The Honor Play 40 has officially made its mark in South Africa, targeting entry-level users who want a reliable, everyday smartphone at an incredibly accessible starting price of ZAR 2,800.
Positioned as an ultra-budget contender, this device delivers essential smartphone functions without hitting your wallet hard. However, please remember that the ZAR 2,800 baseline can shift slightly. The exact amount you pay can vary depending on your specific location in South Africa, store-specific discount cycles, and whether you are choosing an upfront cash purchase or a low-tier cellular contract.
Thanks to Honor’s extensive local partnership network, tracking down the Play 40 is remarkably easy. It is heavily stocked across digital platforms, mobile networks, and value-focused retail counters nationwide.
If you want to buy the phone outright cash, earn store loyalty points, or utilize flexible, interest-free payment solutions (like PayFlex or Mobicred), these major retailers are excellent destinations:
Takealot: South Africa’s leading e-commerce hub provides fast door-to-door delivery or convenient collection at a local pickup point, frequently running online flash sales on entry-level tech.
Makro & Game: Massive big-box warehouses that are ideal if you want to inspect the device in person or check out entry-level tech promotions.
HiFi Corp & Hi Online: Specialised electronics outlets offering dependable in-store credit options and affordable device protection plans.
If you prefer not to shell out the ZAR 2,800 upfront, you can easily spread the cost by upgrading an existing mobile line or signing up for a highly affordable monthly contract:
MTN & Chatz: Major network destinations offering low-cost monthly contract packages, which are perfect for keeping your overall connectivity bills down while securing a new phone.
Cellucity & 4U: Independent cellular specialists known for hands-on, personalized customer service, making it quick and seamless to compare basic network tiers.
Honor’s incredibly wide local distribution means you don’t even have to visit a massive tech mall to purchase this device. It is widely available at your closest retail clothing counters and supermarkets:
Foschini & Mr Price: Perfect if you want the flexibility of putting the phone straight onto an established retail store clothing card or lifestyle credit account.
PEP & Ackermans: These local neighborhood favorites make the phone incredibly accessible for over-the-counter prepaid cash deals, ensuring excellent availability in both major metropolitan hubs and smaller towns.
Budget Shopping Tip: At a baseline of ZAR 2,800, the Honor Play 40 sits firmly in the sub-R3,000 value bracket, making it ideal for students, casual users, or a reliable backup phone. Before finalizing your purchase, look closely at PEP, Ackermans, and Game—these specific value retailers frequently bundle entry-level phones with free starter packs containing bonus data and airtime allocations, which instantly boosts your upfront savings.
| Brand | Honor |
| Model | Honor Play 40 |
| Announced | 05 July, 2023 |
| Released | 05 July, 2023 |
| Status | Available |
| Price | ZAR 2,800 |
| Type Design Type called form factor refers to a mobile phone's size, shape, and style as well as the layout and position of major components of phone. There are three major form factors seen in mobile phones => bar phones, folding phones and sliding phones. | Bar |
| Dimensions | 163.3 x 75.1 x 8.4 mm (6.43 x 2.96 x 0.33 in) |
| Weight | 188 g (6.63 oz) |
| Colors | Blue, Mint, Black, Purple |
| 2G Network | |
| 3G Network | |
| 4G Network | |
| 5G Network | |
| SIM SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small card that contains mobile network subscriber's account information. This allows the phone using the card to attach to a mobile network. The SIM card is most commonly associated with GSM and UMTS mobile networks. Moving a SIM card from one phone to another allows a subscriber to switch mobile phones without having to contact their mobile network carrier. SIM cards can also be used by a phone to store limited amounts of data, such as phone numbers and text messages. | Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
| Display Type Display Technology => A number of display technologies and types used in mobile phones => TFT (Thin Film Transistor), IPS (In-Place Switching), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), Super AMOLED (an even advanced version of AMOLED), Resistive Touchscreen (Resistive touchscreens contain two layer of conductive material with a very small gap between them which acts as a resistance), Capacitive Touchsceen (Capacitive touchscreen technology consists of a layer of glass coated with a transparent conductor) | TFT LCD, 90Hz |
| Size | 6.56 inches, 103.4 cm2 (~84.3% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Resolution | 720 x 1612 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~269 ppi density) |
| Audio Playback | |
| Video Playback | |
| FM Radio | No |
| Ring Tones | |
| Loudspeaker |
| Main Camera Camera is able to capture photographs and usually videos, The most important characteristics of a camera are the resolution (measured in megapixels), lens focus type (fixed or automatic), higher megapixel cameras are known to capture higher quality photos, but not always a good measurement of the photos quality. |
13 MP, f/1.8, (wide), PDAF 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
| Selfie Camera | 5 MP, f/2.2, (wide) |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
| Operating System OS => Every computer system run on a base software called Operating System (OS). Operating System controls all basic operations of the computer (such as smartphone, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices). The Operating System allows the user to install and run third party applications (apps), apps are used to add new functionality to the device. | Android 13 |
| User Interface UI or user interface of a device is the look and feel of the on-screen menu system. How it works, its color scheme, how it responds to button presses, all of these things are part of the user interface. | Magic OS 7.1 |
| Chipset Chipset is a group of integrated circuits designed to perform one or a more dedicated functions, often with real time computing constraints, Popular smartphones are equipped with more advanced embedded chipsets that can do many different tasks depending on their programming. | Qualcomm SM4350-AC Snapdragon 480+ 5G (8 nm) |
| CPU CPU (Central Processing Unit) mostly known as processors, CPU processes instructions in order to carry out certain functions that make your device operate properly. Processors are often described as the brain of computers, smartphones and tablets, Smartphones and tablets rely on processors to carry out their every task, Processors are an incredibly important factor in selecting any type of computing device, including your smartphone. | Octa-core (2x2.2 GHz Kryo 460 & 6x1.9 GHz Kryo 460) |
| GPU GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a single-chip processor designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display, This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion. | Adreno 619 |
| RAM (Memory) RAM (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computer systems, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. | 6GB/8GB |
| Internal Storage Internal Storage is a data storage space (flash memory) mostly used in smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices where operating system, apps, music, photos, videos, files and other user data Is stored. | 128GB/256GB |
| Bluetooth Bluetooth is a wireless communications technology for exchanging data between mobile phones, headsets, computers and other network devices over short distances without wires, Bluetooth technology was primarily designed to support simple wireless networking of personal consumer devices. | 5.1, A2DP, LE, aptX HD |
| Wi-fi Wi-Fi is a popular wireless networking technology using radio waves to provide high-speed network connections that allows devices to communicate without cords or cables, Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of internet connectivity all over the world. | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct |
| Wi-fi Hotspot | |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0, OTG |
| Positioning GPS The Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radio navigation system, GPS permits users to determine their position, velocity and the time 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, In order to locate your position, your device or GPS receiver must have a clear view of the sky. | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS |
| NFC NFC (Near field communication) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish peer-to-peer radio communications with each other by touching them together or bringing them into proximity, usually no more than a few inches. |
| Battery Type Battery Type => Cell phones run on various kinds of batteries depending on the manufacturer, phone size or shape and features. There are basically four types of cell phone batteries => Lithium Polymer, Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium. | Li-Po 5200 mAh, non-removable |
| Charging Wireless Charging (Inductive Charging) uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects. This is usually done with a charging station. Energy is sent through an inductive coupling to an electrical device, which can then use that energy to charge batteries or run the device. | 10W wired |
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only.