Is this iPhone?

Uh, no. The A79 might have the conventional good looks necessary to fit in at a Genius Bar, but it doesn’t truly belong. One look at the A79’s accessory-packed box should be enough to tell you that. When was the last time Apple included a phone case and charger?

And of course, those “conventional good looks” involve the A79’s somewhat bulky figure that Apple is so in love with. We’re not bothered by it. We’ll never fault a phone for slimming down, but if the materials are right, those bulky features go a long way in making a R9,000 piece of kit feel like double that price.

Our review model turned up in a ‘Mystery Black’ hue that probably bogged down the marketing team for weeks dreaming it up. On the rear, over in the top right corner is the rectangular “Innovative AI Camera” bump that fortunately doesn’t take up much real estate. The back is all coated in a treated plastic that’ll almost have you thinking “Oppo didn’t really cover this thing in glass, did it?”

Running along the phone’s iPhone-esque metal frame and rounded corners are all the usual port suspects. USB-C holds court in the centre, joined by a speaker vent and something we don’t often see anymore – a 3.5mm earphone jack. You’ll find the volume rocker and power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader along the right, while the left is home to the SIM tray.

Easy on the eyes

It might have the body of an iPhone but that’s where the similarities end. The A79’s 6.72in FHD+ LCD display makes that immediately apparent. That wasn’t a dig, the A79’s display, capable of reaching 680 nits brightness, handled everything we threw at it – which mainly consisted of watching YouTube, answering emails, and handing out Ws in Marvel Snap. That’s the 90Hz spec doing most of the talking.

While it made scrolling around a whole lot quicker, we had difficulties getting the A79’s gaming chops up to scratch. It struggled even booting them up, and in the case of Marvel Snap, a card game in the same vein as Hearthstone mind you, it couldn’t get the frames up higher than 30fps. Now imagine PUBG Mobile.

It’s easy to blame the 90Hz refresh rate for not living up to expectations, but that isn’t it. Our issue lies with the choice of processor: a MediaTek Dimensity 6020, 8GB of RAM and Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. Again – when it comes to handling the mundane stuff, it’s great. Just… don’t expect much more.

More annoying is the Android reskin Oppo calls ColorOS – especially in the beginning. If you aren’t clearing out the boatload of bloatware, you’re being asked to register for Oppo-this or Oppo-that. Once the mountainous pile of Facebooks, Booking.coms and other rubbish was removed, ColorOS settled itself down in the background as a regular old Android clone that can be almost entirely forgotten about.

We did say almost. It’s far from being a big deal, and even further from being a dealbreaker, but Oppo’s presence is felt the most when hooking anything up through Bluetooth. Hit the Bluetooth switch on, and the A79 will automatically try to connect to the last device it used — waiting around thirty seconds before it gives up and accepts new connections. For those who have plenty of devices in a rotation, you have been warned.

Something to say (loudly)

One of the A79’s best features is the inclusion of dual stereo speakers, and what Oppo calls “Ultra Volume Mode” which will send the numbers rocketing up to 300%. Oppo wasn’t kidding. The A79 gets loud. Really loud. But on the journey to 300%, it loses much of its clarity before eventually reaching a level of distortion that becomes downright unpleasant.

When it wasn’t being put through the reviewer mill (because seriously, when will 300% volume ever be necessary?), the A79’s speakers turned out to be surprisingly decent. It’s not often we get to say that about a smartphone we aren’t paying through the nose for. Audio was clear and detailed — improving our YouTube and Netflix sessions a whole lot.

What turned out to be the A79’s proper best feature, however, was the 5,000mAh battery it’s got in there. It’s comparable to Samsung’s S24 Ultra — only losing out on the top spot thanks to the still respectable 33W charger in the box. It managed to conquer a full day without breaking a sweat, very nearly surviving long enough to make it a full 48 hours. It never quite managed the feat, but stick it on power saving mode, keep the gaming to a minimum, and it’ll pull it off easily.

Throw some more intensive use at it — a few videos from Hbomberguy at full brightness should do the trick — and it’ll start to tear at the seams a bit. That means calling out for a charger nine hours in, which, for the price Oppo is asking, is still rather impressive.

Utterly failing the A79’s decent feature set is its fingerprint and face unlock features, the former of which is embedded right into the power button. Under-screen sensors are the future, and the A79 is a perfect example of why. Unlocking the device took at least three tries per attempt — a combination of the failing face scanner and fingerprint sensor. Constant vibrations from the sensor’s failed attempts in your pocket didn’t help matters one bit.

