The Benefits of Owning a China Phone in Kenya

Yesterday I witnessed something which surprised me: a man withdrew ksh. 9,000 from his m-pesa account and went straight away to buy an iNOTE Beyond phone. If you have no idea what an inote beyond is, it is a tablet phone manufactured by a Chinese company itel. All these may still sound greek, so let's refer to the phone simply as a China phone.

A China phone is the name used in Kenya to refer to the cheap phones from not so popular companies. The name doesnot necessarily depict the country of origin. Basically most phones in Kenya come from China, even the Samsung and Nokias.

I wasn't surprised by how the phone looked, The phone has a pretty cool body which, from far, may be confused with samsung galaxy S4. But I looked at the amount of money this guy was willing to pay for a 'china phone' and wondered if it provided value for money. Why would a sane guy spend 9k on a phone I can barely pronounce its name?

'China Phones' as we all know have a tendancy of turning out to be 'fake' so paying 9k for a 'fake phone' can only be practiced in Matheri hospital and it's environs.

So to be sure that this guy wasn't conned I bought a much cheaper model of the itel phone and compared its benefits to a sumsung or nokia phone of the same amount. It didnt cost me much but the features were amazing. I cant help boasting a 1.3 Megapixel camera, 3G, flash light, memory slot, video and music player, anti-theft security feature, dual sim etc.

Now, with 2k I could probably have bought a basic Nikia or Samsung phone. The ones you may confuse for a simcard holder and having no feature to boast about apart from the fact that it can receive and call.

Below are some of the benefits of owning a China phone:

1. Pocket Friendly: An original China phone cost much lower than the popular phone brands like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericson, HTC etc. Looking at the features of a China phone versus the cost, I would confidently say that they offer value for money. The guy would have caughed 9k for the tablet but remember a similar tablet from Samsung will be something between 30k and 40k.

2. Reasonable Lifespan: This may sound contraversial since China phones are known to have a shorter lifespan. However, the lifespan of any phone depends on the user. You can boast of your nokia 1110 which can drop from a 6m tall clif and remain intact, but remember, phones are no sledge hammers. Carefully handled, a China phone can last 5 to 7 years.

3. Numerous beneficial features: If for 2k I can now watch my local TV channels on my phone at no extra cost, I dont think there could have been a better burgain. The flash light becomes very useful during blackouts; The music and video player keeps you enterrained and the ever loud inbuilt speaker eliminates the need for a woofer.

4. Multi-simcard holder: The least number of simcards a China phone holds is two. If you own more than one simcard, you don't need to replace your line now and then if you own a China phone neither would you need to carry two or more phones. There are China phones supporting up to four simcards in one handset ( say, Safaricom, Orange, Yu, and Airtel at the same time).

5. Availability and Variety: Walk to any phone shop in Nairobi and the first phone you will spot is a China phone. Selling China phone is a booming business to the advantage of the customer. There are also a variety models and makes of these phones. You can buy itel, alcatel, forme, Tecno, huawe, ZTE, Bird etc. From basic phones to tabs.

So next time you think of buying a phone you can try a China and I can assure you; you will never look back.