See these locally made Mara phones
Last week Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa opened South Africa's first smartphone production plant at the Dube TradePort in Durban.
Ramaphosa described the Mara Phones plant as a great opportunity for the country to be a producer of goods.
The manufacturing plant is the result of an R1.5-billion investment by Mara Phones that was supported by the government.
Mara Phones aims to deliver high-quality smartphones at affordable prices for South African consumers.
The first fruits produced by the company are called the Mara X and Mara Z smartphones.
According to Mara Phones, both devices feature long-lasting batteries, immense storage space, and Android One compatibility.
The Mara Z has a 5.7-inch display and the Mara X has a 5.5-inch screen, and both displays have the same resolution of 1,440 x 720.
When it comes to chipsets, the more expensive Mara Z boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 CPU, while the cheaper Mara X has a Mediatek MT6739 chip.
The price tag for the Mara X is R2,999, the Mara Z is priced at R3,999 and both devices are available in three colours – Black, Gold, and Silver.
The Mara X and Mara Z are available to purchase from the Mara Phones website.
Here are full specifications of both devices:
1. The Mara X
| OS | Android 8.1 Go |
| Display | 5.5-inch 1,440 x 720 IPS LCD |
| Dimensions | 150.0 x 70.5 x 8.59 mm |
| Processor | Mediatek MT6739 |
| RAM | 1GB |
| Storage | 16GB, MicroSD up to 128GB |
| Rear camera | 13MP |
| Front Camera | 5MP |
| Battery | 3,500mAh |
| Connectivity | 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MicroUSB, 3.5mm audio |
| Network | LTE Cat 4 |
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2. The Mara Z
| OS | Android 9.0 |
| Display | 5.7-inch 1,440 x 720 IPS LCD |
| Dimensions | 154.2 x 72.7 x 7.96 mm |
| Processor | Snapdragon 435 |
| RAM | 3GB |
| Storage | 32GB, MicroSD up to 128GB |
| Rear camera | 13MP |
| Front camera | 13MP |
| Battery | 3,050mAh |
| Connectivity | 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MicroUSB, 3.5mm audio |
| Network | LTE Cat 7 |
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Written by: Gabriella Steyn.
Guzzle Media