Megapixels aren’t everything

You’ve probably heard that megapixels aren’t everything, or you read the sub-heading, one of the two. In Oppo’s case, it couldn’t be more true. It houses a solid 50MP main sensor in the rear, accompanied by an unenthusiastic 2MP depth sensor, and a simple 8MP sensor around the front. There isn’t a triple-digit spec to point at, but that didn’t stop the A79 from pulling some decent pictures out of the bag.

The 50MP sensor was obviously the star of the show. We knocked out a bouquet of decent-looking images across various lighting conditions, hardly ever losing detail. The 2MP and 8MP sensors are less serious about their jobs but will do everything you ask them to, and do them fine. Don’t expect them to do anything more, however.

You’ll need to flick on the camera’s AI enhancer to get the results we’re talking about, something Oppo leaves off by default. Colour reproduction does take a slight and unfortunate hit but that can be remedied with a bit of editing.

Oppo A79 5G verdict

Oppo’s A79 5G has everything a mid-range phone needs: a big display, excellent battery life, admirable camera skills, and an enticing price. Ignore the R12,000 RRP and you’ll find far more respectable listings around the R9,000 mark. It’s not without faults, like a failing processor that makes gaming a slog, or the too-loud speakers that’ll drown out any sort of quality. Thankfully they’re few and far between, making the A79 a good option for anyone looking to get out from under Samsung’s wing without breaking the bank.

This month, lady luck appears to be favouring the country’s diesel drivers with the CEF’s predictions pointing to a minor diesel price drop at the beginning of April. Petrol drivers won’t be as fortunate when the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DoE) gets ’round to altering the pumps on the first Wednesday of the new month.

The prices, Mason!

It’s not worth sulking about just yet. The CEF, a state-owned energy company reporting to the DoE, might offer up the most accurate representation of South Africa’s waning or growing petrol and diesel prices, but their word is not law. That responsibility lies with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy at the end of this month.

Until that happens, the CEF’s numbers are the best we’ve got. It arrived at these figures by looking at all the same information the Department does at the end of the month, giving us a running bout of predictions to help us better prepare for the official 3 April 2024 changeover date.

That means keeping an eye on the average price of refined oil globally throughout the month, and the current Rand/US Dollar exchange. South Africa’s economic position is a major factor, with changes to load shedding or falling Rand values massively affecting the price we’ll see in April.

Read More: FNB slashes license disc renewal fee, making it the cheapest option in South Africa

Here are the petrol and diesel price predictions (so far) for April 2024:

• Petrol 93: increase of 8 cents per litre (R0.08)
• Petrol 95: increase of 10 cents per litre (R0.10)
• Diesel 0.05%: decrease of 33 cents per litre (R0.33)
• Diesel 0.005%: decrease of 38 cents per litre (R0.38)
• Illuminating Paraffin: decrease of 46 cents per litre (R0.46)

Just days after South Africa’s PlayStation distributor confirmed the launch of the PS5 Slim in April, we’re hearing news of Sony’s next big thing: the PS5 ‘Pro’. This isn’t coming from Sony directly, of course. It’s coming, as everything that counts as ‘news’ these days does, from an unofficial source (it was leaked) — by YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead. And later confirmed by Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson.

Oh, and it’ll be arriving sometime in the holiday shuffle — to better target those Christmas wishlists — as long as it pumps out enough first-party titles, that is. Good thing Nintendo stood aside this year, huh?

Anyone familiar with the scene knows who Tom Henderson is, and that he doesn’t mess around. He verified that the documents seen in Moore’s Law is Dead’s video are the real thing, coming from a PlayStation developer portal — with the documents hitting relevant developers a few weeks back.

We won’t bore you with all the nitty-gritty details. This is a PS5 Pro, after all. It’s a PlayStation with hardware befitting the four-year gap between itself and the original console — one that’s reportedly being kitted out to best suit any customers picking up GTA VI when it drops next year thanks to its improved GPU that’ll apparently render up to three times faster.

A more consistent frame rate is expected at 4K resolutions, and there’s talk that its ray tracing capabilities could be three (or even four) times faster than the previous iteration. PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling (PSSR) has been rumoured to use Sony’s machine learning — similar to AMD’s FSR or Nvidia’s DLSS image upscaling features to possibly boost graphics up to 8K.

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Let’s settle this on LinkedIn…

Anyone against the idea of starving themselves to death probably has a LinkedIn account, perhaps against their will. Microsoft’s social platform has long been a place to go in search of jobs, or employees to fill those jobs — with everyone patting themselves on the back in the process. Now, the platform is looking to branch into gaming.

