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6 things you should know about South Africa’s first smartphones

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Jenna Delport
Jenna Delport
I’m a tech writer, world traveller, avocado-eater and dog lover, not always in that order.

Proudly South African smartphone manufacturer, Mara Phones officially launched the first smartphone manufacturing facility in the country on Thursday, 17 October 2019. The plant – located in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal – was possible thanks to a R1.5-billion investment by Mara Phones as well as support from the local government.

Mara Phones officially launched the first smartphone manufacturing facility in South Africa. Image sourced from My Broadband.

According to a report by My Broadband, Mara Phones aims to “deliver high-quality smartphones at affordable prices for South African consumers, and it has started by manufacturing two products – the Mara X and Mara Z”.


Here are six things you should know about the Mara X and Mara Z:

  1. The Mara Z comes standard with a 5.7-inch screen while the Mara X has a 5.5-inch display, both devices sport the same screen resolution of 1,440 x 720.
  2. Both smartphones run using Google’s Android 9 OS, the difference is that the Mara X opts to run the “Go” version of this software instead.
  3. When talking about chipsets, the Mara Z has a more impressive Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 CPU in comparison to the Mara X which has a Mediatek MT6739 chip.
  4. Both devices sport a 13MP rear camera – making them identical, however, the front-facing camera of the Mara Z boasts a 13MP lens compared to the Mara X’s 5MP selfie camera.
  5. Both devices are available to purchase from the Mara Phones website – the Mara X goes for R2,999 while the Mara Z  is priced at R3,999.
  6. The smartphones come in three colours – Black, Gold, and Silver.

Edited by Jenna Cook

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