One day historians of technology will look back on 2015 as the year smartphones really took off in South Africa. Figures from various research groups show that close to 60 percent of the country’s internet traffic now comes from mobile devices, most of them smartphones. Final figures aren’t in yet, but 2015 will probably be the year that smartphones overtake old-fashioned feature phones in Mzansi.
By August, one study had estimated that there were 23 million smartphone users in South Africa – that’s 47 percent of the population. I bet it’s well over 50 percent by now.
I don’t think it’s any coincidence, then, that it was also a year in which consumers had a better choice of smartphones than ever before.
Here’s my pick of that very strong field:
Best premium smartphone
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
The year marked a triumphant return to form for Samsung after more than 12 months of disappointing sales.
The South Korean tech titan finally got over its obsession with plastic to produce a flagship device that not only performed like one but also looked and felt like one.
Crafted from tempered glass and brushed aluminium, the S6 Edge’s wrap-around screen is particularly lovely to behold, easily the most beautiful smartphone yet created.
And speaking of that 5.1-inch, Quad HD Super Amoled screen, there was simply no other display as bright or pixel dense until, perhaps, the arrival of Sony’s Xperia Z5 Premium late in the year.
The 16MP camera is up there with the best I’ve tried, and arguably better than the one in the iPhone 6S Plus, which came out months later.
My only gripe is the distinctly average battery life. Unlike previous Galaxy S devices, you can’t remove the back to pop in a spare battery. But super-fast charging and wireless juicing go a long way towards making up for that.
Runners up
iPhone 6S Plus
Big, beautiful and superbly made, this may look exactly like its predecessor but it’s an altogether better phone.
Improvements include a full HD screen, much better battery life and a boost in camera resolution from 8MP to 12MP.
Optical image stabilisation, or OIS, a feature still not available in the smaller 6S, makes the Plus model one of the best cameraphones for low-light snaps and videos.
Finally, force touch – Apple calls it 3D Touch – allows users to press ever-so-slightly harder on the screen to unlock a lot more features than a mere tap does. These include previewing e-mails, messages and pictures.
Huawei Mate S
If you still needed proof that Chinese phone maker Huawei could produce smartphones to compete with the best, look no further than the gorgeous Mate S.
If anything, its build quality is better than the iPhone’s, and the Mate S nestles in the hand better than any large-screen phone I’ve held, thanks to the cleverly curved back.
Its 5.5-inch, high-definition Amoled screen is made of super-tough, fourth-generation Gorilla Glass mated with a diamond-chamfered aluminium body, making for a truly gorgeous eyeful and handful.
Throw in the 13MP camera with several DSLR-worthy professional features and force-touch capability to match that of the iPhone 6S (in the top-of-the-range 128GB model only, alas) and you’ve got a worthy competitor to Samsung and Apple.
Best budget smartphone
Vodacom Smart Grand
Although nearly everyone loves high-end smartphones, no one likes their hefty price tags.
The explosion of smartphone adoption is not being driven by devices costing R10 000 or more, but by price-conscious consumers snapping up phones costing R1 500 or less. And the best of those is Vodacom’s Smart Grand 5-inch touchscreen phone running Android 5.1 Lollipop with a quad core 1.3GHz processor. You can get it for R1 099 prepaid or R89 a month on a uChoose Flexi 55 contract.
Its specs look underwhelming when stacked up against a premium Apple or Samsung… but only until you realise you can by 10 of them for the same price.
Best for active types
Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
South Africans are generally an active bunch, so it’s not surprising that many smartphones meet an untimely end at the bottom of a swimming pool or some other watery grave.
Kudos to Sony for being the first phone maker to produce flagship devices that are both water and dustproof. They’ve been doing it for years and the Z5 range, which includes the Compact model, is the latest.
Thanks to the 4.6-inch screen it’s much easier to slip into a pocket than the 6-inch devices that seem to be the norm these days.
Another thing I like about Sony’s compact phones is that they aren’t dumbed-down versions of the flagship devices, but pretty much fully-featured smartphones squeezed into a smaller package.
The Z5 Compact achieves this by being thicker than the standard Z5, but that wasn’t a problem for me. In fact, the heft actually made it feel more solid in hand.
Sony’s trademark imperviousness to the wet stuff worked as advertised. I tested it in the shower, a rainy puddle and in several swimming pools.
The standout feature for me was the 23MP camera. It’s amazingly quick into action, and the autofocus is the fastest on any smartphone camera I’ve tested.
Throw in a superb fingerprint sensor and the best battery life of any smartphone – I got a day and a half with heavy use – and you’ve got a phone that’s every active type’s dream.
Geekbeard