That might sound like we’re pulling your leg, but it’s true. The billion-strong userbase will soon be treated to at least three of the company’s in-house games; akin to the surge of simple internet games like Wordle or something from neal.fun. They’re called Queens, Inference, and Crossclimb. It isn’t Linkle or something equally Wordle-y, so the NYT should leave them be.

The obvious implementation would be to allow employees to compete against one another, or against other companies. And, according to app researcher Nima Owji, that’s exactly what’s happening.

LinkedIn later confirmed in a message to TechCrunch that it was indeed working on a selection of games, though failed to provide any sort of release window. “We’re playing with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations,” the spokesperson said in a message to TechCrunch.

It’s… a strange move. A website aimed at professionals, would-be or otherwise, succumbing to the pull of time-killing games — designed to kill company time? We hope it all works out.

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Sony hits the pause button on VR

Virtual reality (VR) isn’t for everyone, apparently. You’d think Sony, a company where the bucks flow out of every orifice, would find a way to make it work. But if the rumours are true, the Japanese conglomerate has hit the pause button on PSVR 2 production and begun stockpiling the headsets thanks to declining sales quarter after quarter. Yikes.

We’re just spitballing here, but we reckon the R15,000 price tag — or the fact that it requires a PS5 to work — might have something to do with the declining sales. Don’t even get us started on the lacklustre support for games since its debut, riding on the Horizon Call of the Mountain high ever since. The closing of the PlayStation London division, reportedly working on VR titles, hasn’t helped.

The company’s saving grace could be its decision to allow PC support for the PSVR 2 headset. Or it might continue to sink deeper into this mess, as more people flock towards the similarly priced Meta Quest 3.

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Google’s Gemini on Apple iPhones

AI might be coming to Apple’s iPhones sooner, rather than later. That isn’t thanks to a massive push to get Apple’s in-house AI out sooner, but because of a possible deal that’ll put Google’s Gemini engine on Apple’s devices, according to Bloomberg’s sources familiar with the matter. If the reports are true, Apple’s also explored the possibility of plugging OpenAI’s engine into the development of its next phone.

Whatever the case, we won’t be hearing about it until June at the earliest at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. It seems that nothing has yet been agreed upon between Apple and Google — with no ideas of how a partnership would work, or how the AI would be introduced to the devices.

Whether this will affect Apple’s long-rumoured plans to develop its own artificial intelligence in-house has yet to be seen. Just last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook was going on about the massive potential of AI, and that the company was investing heavily in the area in general.

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As for the new console’s accessories — the standalone BluRay disc drive and Slim Vertical stand will be released alongside their console counterparts on 5 April 2024. The disc drive will cost R3,000, while the vertical stand (also sold separately) will cost R700.

ORIGINAL 15/03/2024:

Seriously, it’s time to say goodbye to that first-gen PS4 you’re still holding onto. We get it. A failing economy, nostalgia, and the fact that it doubles as a mini heater in Winter makes it an enticing bit of kit. But it’s 2024. It’s time to move on and what better way to do so than with the PS5 “Slim”, which is expected to land in South Africa sometime in early April.

It might not be a “Slim” in Sony’s eyes — who insists on calling it a plain old PlayStation 5 — but the massive weight and volume reduction coupled with a facelift that doesn’t make us want to hurl beg to differ. It’s a Slim, Sony. Get over it. And it’s turning up in South Africa, and soon. That’s what South Africa’s PlayStation distributor, Gamefinity had to say on the subject.

Will the real PS5 Slim please stand up?

When Sony first launched the refreshed PS5 in November last year, it didn’t come with any technical upgrades. It’s rocking the same hardware as a regular COVID-era PlayStation 5, wrapped in a smaller, lighter and prettier package. The most notable change was the loss of the disc drive, making the “Slim” an entirely digital affair.

Don’t worry, physical isn’t dead (yet). Sony’s dreamed up a solution that’ll see customers picking up their own disc drives and installing them separately, bringing in a new revenue stream for the Japanese company.

Read More: PS5 vs. PS5 Slim – What’s the difference?

If you were hoping for a price cut once the new consoles arrived, we envy your naivety. Sony’s sticking with the current console’s RRP of R12,000 for a PS5 with a single controller and no BluRay disc drive. If you’re after a bundle that contains a disc drive out of the box, you’ll be paying R14,000 — the price of the base PS5 in store now.

