Safaricom has gone big on 5G today with three important announcements. The telco became the first in the country to commercially roll out its 5G network after several months in the trial phase.
Their 5G coverage has also expanded to cover more areas including Mombasa, Kisumu, some new Nairobi neighbourhoods, Juja, Ruiru, Kiambu town and more.
They also launched Home 5G Wi-Fi and announced that they will be bringing dedicated 5G bundles later this year. Those are three huge steps in their 5G roadmap in the country as other telcos trail behind.
To access this 5G network, you’d need a 5G smartphone. You don’t want to run your pockets high and dry to get one that can not only access 5G but is also a really good smartphone.
Here is our list of the best and most affordable 5G smartphones in the country.
Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G – Ksh 33,499
Infinix starts this list with the Note 12 Pro 5G they recently launched.
Infinix Note 12 Pro 5g rocks a MediaTek Dimenisty 810(6nm) 5G Processor plus 8GB of RAM and 128GB Onboard Storage. You can expand with 5GB Virtual RAM.
It has a 6.7″ AMOLED screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with Dual Speakers featuring DTS Audio.
Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G has a triple camera setup including a 108MP main camera, a 2MP macro and a 2MP depth sensor. We also have a 16MP selfie camera.
Note 12 Pro 5G has a 5000mAh battery and supports 33W fast charging. Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G goes for Ksh 33,499. It is available offline at the company’s retail stores countrywide and online too at XPARK – their official online store and other online e-commerce partners.
Samsung Galaxy A33 5G – Ksh 35,000
Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is another Samsung phone we’ve checked out and comes with a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen. It has a 90Hz refresh rate with a pixel density of 411 and a peak brightness of 728 nits.
Samsung Galaxy A33 ships with its in-house processor – Exynos 1280 paired with Mali-G68 GPU. This chipset comes with an integrated 5G modem. You also get 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. RAM Plus feature gets you an additional 6GB.
The A33 sports a quad camera setup that includes a 48MP main with OIS, an 8MP ultrawide, a 5MP macro and a 2MP depth sensor.
For selfies, we have a 13MP front-facing camera for the A33 5G. The A33 has 4K 30fps max resolution for both the main and selfie cameras.
It has a 5000mAh battery that supports 25W fast charging.
TECNO Camon 19 Pro 5G
TECNO Camon 19 Pro 5G ships with a 120Hz 1080p LCD screen, HiOS 8.6 and is powered by the 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset paired with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of onboard storage. You can expand both with up to 5GB of virtual RAM and there’s an additional slot for an external microSD card.
TECNO Camon 19 Pro 5G has 64MP main rear cameras in the dual ring setup next to a 50MP portrait camera with 2X optical zoom and a 2MP bokeh lens. The 64MP main camera has OIS support and uses an industry-first RGBW+G+P lens for ‘Bright Night Portrait’.
We get a 32MP front-facing camera for taking selfies.
Xiaomi Poco X3 GT 5G – Ksh 34,500
Xiaomi Poco X3 GT 5G ships with Dimensity 1100(6nm) 5G chipset paired with Mali-G77 MC9 GPU and 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.
Xiaomi Poco X3 GT 5G comes with a 6.6″ IPS LCD screen with 120Hz refresh rate and 450 nits. It has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection.
We have a 64MP main camera, 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro that does 4K 30fps video. We also get a 16MP selfie camera.
Xiaomi Poco X3 GT has a 5000mAh battery and 67W fast charging. It was launched early last year and is still worth considering.
Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro 5G – Ksh 25,000
Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro 5G was launched late last year and is powered by a Dimensity 810 (6nm) 5G chipset and Mali-G57 MC2 GPU plus 4GB RAM and 64GB storage.
It comes with a 50MP main camera with an 8MP ultrawide and a 16MP selfie camera. It also runs on Android 11 and MIUI 12.5. It has a side-mounted fingerprint reader, a 5000mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging.
The display is a 6.6″ 1080p LCD screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and 450 nits brightness protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
