Safaricom’s Overpriced IDEOS S7 Tablet Sneaked Into the Market

In January, we reported how we got the chance to force Huawei and Safaricom to give us a chance to view the S7 and the U8150 IDEOS gadgets. Both gadgets were shown at the last Safaricom open day at Sarit Centre. Huawei personnel confirmed that they were talking to Safaricom and Orange to see if the operators would subsidise the market and sell it below the $300 price which Huawei was speculating it would go for.

Safaricom seems to have managed to convince Huawei to be the exclusive operator selling the gadget in the country but there is a problem with the pricing. The company advertised the Tablet on Monday Daily Nation paper. At Ksh 34,000 ($403) that device is way too expensive for any wanna be device. You know that this IDEOS S7 is in the league of the funny Elonex Tablet. In fact they are very much the same in feel and even specs. They are not even in the league of Samsung Galaxy Tablets. They are way below there.

First on specs the IDEOS S7 uses the resistive touchscreen which is not as sensitive as the Galaxy Tab’s capacitive touchscreen. The mediocre features were meant to keep the device price below the $300 mark. The protective casing is way below standard. I saw the gadget running Android 2.1 in December but it seems that it has already been upgraded to 2.3 by the time Mobile World Congress was on.

Now the Elonex Tablet has been on Sale in Nigeria through Kalahari Nigeria for an equivalent of Ksh 25,000. That is the price you should buy an IDEOS S7. You cannot buy this Tablet for more than $350 at most. Best Buy sells the Tab at $269 which if I use the DHL Easy Shop service through BorderLinx, I will still bring the tablet to Kenya at $363 cleared through KRA and shipping paid.