The PS5 Slim without a disc drive should arrive in the first week of April, as long as South Africa’s port services remain on track. The console’s Disc Drive Edition will only arrive three weeks later, nearer the end of April, again, contingent on South Africa’s port services.

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Teetering on the good end of ‘mid-range’, the C67 is Realme’s latest smartphone to land on South Africa’s shelves. It’ll fetch R7,500 or R400/m if you pick it up on an MTN contract. Customers under the Vodacom umbrella will have to wait until April, unfortunately.

No fakers here

If you asked Realme, they’d tell you this is a great smartphone for “trendsetters everywhere”. If you asked us, we’d tell you it seems like a great smartphone for anyone sporting less than five digits in their bank account although we’ll need to get our hands on one to confirm that. It certainly helps that the C67 features one of the largest main camera sensors you can get in a mid-range device, clocking in at 108MP. The Snapdragon 685 processor, 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB storage specs aren’t shabby, either.

One downside of this particular Qualcomm chip is the lack of 5G support. It’ll hit those 4G notes just fine, but in a land where 2G and 3G are on the chopping block, we’d have liked to see a tad more support included.

It might lack the gaming chops necessary to run PUGB Mobile at the highest settings, but less-intensive titles will benefit from the C67’s 90Hz on offer from the 6.72in LCD display.

Read More: The Realme C51 smartphone is new in South Africa and wants your budget bucks

Realme’s blown most of the budget to get the C67’s camera spec into triple-digit territory. In turn, the accompanying macro and selfie shooters took a minor hit, brandishing 2MP and 8Mp sensors respectively. It might be worth familiarising yourself better with the phone’s other end for an Instagram-worthy post.

The second most notable feature is the 5,000mAh battery lodged inside. Not only does it put the C67 on par with Samsung’s finest, but it actually beats the Galaxy S24 and S24+ with its 33W charging capabilities. Whether the on-paper victories translate into real-world usage remains to be seen. But for R7,500 we doubt there’ll be many complaints.

And if you’re at all worried about the seedy pub around the corner favouring the weekend’s sparse Premier League fixtures rather than the clash between Liverpool and Man United, stop it. Showmax has just announced that it’ll be broadcasting the Emirates FA Cup quarter-finals this weekend – with no disruptions to its Premier League broadcasting and at no extra cost.

FA Cup: not without some sacrifice

Obviously, streaming the matches through Showmax’s Premier League tier means there are a few caveats to keep in mind. For one, the streamer’s Premier League tier is a mobile-only option, meaning you’ll be forced to watch Man United’s thrashing of Liverpool through a 6in display, or if you have one handy, a tablet.

And two, there’s currently no way to access Showmax’s Premier League tier without sacrificing the R70/m fee. There is currently no ‘free trial’ option available that would unlock access to the matches for free.

Showmax’s announcement only details this weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finals and doesn’t mention the tournament’s subsequent semi-finals or final match. Stuff spoke with a Showmax representative, who confirmed the streamer will only be showing the quarter-finals for now, though it didn’t rule out the possibility of broadcasting the semi-final and final matches down the line.

Not a fever dream

Fortunately, Showmax is sweetening the deal in the hopes of getting new football fans through the door. Alongside the FA Cup broadcast announcement, the streamer unveiled Fever Pitch: The Rise of the Premier League – a four-part documentary “that takes viewers on a mesmerising journey through the inception and evolution of the English Premier League.”

It is said to feature the likes of David Beckham, Alan Shearer, and Eric Cantona and “unravels the gripping tale of how the Premier League transformed into the global powerhouse it is today.”

If documentaries aren’t your thing, a trip to the UK might just be. Showmax is hosting a competition that’ll send four subscribers and their partners to the UK to watch a Premier League match live. To enter, customers — new and returning — must subscribe to the R70/m Showmax Premier League tier between 8 March 2024 to 31 March 2024.

For more information and the competition’s Ts & Cs, go here.

Don’t set your heart on Rise of the Ronin being a carbon copy of The Witcher 3 or Assassin’s Creed, though. It’s an amalgamation of plenty of games — Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro, and Nioh prominent among them — all smushed together to create something special and most importantly: unique. Oh, and lest we forget the intricate Dark Souls-like difficulty this game features.

Our preview is limited to the game’s first couple of hours (though we took around three and a bit to get to where Team Ninjas wanted us to be). That’s plenty, honestly. Rise of the Ronin doesn’t mess around. We got a great sense of the scale Team Ninja is going for, an introduction to the somewhat intriguing story and an urge to keep playing and exploring the world conjured up by the makers of Nioh (history helped, we guess).

