Product test
iPhone 17 Pro review: a no-nonsense upgrade
by Samuel Buchmann
The Mara Z: subjecting this African smartphone to heavy metal
18.9.2020
Mara is an African company that just brought a new smartphone to market. I had to acquire and test it. The Mara Z cuts a surprisingly good figure at an equally surprising price.
The Mara Z is Mara's flagship. With a 5.7-inch screen at 720x1440 pixels, a 13 megapixel camera at the front and one at the back, a micro-USB adapter and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 and 3075 mAh battery, the Mara Z marks an important step in the smartphone world.
Because the Mara Z isn't from the USA, or even from China.
The Mara Z is the first African smartphone.
Mara: a statement
The Mara Z is manufactured by the Mara company based in Dubai. Dubai is quite rich, in case you didn't know. A bit too much, even. Here we remember the 17-year-old Ferrari owner. Rashed Belhasa, full-time YouTuber, had it painted in a Supreme design.
But whereas others proudly say «We are cheap» and leave it at that, Mara takes a different stance on their website:
The first high specification, affordable smartphone manufactured in Africa, Mara Phones is committed to enhancing and enriching the lives of the people of Africa.
That's true. Almost.
We're forgetting two important terms: «Qualcomm Snapdragon» and «Mediatek».
In comes China
As far as journalist Xiao Xin of the Global Times is concerned, Taiwan is part of China. And he's proud of it as well. And when somebody comes along and claims that MediaTek SoCs are manufactured in Rwanda, then they have to be reprimanded.
Arguing Mara's superiority over Transsion is therefore pretty hard. And even if that was the case, Mara would still actually be a Chinese product.
Due to this, Mara changed their statement from «100% made in Africa» to «100% manufactured in Africa». Something the company should have done from the beginning, as entering the market with such a bold-faced lie doesn't cast a particularly good light on a company that wants to win the favour of its customers.
The entire manufacturing process, from the motherboard all the way to the packaging of the phone is done in our newly-opened factory.
But Xiao Xin of the Global Times is right about one statement:
Mara phones may represent national pride, but it remains a far distance from the phone vendor's commercial viability in the contested marketplace.
Mara is facing an uphill battle. In the lower price sector, manufacturers from all over the world are fighting for the favour of less well-off customers, or those who don't want to spend a lot of money on a smartphone. But every dollar that Mara earns in Africa or abroad is a dollar that returns into African coffers.
With Mara, Africa is creating a small domestic market. One phone after the other. This is what it's all about, not market dominance. But I don't think Mara would mind dominance either way.
A worthy opponent: heavy metal
Therefore: the two videos below contain flashing lights. If you're photosensitive, maybe skip them. Sorry.
The Mara reaches its limits. The microphone starts clipping, the system can't cope with the lighting. Even if the Mara only films in 1920x1440, you'll notice the low specs.
Although the image on the right-hand side of the billboard is a bit ragged and grainy, the microphone holds up and delivers impressive sound. And even in 4K, i.e. 3840x2160 pixels, and at 60fps, the iPhone won't falter.
The All-Seeing Eye
When it comes to pictures, however, the Mara Z punches surprisingly far above its weight class.
The African phone captures the car well, even if it adds some rough textures in the shadowy background under the roof. Still, the picture is definitely suitable for social media. The skewed comparison earlier suddenly isn't that unfair if you overlook the fact that the Mara displays at 4160x3120 while the iPhone 11 Pro Max achieves 4032x3024. The Mara even performs better.
As expected, the iPhone has no problems with brightness levels. Maybe the comparison isn't so fair after all. But I still want to note how well the Mara performed. So let's move on to the next round. Let's try blurred images by adding macro. Neither the iPhone nor the Mara have a dedicated macro mode.
To make the comparison appear as unfair as possible: the iPhone 11 Pro Max costs well over 1000 Swiss francs and is a precisely built symphony of hardware and software. The Mara costs 200 Swiss francs and consists of cheap parts from China that manage as much as the budget allows. The Mara Z has one lens, the iPhone three.
But hey, the Mara does well with photos and can be proud of itself. Let's do a quick calculation. The Mara Z costs 229 US dollars. According to the current exchange rate, that's CHF 223.24. The iPhone 11 Pro Max costs 1359 francs, 6.09 times more than the Mara Z.
Here's a heretical question: are the pictures from the iPhone really 6.09 times better? We know that its images won't rival Apple, but the question is whether and how far Mara is punching above its own weight class.
Still, the Mara struggles with videos. There's no way around it. While you can simply add a «Volume Warning» to clips on social media, the Mara still doesn't produce really useful videos. In that aspect the iPhone is more than 6.09 times better. Any smartphone that ejects usable files is probably superior.
Let's end the unfair comparison there. As well as the review. After all, the Mara Z is cool. It's not a top phone, it can't be, but it doesn't want to be. But it's a strong statement. Africa is on the rise. Hopefully.
Technologically speaking, the Mara Z is a great and enjoyable device. So thanks, Mara.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
