I recently bought and tested a Stylo Swift 4G smartphone, and you get what you pay for.
South Africa plans to shut down its 2G and 3G networks in the next few years, which would exclude many older and cheaper smartphones from the market.
MyBroadband recently looked at the cheapest available 4G smartphones and was surprised by how inexpensive they have become.
We bought a Stylo Swift 4G from one of our local Pep store, which was on special and included an MTN starter pack for R549.
This seemed to have some of the best specs out of all the similar devices in the price range. It has 32 GB storage and 2 GB RAM, which can be virtually expanded to 4GB using some storage space.
It also boasts an 8 MP primary camera and 5 MP selfie cam, a 2,950 mAh battery, and runs Android 13 Go.
Although the phone is only advertised as a single SIM, we were surprised to find that it had an extra SIM slot and supports a microSD card for storage expansion.
It also comes with a charging brick and cable, a set of wired earphones, and a clear plastic cover.
I used the phone on and off throughout the two-week period, switching between it and my Samsung S22+ for comparison.
Firstly, we need to keep the price of the device in mind.
R550 is ridiculously cheap for a smartphone that runs Android and supports 4G.
Despite all my complaints, a working 4G smartphone that supports all the major apps I tried and has a somewhat usable camera for the price of around five takeaway meals still feels unbelievable.
All of my points are in comparison to a high-end device such as the S22+. Although it is in an entirely different class, it keeps the review in perspective.
The first thing I noticed when starting the device was the screen viewing angle — or lack thereof.
The screen itself is decent, measuring 5.5 inches diagonally and with an 854×480 resolution, but it seems clearest when viewed slightly from below instead of directly from the front.
This is not really an issue in regular use, but makes landscape mode almost unusable as you suddenly have to view the device from the side to have a clear display.
The screen responsiveness is also nowhere near that of a more premium device.
Touches take a few milliseconds to register, and I found myself making many errors while typing, as touches often registered a little randomly compared to the consistency on my Samsung.
Calls and SMSes worked as expected, and while the audio quality was nothing special, we could hear what the other party was saying just fine.
The phone was network-locked to MTN but included a free MTN starter pack with the purchase.
It does support dual SIM and had no issues when we used a Vodacom SIM in the second slot, as long as there was a working MTN SIM in the first slot.
Both slots support 4G and features like VoLTE.
The Stylo did not have any significant issues with the apps we tried, which included mostly social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.
Video reels on Facebook and Instagram had visible stutters but were still watchable, while images and text were okay.
YouTube made for an interesting experience, being extremely slow when playing videos at resolutions higher than 480p. However, seeing as that is the maximum screen resolution, this is not really a problem.
Sound comes from a single speaker at the bottom of the device, which works quite well, considering you have to tilt the bottom of the device towards you to improve the viewing angle anyway.
The Stylo advertises a triple rear 8MP camera with flash, as well as a 5MP front camera.
We were disappointed to find that, although there appear to be three lenses in the back, there only seems to be one sensor behind the top lens.
The camera app is responsive enough and has a variety of features such as manual ISO and white balance in the Pro mode.
Video capture goes up to 1080p 30fps, but the motion response is terrible.
Pictures look okay if you compare them to any device in the early 2010s, but come nowhere near modern flagships.
We tested data speeds on the Stylo, and the modem and antennas clearly lag behind those of higher-end devices.
On the same SIM cards and in the same location, we got average 4G speeds of around 50 Mbps, while the Samsung averaged around 200 Mbps.
The WiFi performance is similar, only downloading at 25 Mbps compared to over 100 Mbps on the same network on the Samsung.
The battery life is surprisingly good, and we got 2 to 3 days out of the device, but we did use it a lot less than usual.
With similar usage, we can usually push the S22+ to last nearly two days.
Overall, the Stylo Swift 4G is not a great phone, but for R550, no one expects it to be.
It is affordable and does all the basics well enough. It also has the option of performing more advanced tasks, albeit with some difficulty.
If you need a temporary phone because yours is going in for repairs, or if you want to get a first device for a child and don’t really want them playing games, then it might just be enough.