Q&A: UK’s STK mobile brand on three year warranties, SA-bound phones

From local brands and Chinese companies to long-established players, the South African budget smartphone sector is in pretty solid shape. In saying so, there’s always room for differentiation and lower prices, so we’re glad to see UK-based STK come to the country.

The company initially came to Southern (and South Africa) in June 2016, seeing combined feature phone and smartphone sales of 300 000 units in the process, STK’s regional manager Eben Heunis told Gearburn. Then in February, STK announced a deal to stock its phones in Shoprite and Checkers stores, putting it on the radar.

The range starts at just R599 for the STK Storm e2 Plus (dual-SIM, 4-inch display, 1400mAh battery, 512MB RAM, 5MP/2MP camera pairing, 8GB storage, budget quad-core chip), with the STK Sync 5z coming in at R899 (dual-SIM, 5-inch 480×854 display, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, 8MP/2MP camera pairing, 2000mAh battery, budget quad-core chip).

Heunis says that the firm designs its feature phones and smartphones in the UK but manufactures them in China. “It’s not white labelled. So we do our own in-house designing, we source our own components…” the executive says.

But aside from the design and manufacturing approach, what makes the company unique?

A lengthy warranty

“We give a three year warranty on our devices. Not a two year (warranty) like other manufacturers. In saying that, it shows you the trust in our brand and our devices,” Heunis adds.

The representative says that the three year warranty covers “all of our devices”, taking care of issues such as motherboard defects. However, screen repairs and water damage are not covered under the warranty.

Of course, the last newcomer to give out similar warranties, AG Mobile, is no longer around. So what kind of assurances are there that the warranty will be honoured and that customer support will be in place?

“Firstly, we’re a global brand… We’ve got a repair centre in Johannesburg that looks after all our repairs…” the executive explained. The company also has an app called STK Care, which uses algorithms to notify customers of problems, the executive says.

How does this actually work?

“As you sign in for the Google Play Store, it automatically signs you up for STK Care… So what happens is, if a customer has an issue with his device, there are manual tests that he can run. So he goes into the app, he can see if the screen is right or if the battery is working correctly. And if you don’t pass the test, we actually notify you that you can go swap out your device.”

Heunis adds that there are also automatic processes running in the background to ensure everything works correctly.

“We’ve got a 24 hour support team, you can specifically hit the button to have support. There’s someone that chats to you,” Heunis adds.

Which phones in SA?

We’ve already mentioned the R699 STK Storm e2 Plus and R899 STK Sync 5z, but what about other models in the company’s stable?

“We will potentially have a R799 5-inch option in the next two months or so… But R899, R949 is where our 5-inch devices will sit…” Heunis says.

“Then we also have our 5.5-inch device… called the STK Transporter… Indicatively, that would be like a R1199, R1299 price point,” he added.

The executive says they’re also looking to bring in 6-inch phablets “in the next month or two”, with a tentative price point of R1499 or R1599. Heunis adds that this device will have 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13MP main camera and 8MP selfie shooter.

The Hero Lite is probably one of the company’s standout handsets, by virtue of its rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, and the executive confirmed that it would be coming to South Africa too.

“The Hero Lite will be coming in via the TFG channel, probably in the next two months or so… That will be at like a R1699, R1599 indicative price point as well.”

Heunis says that most of their devices will come with free covers and screen protectors. After all, the company initially made its name as an accessory manufacturer.

Software updates?

When it comes to budget devices, software updates are usually one of the first compromises. But what about STK? The company representative was cagey on details for over-the-air firmware updates.

Heunis said that an over-the-air update on the Sync 5z smartphone “is not confirmed”, but wasn’t able to confirm updates for the rest of the range. However, the representative said that all upcoming devices would be launching with Android Nougat.

Targets for STK?

Building off the early success in Southern Africa, the UK brand says it’s targeting sales of one million units before the end of the year.

We’ve seen numerous Chinese brands launch in the market in recent years, such as Huawei, HiSense, Xiaomi and Meizu. Does STK see them as competition?

“These guys are all competition in the space that we play in. We see ourselves still as a tier three brand in South Africa. We’ll probably try to get to a HiSense or a Huawei down the line… We wanna see ourselves as a tier two brand.”