Econet now selling the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge for $1,305

It’s never been easier to pick up a mobile phone in Zimbabwe. Countless distributors have made a name for themselves pushing every sort of device you can think of, and the very lucrative line of trade was picked up by the street vendors before they even became a challenge for the City Council.

It’s absurd for mobile networks to not cash in on this. To their credit, all three operators have some sort of device plan. It’s basically supposed to be a better way to get a phone or tablet; there’s the device itself, plus all these extras in the form of data, SMSes and voice minutes. Which brings us to the latest offering from Econet’s devices division, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

The phone made its global debut in March this year, and has been the centre of attention as far as Android smartphone tech is concerned. Econet isn’t the first retailer to bring the Galaxy S6 Edge or the S6 into Zimbabwe. You can find it in several walk in stores, on Classifieds and in a few e-commerce platforms that deal in devices locally. Econet is however, offering it with a credit plan.

The flagship device from Samsung is available from Econet stores under its Premium+ 24 month credit package. $100 a month gets you the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge plus 135 minutes, unlimited SMSes (this is becoming less and less of a perk in the world of smart phones, why not free social media bundles?), 300 MB and an $8 allowance for off-net connections. The credit offer fall under Econet Premium, which is the operators’ contract service line.

If credit is not your thing, you can pick it up for a cash price of $1,305. At this price Econet is throwing in a free monthly allowance of 50 MB of data for 3 months.

This is one pricey phone, and a lot of people I’ve asked about buying this device are questioning whether the value matches what the device can really do. We are reviewing the device over the next couple of days and we will have our own verdict on that.