The year 2013 has no doubt witnessed several surprises in the smartphone ecosystem. The mobile market in Nigeria is booming and arguably one with the greatest opportunity in Africa, creating an avenue for investments with huge expected returns.
It is also a fact that Nigerians love good devices and smartphones have become part of our daily lives. Here at Techcity, we have reviewed a good number of phones available in 2013 and have made a list of the top 5 most popular smartphones available in Nigeria market. Although there is a huge volume of mobile phone brands in stores, we have only restricted our list to the most talked about device in the outgoing year.
Here is a countdown of our top 5 most popular smartphones.
5. HTC One
HTC has a history of making good phones, so the HTC One doesn’t comes as a surprise. The One legitimately lays claim to being the best-designed smartphone in 2013. There’s a sleek alluminium body with a stunning 4.7-inch 1080p display with a Full HD resolution giving it pin sharp images and delivering some of the best quality visuals you’ll find on a smartphone. HTC made a great deal with the design, noticeable changes to the UI, better looking fonts, smooth transitions, and a good finish to the hardware.
The device weighs 143g, runs on Android 4.1.2 Jellybean with new updates available. Although the camera sits at a low 4MP UltraPixel camera with LED flash, quality is good under low light and offers some unique features. The phone is powered by 1.7GHz Quad-core processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset) and features a 32/64GB internal memory (non-expandable). The HTC One is no doubt a fantastic Android smartphone and well worthy of our list
Following up on the release of the highly anticipated ‘blackberry 10 OS’ platform Blackberry, formerly known as RIM has introduced the long awaited Blackberry smartphone – the Z10.
Conceived as the company’s first full-touch device, the Z10 features a removable plastic cover with a dimpled coating. It boasts of a 4.2-inch display with a 1,280 x 768 screen with an amazing on-screen keyboard. The phone does not have the traditional QWERTY keyboard, trackpad and physical buttons.
The Z10 runs on the new Blackberryy 10 OS characterized with heavy gestures. It is equipped with a 1.5GHz dual-core snapdragon S4 plus processor with 16GB of memory and 2GB of RAM, the phone incorporates a 2.0 megapixel front facing and 8 megapixel main camera with LED flash capable of capturing HD video in 1080p.
3. Iphone 5S
The 5S is the Apple’s flagship product for 2013. Apple paid exquisite attention to detail and wonderful design to set the device up for future dominance. The 5S experience is very refined, although the design is not so different from the previous edition, the internal modifications and a new OS keeps Apple in the smartphone race.
The 5S still maintains a 4-inch retina display and resolution like its predecessor. The most significant new feature in the new Iphone is the addition of Touch Id, a fingerprint sensor built into the home button to unlock phone and verify iTunes or appstore purchases. It also boasts of the first ever 64-bit a7 processor in a smartphone. The phone runs on the latest IOS 7 operating system, has a reliable 8MP iSight camera which can also record in slo-mo.
2. Tecno Phantom A+
It shouldn’t be surprising how this Android device made our list of most popular device, trust me this phone ran on the lips of so many, made waves all through the length and breadth of Nigeria and posed as a strong competition to other big brands in terms of its design, specification and price.
The phantom A+ features a brilliant 5.0 inch Capacitive Touch display with a 720 X 1280 pixel, runs on the Android 4.2 JellyBean OS and operates on a high powered 1.2GHz Quad-core processor. The primary camera is 8MP with LED flash and a 1.2MP front facing camera. It supports 1GB RAM size and the internal memory of 4GB is expandable up to 32GB via a mrcroSD card
This device tops our list of the most popular device of 2013. Themed as life’s companion, the Samsung Galaxy S4 brings more innovation to a phone that’s already at the top of its game. The design offers flexibility where others don’t with access to the battery and the option to expand the memory via microSD.
Housed in a slim 7.9mm chassis, the device features a high-resolution 5-inch AMOLED display and is powered by Android 4.2.2 jelly bean operating system. The S4 also provides 2GB of RAM and a 1.6GHz Quad-core processor for a fluid and quick browsing experience, there is a 13 megapixel main camera and 2 megapixels for the front facing lens. One of the most impressing technologies however, is the new ‘smart scroll/smart pause which automatically scrolls up or down a website or email as you read and the device can also pause video whenever it detects you look away.
Some may say that there’s a feature too many and the design isn’t as inspiring as some other devices like the HTC One, but the Samsung Galaxy S4 didn’t disappoint.
Other devices that made the smartphone ecosystem astounding include the Galaxy Note 3+Gear, the LG G2 and the most ambitious camera phone on earth, the Lumia 1020 that comes with a 41 MP camera.
As we move into the New Year, we will be expecting many more surprises to spring up from the smartphone ecosystem. Compliments of the season and we wish you a wonderful year ahead.
