Hottest tech to buy in South Africa this week (15-20 July)

Shopping for technology is an even bigger nightmare than clothes. But unlike clothing, finding the correct stick of RAM isn’t a question of it being too big or small, but just too damn expensive.

In a weekly series, Gearburn trawls the South African online shopping space to find the best deals, from DDR4 for your rig to cans for your ears, narrowing them down to ten or less throughout the week.

Be sure to bookmark this page and check back in throughout the week, as we update this article regularly with new deals as they’re made available.

Lenovo IdeaPad 330 laptop – R3999 at Loot

About the cheapest you can expect to pay for a new, full-sized 15.6-inch Windows laptop in South Africa. This machine does have compromises though. You’re getting 4GB of DDR4 RAM paired with Intel’s Celeron N4000 dual core processor. There’s also a 500GB 5400RPM main drive, and a 30WH battery. And the laptop itself weighs in at 2.2kg, so not a viable travel option. Still, shove in more RAM, and perhaps an SSD for that hard drive, and you have yourself a capable desktop replacement laptop for students.

Kindle 6-inch 8th Gen e-reader – R1499 at Loot

This is about the cheapest you can get a Kindle new in South Africa right now. This particular model comes with 4GB of storage, and “special offers” on the home page. The latter is effectively Amazon ads. Still, you don’t see these when you’re reading, and for those frequenting planes, these little devices are much better than carrying four physical books around.

Samsung DEX Station – R499 at Takealot

For those rocking the S8, S9, S10 series or Note 9, this little cradle allows you to connect your device to a monitor, transforming your phone into a workstation. You can also use a HDMI-to-USB-C cable to get the same results, but this cradle, at this price, is encroaching on the latter’s price point.

Transcend 300S MicroSD XC UHS-I Class 10 256GB memory card – R459 at Raru

Yes, this card’s still on special. Looking for more storage for you Nintendo Switch? This memory card features 95MB/s reads and 45MB/s writes, with a stylish grey finish. It also includes an SD card adaptor, allowing you to shove this card into your camera or SD card reader if need be. Do be aware that Raru’s currently quoting dispatcing times of between four to eight working days, so you may have to wait a bit to get your hands on one.

Transcend 300S MicroSD XC UHS-I Class 10 128GB memory card – R221 at Raru

So you’re looking for a memory card but don’t need more than 128GB? This will suit you just fine. Effectively the smaller, baby brother of the aforementioned card, this little piece of human engineering is perfect for additional smartphone storage or for use as a backup Switch card.

WD Blue WD10EZEX 3.5 inch SATA 6Gb/s internal drive – R632 at Raru

For a little more than a family meal out in Cape Town, this drive will store photos from your family meals for the next two years (warranty). Drives are dropping in price this year in South Africa, so this may not even be the best price to get this WD Blue, but it is at present. You’ll get a 7200RPM disk storing up to 1TB of data. It’s perfect for increasing storage in an older machine, or as a secondary program drive in a computer you’re about to build.

Toshiba Canvio Basic 1TB – R699 for Takealot

Even more storage! I personally have the 2GB version of this drive, and it performs well as a store-and-forget unit. It does physically switch off after standing by for more than five minutes, so it may not make for a good media player drive. But you are getting USB 3.0 speeds.

Feature image: Amazon