Independent information site about the Samsung fan campaign of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. Not affiliated with Samsung or CAF. About this site
The products behind the campaign
A football sponsorship sells televisions and phones. In 2012 the two Samsung products fans were most likely to meet at the Football Fest or in a pop-up stadium were the Galaxy S II and the new ES8000 Smart TV. Both are museum pieces now, but they explain what the campaign was pushing, and they make a useful benchmark for anyone buying Samsung equipment today.
Galaxy S II: the prize phone
Samsung handed out Galaxy S II smartphones as prizes at the Football Fest in Libreville. The phone had been unveiled on 13 February 2011 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and went on sale in May 2011.
| Spec | Galaxy S II (2011) |
|---|---|
| Display | 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus, 480 × 800 pixels |
| Processor | 1.2 GHz dual-core Exynos 4 |
| Sales | 3 million in 55 days; 10 million after five months; 40.2 million by January 2013 |
At the time it was Samsung’s best-selling phone and the device that established the Galaxy S line as the main Android rival to the iPhone. The mobile version of getintothespirit.com was built for phones of this class and for the far larger number of feature phones then in use across Africa.
ES8000: the Smart TV of the big-screen viewings
Samsung’s 2012 flagship LED TV, the ES8000, was presented at CES in Las Vegas two weeks before the tournament started. Its selling point was “Smart Interaction”: voice control (“Hi TV”), motion control via a built-in HD camera and face recognition, plus a dual-core processor for apps and browsing. Samsung also announced the Evolution Kit, a slot-in module meant to upgrade the TV’s hardware in later years, and showed a 55-inch Super OLED prototype that won a CES Best of Innovations award. The Smart TV platform had more than 1,400 apps and 25,000 registered developers at that point.
What has changed since
| Feature | 2012 flagship | Typical today |
|---|---|---|
| TV resolution | Full HD (1920 × 1080) | 4K standard, 8K at the top |
| Panel | Edge-lit LED LCD; OLED as prototype | QLED, Mini-LED and OLED in regular ranges |
| Control | Voice, gestures, face recognition via camera | Voice via remote and assistants; cameras dropped |
| Phone display | 4.3-inch, 480 × 800 | 6-inch and larger, Full HD+ or higher |
| Upgrade path | Evolution Kit hardware module | Software updates only |
Buying a Samsung TV or phone for football today
For anyone whose interest in the campaign is practical, a few rules that have not changed since 2012:
- Motion handling matters more than resolution for football. A TV with a native 100/120 Hz panel keeps the ball and the players sharp during pans; a 50/60 Hz panel with “motion rate” marketing does not.
- Size follows viewing distance. For 4K, a screen diagonal of roughly a third to a half of the viewing distance fills the field of view without visible pixels.
- Timing: Samsung launches its TV ranges in spring; the previous year’s models are discounted heavily from late summer, and again around Black Friday and the January sales.
- Phones: the Galaxy S line launches in January or February and the Galaxy A mid-range in spring; prices of the outgoing model drop within weeks.
- Samsung Galaxy S II, Wikipedia
- Samsung Newsroom Korea (7 February 2012, Galaxy S II prizes)
- Samsung pushes boundaries at CES 2012, Samsung Global Newsroom
- CES 2012: Samsung launches Super OLED TV, plus upgradeable Smart sets, What Hi-Fi?
- Samsung unveils its ‘future-proofing’ Evolution Kit, The Next Web
- TV size to distance calculator and science, RTINGS
Last updated: September 2026