Best laptop contract deals in South Africa

Buying a laptop on contract can be easier to swallow than having to fork out thousands of rands to buy one with cash.

Prominent South African network providers, including Cell C, MTN, Telkom, and Vodacom, offer contract deals on a range of laptops with a data plan.

MyBroadband looked for the best laptop contract deals on offer from these mobile operators.

Although no laptop models were consistent across all four operators’ catalogues, one device was available through both Vodacom and Telkom — the Huawei Matebook D16.

Vodacom only offers the laptop on a 36-month contract, providing 5GB of anytime data and 5GB of Night Owl data each month.

On the other hand, Telkom sells the Huawei Matebook D16 for R1,049 per month over two years. The deal comes with 40GB of LTE data each month.

The laptop packs 8GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and an Intel Core i5-12450H processor.

MTN and Telkom both sell the Huawei Matebook D15 and 13-inch Apple MacBook Air on contract.

Telkom’s contract offerings are more expensive for both laptops. However, they provide a much higher data allocation than MTN’s.

MTN charges R509 per month over three years for the Huawei Matebook D15 with 6GB of monthly data, while Telkom sells the laptop with 80GB of data for R699 monthly over the same period.

South African customers can get the 13-inch MacBook Air with Apple’s M1 chip from Telkom for R1,329 per month over 24 months or from MTN for R1,029 each month over three years.

Telkom’s contract includes 80GB of monthly data, while MTN provides customers with 15GB.

PC gamers can get the MSI Pulse 15 i7 gaming laptop from Vodacom for R1,679 monthly over three years or the MSI GF63 Thin 11SC from MTN for R619 a month over 36 months.

The MSI Pulse 15 has 16GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, an Intel Core i7-13620H CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX4060 GPU with 8GB of video memory.

The deal features 5GB of anytime data and 5GB of Night Owl data each month for the contract’s duration.

The GF63 Thin 11SC also packs 16GB of RAM. However, it is less powerful regarding its other specs, with 512GB of storage, an Intel Core i5-11400H, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU with 4GB of video memory.

Cell C primarily sells Packard Bell-branded laptops of varying display sizes and a range of specs.

We included two options in our comparison: the Packard Bell Lauda i7 15.6-inch and Lauda i3 15-inch notebooks.

The former packs 8GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and an 11th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU. Cell C sells the laptop with 5GB of anytime data and 5GB of Nite data each month for R749 a month over 36 months.

The Packard Bell Lauda i3 has 4GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and an 11th-generation Intel Core i3 CPU with Intel UHD Graphics.

Priced at R499 a month over three years, the laptop also comes with 5GB of anytime data and 5GB of Nite data each month.

Comparisons of Cell C, MTN, and Vodacom laptop contracts are summarised below.