Tizen-powered Samsung Z2 coming to Vodacom

Here’s an interesting little story. Among the iPhone 7 kerfuffle and heated Samsung Note issues, Vodacom has announced that the Samsung Z2 will be available on its network this month.

It’s a pretty big deal for those who love using alternative OSes on smartphones, as the Z2 uses Samsung’s Tizen OS.

In January 2016, Tizen ranked as fourth popular in the world, behind Android, iOS and Windows, and also runs on the likes of Samsung’s Gear S2 and S3 smartwatches.

On paper, the Samsung Z2 isn’t a real clock stopper.

Samsung Z2’s arrival marks the first noticeable appearance of Tizen phones in South Africa

It’s decidedly bottom-dollar, with a 4.0-inch 800×480 screen, a Spreadtrum quad-core processor, and just 8GB of internal storage (with a microSD card slot). There’s also 1GB of RAM, a 5MP f/2.2 primary camera, and a tiny 1500mAh battery. All this is showed into a device weighing 127g. It also boasts a dual SIM slot and LTE support.

While the Samsung Z2 isn’t the most exciting of smartphones — hell, it isn’t even the latest Samsung Z smartphone — it does mark an interesting moment for the South African mobile phone industry. Earlier this year, Samsung was considering ditching Google’s Android OS in favour of Tizen for all of its products.

The Z2 will be available from this month for R1099 on prepaid, and R79 per month for 24 months on contract.