FastMobile, a George based startup has quietly launched online a new smartphone with an aim to bring the benefits of affordable smartphone telephony to the African masses.
The South African start-up plans to become the brand of choice for the discerning mobile consumer in a continent which has one of the fastest growth rates in mobile device consumption.
FastMobile intends to provide high-end features, value-for-money products at the most cost-effective prices.
It also aims to deliver outstanding values, continuous innovation, and an exceptional user experience to its customers.
Furthermore, the economic downturn has caused the smartphone market to enter recession and the demand for affordable higher-quality devices has had a huge impact on the local market.
The smartphone market is witnessing a significant change with a range of new brands being introduced through various online channels.
Enter FastMobile, which has launched its TrendZ1 model.
The company claims that TrendZ1 is a superb all-round smartphone, extremely powerful with all the features found in today’s high-end phones.
The FastMobile TrendZ1 is equipped with a 13-Megapixel Sony camera on the back and OmniVision’s 13-Megapixel camera on the front. The cameras offer plenty of detail, colours are vivid, contrast and white balance are on par with the best phones on the market today.
It has a 5.5-inch IPS JDI screen with the resolution of 1280×720, offering a great colour reproduction, good viewing angles and decent sunlight readability.
The device comes with Android 5.1 Lollipop on-board and it boasts a MediaTek’s 64-bit MT6753 Octa-Core processor clocked at 1.3GHz, coupled with Mali-T720 GPU for visual tasks.
FastMobile’s TrendZ1 is equipped with a large 3500mAh lithium-ion battery. That much power coupled with a lower resolution screen and efficient CPU means that one doesn’t have to worry about battery and charging the phone too often.
The phone also offers dual SIM connectivity and network support of up to 4G LTE. More importantly, it comes with a storage capacity of 16GB but can be upgraded by applying an additional 64GB of storage via micro SD card.
The fingerprint scanner is a great security feature on the phone, it can be used to unlock the device or to lock and unlock certain apps.
FastMobile added that TrendZ1 is a great looking, affordable phone that offers great user experience. It comes standard with a Gorilla Glass 3 screen protector and a plastic cover.
The TrendZ1 is available online at R2 999.00.
FastMobile comes after the demise of AG Mobile.
In 2015, Fin24 reported that local smartphone brand AG Mobile was planning an aggressive expansion in the country. But AG Mobile took a turn for the worst and founder and CEO, Anthony Goodman, confirmed to Fin24 in January that the business has been liquidated, according to MyBroadband.
The founder of a local smartphone brand that has gone bust has blamed a weak South African rand and “high demand” for the company’s liquidation.
AG Mobile was one of very few South African smartphone brands that managed to enter the market at a low-cost. The devices were sold through mobile network operators and a majority through clothing retailer Pep.
“The reason the business was liquidated was because of cash funding, we grew too big and the ability to manage and maintain a very high growth capital intensive business with exceptionally owner-risk borrowing terms impacted the business,” Goodman told Fin24. Goodman explained that the exchange rate fluctuation had a significant negative impact on the company.
Other smaller local companies have tried to conquer the local low-cost smartphone market, including Mint Mobile, Onyx Connect. Sekoko Mobile, Zest Mobile, etc.
