Recommended Phone Models for Ethiopia?

[Jessica Chen]

Hello CommCare Community,

Has anyone recently purchased mobile phones for use in Ethiopia?  We just need phones for data collection, and won't be connecting it to any service.  

The Commcare Phone selection guide below doesn't seem quite up to date with recent models.  We're looking for known models to work in Ethiopia with Commcare, the local language (Amharic and Oromifa), ideally durable hardware and battery life, and in the price range $100-150 USD.

https://wiki.commcarehq.org/display/commcarepublic/Recommended+Phones+and+Choosing+a+Phone

If anyone knows of or is using a model they like, please let me know!  I'm currently looking at the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini as the top contender.

[Clayton Sims]

Hi Jessica,

I would recommend an Android phone for your project.  The Moto G might be a good choice, but you can look at our wiki to determine if any of the other Androids better fit your needs. As a heads up: Android 4.0+ devices are substantially more likely to support Amharic fonts.

Any android phone should allow you to use our calendar widget for the Ethiopian calendar.  We have not specifically tested that the local languages you are working with will work on the device.  Our suggestion would be to buy one of the phones and test that the local language works before making a large purchase.

You can read up at the bottom of this wiki page on how to record and print dates in the Ethiopian calendar in CommCare forms:

https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+Localization+Materials

Cheers,

-Clayton

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[Vishwajit Singh]

Hi everyone, 

I was wondering if anyone else has had an opportunity to test a phone model in Ethiopia in the last few months.

Jessica - which phone model did you finally end up using and how was the experience?

Thanks, 

Vish

[Tewelde Aregawi]

Hi Jessica
We are using smart phone Sony Ericsson and they are really nice.

[Jessica Chen]

Hi Vishwajit,

Here's the result of our analysis, and I've also attached our side-by-side comparison of important features. Please note we did this back in December. 

I looked at the models tested in Africa listed on this Commcare phone selection help site, asked the online CommCare Community, selected based on our criteria (below).  Attached is the side by side comparison of these models.

 

My top recommendation is the Motorola G at $160 USD, with case and screen protector, will come out to about $175 USD each. 

 

I know this is a bit above our price range, but this is the best match for our criteria and has been recommended by the community.  My second recommendation is the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini at $140 USD, and with case/screen will be $150 USD each.  Jason and I agree that the next step should be to buy a phone (or both) and test it to make sure it works for our needs before buying in bulk.

 

Criteria:

Price $120-$150

For use with CommCare – GPS, picture, larger screen the better, 3G, unlocked, battery life, storage capacity

Protective cases and screens

Jessica

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[Derek Hans]

Hi Jessica,

It's also worth looking at the Moto E. It's less powerful than the Moto G but still pretty good and less expensive.

I'm curious how you're getting Moto G phones for 150 - I thought they retail for 180. Is this the older model?

[Charles Flèche]

On Friday 20 March 2015 12:42:44 Derek Hans wrote:

> It's also worth looking at the Moto E. It's less powerful than the Moto G

> but still pretty good and less expensive.

 

 

Not sure if available in Ethiopia, but we are currently deploying the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime after an atrocious experience with Huawei G730-C00 phones (see https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/Recommended+Phones+and+Choosing+a+Phone

)

 

So far I'm pretty happy with these. They cost around $130.

 

--

Charles Flèche

mHealth Advisor

Télécoms Sans Frontières http://www.tsfi.org

Première Urgence - Aide Médicale Internationale http://www.pu-ami.org

 

[em...@aquaya.org]

Not sure if it's in Ethiopia, but in Kenya we just launched with 45 Samsung Galaxy Trend Lites, which sell for $95 here in Kenya. It's only been 3 weeks, and we have the enumerators being extremely cautious with battery life during the survey (generally on airplane mode unless they need to use GPS or sync forms) - so far they're doing fine.

[Vishwajit Singh]

Thanks everyone for your inputs. 

Jessica - thanks for that great analysis. I was wondering if you purchased Moto G and Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini models from Ethiopia and if there are service centers for Moto and Samsung in Ethiopia? 

Tewelde - which Sony Ericsson model are you using for CommCare application? Does it support Amharic and Oromifa?

Best, 

Vishwajit

[Tewelde Aregawi]

Hi  Vishwajit 

We are using ST17i and it supports both languages.

Best,

Tewelde Aregawi

E-Health Specialist 

MVP(MDE)

Tigray/Hawzein

Mobile   +251933730215

Skype : tewelde.aregawi1

Face Book : tewelde aregawi

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[Vishwajit Singh]

Thanks Tewelde. Did you procure ST17i models from Ethiopia? If yes, what price did you get them at? I am curious to know how accessible are the Sony Ericsson service centers in Ethiopia. 

Best, 

Vishwajit