Huawei’s latest low-cost smartphone, the 2018 edition of the Y7 Prime, will go on sale in the country in 2 weeks time. From April 19th, those interested in the 6-inch will have the chance to buy it from anywhere within Kenya. This is because Huawei has partnered with online retailer Kilimall to have the device selling exclusively on Kilimall, at least in the early days of its availability.
At least a week before it officially goes on sale, on April 11th, Kilimall customers will have a chance to pre-order it.
According to Huawei Kenya, those who pre-order the Huawei Y7 Prime (2018) will also get a “surprise gift package worth up to Kshs 5,000”. It may not be hard to guess which gift what are talking about here if the recent unveiling of the Huawei P Smart is anything to go by. Or so we may think even though some of the promotional material I have seen indicates that headphones, flasks, selfie sticks, Kilimall shopping vouchers and other Huawei-branded merchandise are what makes up the “surprise gift package”.
The Y7 Prime 2018 was announced in the last week of March and brings an 18:9 display and Augmented Reality (AR) features to what we can safely consider to be the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Huawei smartphones now that the company’s focus on the budget segment of the market has changed.
The going to market of the Huawei Y7 Prime on the 19th of April will effectively mean the end of the Huawei Fans Festival, which started on April 4th, and signal the start of the Kilimall Mobile Week which will run from April 20th through to early May with many more mobile devices going on sale. Rival Jumia Kenya just concluded a similar mobile device-focused week-long sales marathon the other day during which time I managed to get two Xiaomi Redmi 5As for some people I like at slightly discounted prices.
Buyers of the device will be getting a device with the following specifications:
| Dimensions and weight | 158.3 x 76.7 x 7.8 mm, 155g |
| Display | 5.99-inch HD+ (1440× 720 pixels) FullView display |
| Camera | Main camera: 13MP + 2MP Selfie camera: 8MP |
| Processor | Snapdragon 430 |
| Memory | 3GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage |
| Operating System | Android 8.0, Oreo, with EMUI 8.0 |
| Battery | 3,000mAh |
| Network | 3G, 4G |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, microUSB, NFC (only the LDN-TL10 model) |
| Others | Dual-SIM, fingerprint sensor |
| Colour options | Black, Gold, Blue |
Pricing for the device has not yet been revealed and it is the subject of a promotion (the Huawei Fans Festival) that Huawei, in partnership with Kilimall, is running online whereby a lucky fan who correctly guesses the device’s price will walk away with one. Whatever the price ends up being, with the launch of the new Tecno Camon X (see specs), its work is already cut out for it and it will need to do more to convince the buyer who will be spoilt for choice between it and Tecno’s latest which has a similar HD+ display but with a superior camera system in place, bigger battery and the latest Android 8.1, Oreo.
UPDATE
The exclusivity aspect of the Kilimall-Huawei Kenya arrangement only appertains to online sales. Kilimall is the exclusive e-commerce partner. The device will still be available in physical retail outlets at the same time that it goes on sale on Kilimall.
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