Blurred around the Veiled Edges

Rise of the Ronin kicks off in 1853 Japan. Players don the kegetsu of two young samurai regularly referred to as Blade Twins. These ‘Twins’ are believed to have suffered a traumatic past — your childhood village burning to the ground will do that to you — before being inducted into the ‘Veiled Edge’ and trained as hardcore, katana-wielding killing machines.

Blade Twins are exactly that — proficient with a blade. At least, until we got our hands on them. They’re described as two peas in a pod, two halves of one whole, yin and yang, unable to go on without each other. You’ll be tested in this regard a little sooner than you might expect.

It’s here, after the game’s first “mission”, that the story starts to carve a path for itself. It’s a path we’re eager to see the tail-end of down the road. It’s an experience somewhat dampened by our expressionless main character — an issue with most loosey-goosey open-world RPGs. It’s not all for naught — the subtle worldbuilding Team Ninja’se infinitely more energetic NPCs and semi-rich open world provide make for an experience we wanted more of.

Rise of the Ronin is an RPG at heart. You’re not just role-playing a samurai as they cut down countless soldiers in their way (at least not all the time). Occasionally, you’ll make a decision or two. Major ones. We, for instance, chose to fell one of the game’s earlier bosses rather than spare their life, only to discover that the character could have returned as an ally down the road, massively simplifying future encounters.

We respected the gravity of our decisions a little more after that one.

Patience is a virtue

It doesn’t take Rise of the Ronin long before it starts handing you deadly weapons. You’ll whip up a character in the thorough character creator, choosing your character’s ‘Blade Sharpening Origin’ which essentially determines the style you’ll be playing, weapons, and stats, before jumping into the thick of things before you can blink.

If you’re at all concerned about committing to a set of stats and their recommended weapons, don’t be. Rise of the Ronin gives you plenty of testing time before it’ll be locked in. Our ‘Killer’ origin recommends a loadout consisting of katanas and ōdachis. We’re here to be samurai, dammit.

Anyone who’s bosom friends with Nioh will be instantly familiar with Rise of the Ronin’s impeccably smooth combat. The dense array of weapons each features specific stances and movesets, requiring effective use of Ki (basically a stamina gauge) to unlock their full potential. Altercations regularly consist of players whittling down their enemy’s Ki to throw them off balance and deliver an often final crushing blow.

Like any Souls-like worth its salt, rolling, parrying, and stamina management are key to making Rise of the Ronin work. Pull it off though, and you’ll be front-row to some of the flashiest and at times, vexatious, combat encounters we’ve seen. After you’ve had your ass handed to you ten, twenty, or fifty times, pulling off a perfect counter-spark (parry) and proceeding to return the favour delivers a high we rode for several hours.

Rise of the Ronin: Tears for the Open World

Like a Mormon who isn’t married yet, Rise of the Ronin does a lot of hand-holding once you enter the open world. It won’t be particularly long before that happens — but you’ll soon miss the tighter sequences found in the game’s intro. Don’t get us wrong — Rise of the Ronin’s open world is fine. But in a universe where Red Dead 2 and The Legend of Zelda exist, fine counts for less and less these days.

It’s not that there isn’t anything to do. Rise of the Ronin’s open world is flooded with content, but nothing is left to the imagination. You’ll come across small towns, villages, and even larger cities — eventually tiring of the seemingly infinite fetch quests and the like littered around the place. There is the occasional sidequest to break the monotony, but they’re few and far between. Cherish them.

If it wasn’t obvious, Rise of the Ronin is a blast. Apart from a slightly too unvaried open world and graphics that could have looked better (we prioritize FPS above anything else), everything the samurai RPG does perfectly shines through. Weighty, meaningful combat, solid RPG mechanics, and a story that has us invested to keep going. Not too shabby.

Rise of the Ronin releases 22 March 2024 on the PlayStation 5. Stay tuned for Stuff’s full review about that time.

Pick n Pay renewals no more

Pick n Pay did not announce the service’s departure from its bouquet of offerings traditionally, instead contacting MyBroadband in an attempt to remove the retailer’s name from the outlet’s list of available licence disc renewal services offered around the country, simply noting that it “no longer offered this service at present.”

Visiting Pick n Pay’s online portal for disc renewal submissions led us to a similar notice — “Please note that we no longer offer this service.”

