Cherry Mobile One Gadget View

When Android One was launched here in the Philippines, it gathered a lot of attention especially that it launched two different devices, both which runs Android Lollipop out of the box as a part of the said initiative. One of those devices is under the Philippine tech giant, Cherry Mobile.

DESIGN

No word can describe how I loved the looks of this device. For a 3999 device, it is obviously made from plastic but you can't actually feel the cheapness. It's like your paying for a more expensive device. Its squarish with sharp edges all around.

The front is dominated by the 4.5" IPS display. It has thin bezels at the sides but the bezel at the bottom is thick, which is unusual because it uses on-screen navigational keys. Anyway it adds to the executive look and feel of the device.

Turning over at the back of the device will reveal it's silver back cover with some brushed metal finish. It is made from plastic but looking it from a distance would give you an impression that it is made of metal. At the top part, you will find the 5MP camera with LED flash beside it. The Cherry Mobile logo is placed at the center whiled the Android One logo is placed at the lower part of the back cover, beside it is the speaker of the device.

All in all, it doesn't look cheap especially with it's cheap price tag. It's a pretty attractive device to be honest.

DISPLAY

It has a 4.5" IPS LCD display with a resolution of 420x854 (FWVGA). It's not the sharpest screen out there but for a cheap price, it's more than enough. Viewing angles are good, thanks to the IPS panel. It gives well saturated images with the right contrast but sunlight legibility is poor. You would still find it difficult to see under intense sunlight even with the full brightness. To finish it off, it is protected by an Asahi Dragontrail glass which makes it scratch resistant.

HARDWARE

Following Google's hardware reference for Android One devices, it has a MediaTek MT6582 chipset which has a quad-core ARM Cortex A7 processor clocked @1.3Ghz partnered by a dual-core Mali-400. Not the most powerful chipset available out there, but still it can play graphically intensive games like Asphalt 8, GTA San Andreas and Modern Combat 3 but definite lags should be expected here and there.

Multi-tasking is handled by a 1GB of RAM which I think is more than enough for light to moderate multi-tasking.

It has 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 64GB via MicroSD card. This is the only difference between Cherry Mobile One and MyPhone Uno (the other device released here in the Philippines under Android One initiative) I don't know why MyPhone made Uno more expensive than Cherry Mobile One.

Moving on, battery is rated at 1780maH. Battery life is more than average. It would take you more than 8 hours in a moderate to heavy usage before it would ask you to charge the device.

CAMERA

Camera performance is average, at the back is a 5MP Autofocus camera with LED flash. It captures photo well in good lighting but in a broad daylight, you would notice that the images taken are washed-out. LED flash is so bright, taking close up shots with the flash turned on will make the photo overexposed which I think is because of the slow shutter.

Selfie lovers will be glad that it's 2MP front-facing camera captures good images with good-lighting.

SOFTWARE

As part of Android One initiative, Cherry Mobile One runs Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. Navigation is soft and fluid even with the lower-tier hardware, thanks to improvements made . It's vanilla Android with no factory installed bloatwares or whatsoever. Google said that the stock Android running on Android One devices are optimized for the chipset used , that's why you wouldn't notice any lags or frame skips while navigating the UI. Smooth, fast and gorgeous.

To finish this off, here are the full specifications of the device :

SPECIFICATIONS

- 4.5" FWVGA (420x854) IPS LCD display w/Asahi Dragontrail Scratch-resistant Glass protection.
- MediaTek MT6582 chipset (quad-core 1.3Ghz ARM Cortex A7 processor)
- 500Mhz ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB internal storage expandable up to 64GB via microSD card
- 5MP AF camera w/LED flash
- 2MP front-facing camera
- GPRS, HSPA
- Dual-SIM
- FM Radio w/RDS
- Bluetooth 4.0, GPS w/A-GPS
- 1780maH Battery

Features :

- Live updates from Google
- LED notification light

Price : Php. 3999.00 ($99)

Truly, it is a bang for the buck smartphone, plus you would get latest updates from Google. Isn't that amazing ?

(c)Unbox.ph (for the photos)