If you’re a South African with a budget of R2,000 and a pressing need for a new smartphone, Pep Cell’s new Stylo Quantum is a surprising candidate for your cash. The affordable retailer has been launching its own budget smartphones under the Stylo brand for some time, and this latest one, on paper at least, might be worth considering.
If for no other reason than the price tag. Pep Cell has settled on a R1,900 cash price for the Quantum, keeping it below the cost threshold for many potential buyers. It also puts it in direct competition with Samsung’s Galaxy A05, but Pep obviously hopes that increased storage will tempt you over to its in-store kiosk.
Stylo Quantum realm
Budget smartphones typically don’t hit Stuff‘s radar very hard (despite us actively hunting for them), and the Stylo Quantum has been on the local market for a few months. It took a Cape Town event that saw local content creators using the phone to… well, do content things to bring it to our attention. Now, we kinda want to do those content things ourselves — because nobody believes a press release.
If all you’re concerned with is the price and a spec list, the Stylo Quantum has a fairly fleshed-out set of details. A sizeable 6.82in HD+ display, MediaTek G36 processor, and 6GB of RAM sit alongside 128GB of storage. The processor isn’t fantastic, playing roles in budget phones from TCL, Tecno, and Xiaomi, but what were you expecting for less than two grand?
The Quantum claims a “50MP dual rear camera”, but we suspect it’s just the main sensor that features all those megapixels. A little personal inspection is needed, but we reckon that the secondary is a 2MP or 5MP (or 8MP?) effort. A 16-megapixel front-facing camera does selfie duty. A standard 5,000mAh battery handles uptime, but with these specs, it’ll probably last longer than you’d expect. Fast-charging is supposedly a thing but we’re not told how fast that is.
Also included is a fingerprint sensor, an increasingly standard feature for smartphones, but still nice to see at this price. We’ll try to get our hands on one of Pep Cell’s Stylo Quantum smartphones and provide a full review as soon as possible.