According to the Wayback Machine, as of 3 October 2023, Pick n Pay’s portal noted that the service had been taken offline and that Pick n Pay “will soon launch [its] exciting new Licence Disc Renewal Service!” It isn’t yet clear if those plans to launch a revamped service are still in play, as the portal’s current iteration does not mention anything about a revamped ‘Licence Disc Renewal Service.”

Read More: Why should we pay for our SABC TV licence?

Should Pick n Pay’s old plans eventually come to fruition, it’s likely to bring with it new features and a far reduced price in an attempt to counter FNB’s R100/renewal fee (now R70 until 30 June 2024). Despite numerous price cuts to Pick n Pay’s service while it was still alive, it was still the most expensive option, charging R240 for a renewal, plus a hefty R100 delivery fee.

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Eskom’s taking us for a hike

It’s not as though Eskom is coming out of left field with this one. These plans have been in the works since early 2023 when The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) approved a massive 33.77% tariff increase split over two years. 2023 took the brunt of the hike — swallowing an 18.65% increase, while 2024’s residential homepower rates will be going up by 12.74% in April.

Had the Democratic Alliance (DA) been successful in its attempts to thwart Nersa’s approved increase, we might’ve been sitting with far lower prices. The DA described the two-year 33.77% increase as “astronomical”, noting that the hike had the potential to price electricity out of many South African residents’ incomes.

When it attempted to get the High Court involved, it dismissed the case — ruling in favour of Nersa’s hike.

“All relevant factors have properly and in detail been considered, the conclusions reached were neither arbitrary nor irrational and the issue of cross-subsidisation was considered at the appropriate stage,” the High Court judgement stated. “The High Court, therefore, found that both the review applications of the DA and SALGA (The South African Local Government Association) must fail.”

Read More: How to find out if you qualify for Free Basic Electricity in South Africa, and how it works

After the 12.74% comes into effect next month, it’ll bring the tariff up to 195.95c/kWh — up from 2023’s 173.8c/kWh. But how will that affect your bottom line on your bill come April? Well, it depends. Houses that use, on average, 600kWh per month will see an extra R168.24 no matter which Homepower tariff they are on.

Bringing that up to 900kWh of electricity each month, residents in the Homepower 1 bracket will pay an extra R398.52, while those in the Homepower 2 and 3 brackets will see a R388.53 increase. Homepower 4 customers have a R405.81 increase to look forward to.

Eskom customers that use around 1,200kWh/m are looking at an increase of around R518.04 and R541.08, depending on which tariff they fall under. Houses that use as much as 1,500kWh/m can expect a R664 hike under the Homepower 1 umbrella, R648 for Homepower 2 and 3 customers, and R676 for those in the Homepower 4 bracket.

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Imagine still visiting the post office or somewhere similar to renew your car’s license when the FNB app exists. It’s possible you weren’t aware of FNB’s abilities to get your license renewal sorted, nor that it only cost R100 for a renewal. That was the headline in November, anyway. Now, FNB has cut that price to R70 per renewal for a “promotional time period”. If you’ve been doing your best impression of a procrastinator, it’s time to move.

Going Postal

Better yet, that R70 includes the delivery fee and allows customers to pay that rate using plain ol’ cash or by pulling from their stash of eBucks. Oh, and if you get a no-obligation insurance quote through FNB insurance, and renew your license through the app, FNB will dole R99 worth of eBucks into your account, free of charge.

“This decision is in line with the bank’s ethos of help and is informed by the economic pressures that consumers are experiencing, such as high interest-rates and inflation,” FNB said in a statement.

Jolandé Duvenage, nav» Chief Imagineer at FNB, says, “This is another way we’re helping our customers navigate life and the tough economic environment by offering affordable, seamless, and secured solutions for their car needs. The service continues to grow in popularity, with over 1 million vehicles uploaded to the platform and 107 000 vehicle license renewals completed over the past 12 months.”

If you’ve got the FNB app installed, all that needs to be done to renew your vehicle’s license is to load your car into the app’s nav»Car platform and use your smartphone to scan the vehicle license disc to complete the renewal.

Read More: FNB ending tap-to-pay smartphone functionality

Even before the bank’s R30 discount, it was the cheapest provider of license renewal services in the country — offering its R100/per renewal fee — tied with the National Traffic Information System (Natis), though this does not include a pricey delivery fee.

“Our commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction continues to drive the solutions we offer our customers to solve for their individual, family, and business needs.  We pride ourselves in being the ultimate destination for our customers not only for their banking needs, but their lifestyle needs,” Duvenage concludes.

We have reached out to FNB South Africa to determine the length of the “promotional time period” and will update the article accordingly if we hear back.