Hot S packs a 5.2-inch full HD display, a 64-bit MediaTek MTK6753 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, a fingerprint scanner at the back, an all-metal body, 13MP camera at the back and 8MP on the front, 3,000mAh battery and since, it’ll be a Safaricom exclusive, 4G LTE and only a single-SIM. The device is available in 2GB RAM/16GB internal storage and 3GB RAM/32GB internal storage versions. It is not clear which one will be headed our way or if it is both.
Like the newly unveiled Note 3, the Hot S also runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Infinix’s customizations in the form of XOS, on top of it.
The device has been on sale in Nigeria since the end of July.
We’re keen to see the pricing of the device. Since the Note 3 starts at Kshs 15,000 and the most expensive Infinix device in the market does not go past the Kshs 18,000 mark, it’s unlikely the Hot S will go beyond that or at most, break the Kshs 20,000 ceiling.
UPDATE
Infinix has confirmed to us that the Hot S will indeed be available through Safaricom. However, it won’t be a Safaricom exclusive. The device will also be available on the open market i.e. through other vendors. As such, there will also be two variants of the device. Safaricom’s will have a single SIM slot while the other one selling everywhere will still have dual-SIM slots.
