At Infinite Insight, one of our most critical responsibilities — in terms of decision making — is equipping our field teams. When you’re deploying interviewers across 30 Sub-Saharan African markets — often to remote areas with challenging environments — the devices they carry are the lifeline of your data.
Over the past 8 months or so, we are absolutely thrilled that our tech fleet has been expanded to incorporate reliable, rugged affordable Samsung Galaxy A05, A06, A07 smartphones and Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 & A11 tablets.
To the average consumer, this might just look like a routine tech purchase. But to a market research agency, this is a highly strategic operational decision. When clients entrust us with a high-stakes social or market research survey, they are relying on our hardware to perform flawlessly. So here’s why we meticulously choose reliable, mid-tier devices like the Samsung A-series, and why it directly benefits our clients.
1. The False Economy of “Cheap” Tech
In an effort to cut costs, some agencies make the mistake of buying ultra-cheap, unbranded or knockoff tablets. This is a false economy. These devices often have sluggish processors, meaning survey apps like ODK Collect, SurveyToGo or proprietary client apps lag and crash mid-interview. Worse, their GPS modules are notoriously inaccurate, making it impossible to verify if an interviewer actually visited the claimed household.
Another thing. Poor hardware leads to missing data, frustrated interviewers, and delayed timelines. At Infinite Insight, we simply do not play games with data integrity. We need devices that work every time once the survey has been approved and our interviewers have been meticulously trained. In other words, “time is money”.
2. The Flagship Trap
On the other end of the spectrum, you don’t need a $1,000 flagship smartphone to conduct a door-to-door survey. Using premium, high-end devices in the field is unnecessary and introduces major risks. Expensive devices are prime targets for theft, and if one is dropped and broken in a rural area, replacing it quickly can halt fieldwork and inflate the client’s project budget unnecessarily.
3. The Samsung “Sweet Spot” (Reliability Meets Affordability)
This is the main reason why we’ve decided to standardise on the Samsung Galaxy A-series and Tab A-series. Samsung is a globally recognized brand with a proven track record of manufacturing durable, reliable hardware, even in their budget and mid-tier devices. This is a notable accomplishment on their part.
- Battery Endurance: The A-series chips are highly power-efficient. They easily last an entire day of heavy GPS tracking and screen-on time during fieldwork without needing a recharge.
- Stable OS Environment:Samsung’s Android One UI provides a stable, predictable environment. Our IT team can easily configure these devices, remove unnecessary bloatware, and ensure the survey apps run without interference.
- Cost-Effective Scaling:Because these devices are affordable and ubiquitous across Africa, we can deploy them at scale across multiple countries (if required). Furthermore, if a device breaks, we have spare units ready to deploy immediately, ensuring zero downtime for our client’s project.
The Infinite Insight Advantage
When a client partners with Infinite Insight, they aren’t just paying for a survey design; they’re also paying for a bulletproof execution strategy. Our tech fleet is standardised, reliable, and optimized for the realities of the African terrain.
Lastly, by choosing smart, durable, and cost-effective hardware like our new Samsung Galaxy fleet, we ensure that our capacity building is sustainable, our IT infrastructure is robust, and our clients never pay a premium just for the agency to look flashy. We deliver high-quality results, powered by affordable tech that simply works. Why?
Because “We know Africa”.