Energizer Energy 100: the tough feature phone arrives in South Africa

Energizer’s 2019 smartphone onslaught on South Africa is not over by any means. And if anything, it seems that the company’s only just getting started.

On Wednesday, it announced a new offering for South African consumers looking for a rugged feature phone.

It features a 2.4-inch display, runs a custom OS through a Mediatek CPU with 4MB of RAM. There’s also only just 4MB of internal storage for contacts and SMSes, but you can slot in an old 8GB microSD card if you have any lying about.

As it’s a feature phone, there’s no touchscreen. Instead, you’ll have to learn how to use the T9 layout all over again.

A rear VGA camera features, but there’s no selfie camera. There’s also 2G network support and dual SIM slots.

A 3.5mm headphone jack, support for Bluetooth 2.1 devices, an FM radio, and a microUSB charging port completes the package.

But its biggest trump cards is its build and battery life.

The Energy 100 sports a 1500mAh battery, which Energizer believes is good for 11 hours of talk time or eight days of standby life.

IP54 water and dust resistance also features, as well as shock resistance up to 80 centimetres.

The phone’s available for R699 at the time of writing. That’s coming dangerously close to the price for the cheapest Android smartphones available, but it does make other feature phones, like the much cheaper Nokia 105 seem a bit basic.

Feature image: Energizer