Cherry Mobile Cosmos X Review

The Cherry Mobile Cosmos X is the most affordable among the company’s Cosmos line of smartphones, but, does it have what it takes to be a must-buy, or are you better off saving a little bit for more? Read our full review to find out.

Before anything else, you should see our unboxing video, which showcases the included flip cover and the extra red back casing:

Design and Construction

At first glance & touch, the Cosmos X reminds us of the Samsung Galaxy S2 – from the rounded corners, its size & its plastic construction; not to mention it also packs a Super AMOLED display.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

While it is indeed made out of plastic, it does feel solid. However, the premium feel is lacking here, and the protruding camera on the back isn’t helping at all.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

On the top side you can find the 3.5mm audio jack & the power button. On the left is the micro USB port. Over to the right are the volume controls and the single stage camera button. The bottom is clean with only the microphone to be found.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

We immediately changed the back casing of the phone when we got it, since it added more contrast and a unique look. Nevertheless, expect it to be prone to smudges and some creaking, as to be expected from a plastic phone of this build.

Display

The Cosmos X flaunts a 720p HD Super AMOLED display at 4.7-inches. It is very responsive and sharp, colors are saturated but not overdone, and the deep blacks are unmatchable. Viewing angles are very great too.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

In fact, in our use, we needed reminding that this is a 4.7-inch display as we felt that it is a very compact handset. While we prefer the IPS LCD one on the Cherry Mobile Cosmos S, this one works amazingly well too.

OS, Apps and UI

The phone runs on Android 4.2.1 Jellybean and is layered with a skin of icons, customization and CM’s apps. To put it frankly, we’re not a fan of the said icons as we already saw CM go almost stock on phones such as the Cosmos S. While their skin is still quite inconsistent across devices, the company is getting better at it at every release nonetheless.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

Like we’ve said, included here are CM’s usual apps and a 3rd-party keyboard. For some reason, CM wants this phone to be somewhat full of colorful & ‘cute’ design elements. Whether that looks appealing or not is up to you.

To add, the on-screen buttons are confusing too as the back and multitasking buttons are switched. You’ll just have to get used to that.

Multimedia & Camera

The speakers are found at the lower left part of the phone. It is fine for the most part; it’s not remarkably loud or clear but it’s definitely workable.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

Video playback on the other hand is great, especially with the 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display. The experience won’t disappoint on this one.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

Now, let’s take a look at that 18 megapixel BSI camera that protrudes at the top left corner of the back. Like we’ve said on our other reviews, we won’t let the megapixel count speak for the camera; let the images do that for themselves.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

We have to say that based on the quality of the images, the camera tends to wash out its colors. It’s also not as sharp as we want it to be. While it does succeed in making dark environments light up by a bit, we aren’t that impressed with the overall product.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

The same can’t be said about the video capture’s elements, and it’s slightly more inconsistent. It’s great in normal lighting – sharp & detailed yet washed out – but it drops a lot of frames in below-average lighting. See for yourself below:

Performance & Benchmarks

The CM Cosmos X is fairly fast in our use, though there are little hiccups here and there at times. It runs on a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU & 1GB RAM, just like its other Cosmos siblings, so don’t expect this to run faster or slower in real life use such as playing games, browsing the net or just breezing through the interface (benchmarks are slightly lower).

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X benchmarks

The phone scored 13,777 on Antutu, 3,987 on Quadrant & 47.1 on Nenamark 2.

Connectivity & Battery Life

With the Cosmos X, we didn’t encounter any problems with connecting to networks. It worked and handled everything just fine in our experience.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

In our battery test, looping video at 50% brightness & audio, the phone managed to deplete a full 100% in 4 hours, which is significantly lower than most phones we’ve tested.

Conclusion

I’m going to make this as easy as possible; we’d rather have you save a little more for CM’s other Cosmos phones. While the phone features dual-SIM capabilities, a good Super AMOLED display and a few freebies in the box, the design, UI, camera & battery is enough to make you look elsewhere.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X

However, if you’re really sticking to a budget of Php9,999, then there you have it. If you do happen to take this phone over the others, you’re getting a wonderful (but dirt-attracting) flipcover and a red rear casing included too. Overall, this is an ‘okay’ phone with an ‘okay’ price.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos X specs:
4.7-inch Super AMOLED HD display
1.2GHz quad-core processor
1GB RAM
4GB internal storage
micro SD up to 32GB
18MP BSI camera with LED flash
8MP BSI front-facing
WiFi b/g/n
3G HSPA+
Bluetooth
GPS
Dual SIM
Android 4.2 Jellybean
1,800mAh battery
Php9,999

What we liked about it:

  • Great Super AMOLED display
  • Freebies!

What we didn’t like about it:

  • Inconsistent CM skin
  • Sub-par battery life
  • Washed-out camera
  • Dull & plastic design

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The post Cherry Mobile Cosmos X Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos S Review

The Cosmos series from Cherry Mobile marks a very huge step for the company as it is very ambitious. We put the Cosmos S under the test. With a quad-core processor, a 5-inch 720p display, an 18MP camera, a 2,500mAh battery & Android 4.2 packed in a 6.98mm thin body, will it deliver?

To see what comes in the package, here’s our unboxing video:

Design and Construction

The Cosmos S is without a doubt a beautifully crafted device. It feels entirely premium & it even gives you an impression that it’s priced expensively, even when it’s not.

COSMOS S

“People I handed the Cosmos S to wanted it from the moment they held it.”

People I handed the Cosmos S to wanted it from the moment they held it. Their only complaint with the build was the poorly printed 18MP label on the back, and they wanted a case to go along with it from day one.

On top you’ll find the 3.5mm audio jack and the micro USB port. On the left, you have the poorly placed volume rocker & the power button. Over to the right, you’ll find a bulging mini SIM card slot that you’ll mistake for the volume very often.

COSMOS S SIDES

Overall, this is one thin phone that packs quite a punch – a solid and quite hefty one for that matter. All that it probably took was the removal of dual SIM capabilities and a micro SD card slot.

Display

It’s true that its bigger brother, the Cosmos Z, packs the first 1080p display for the local market, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the Cosmos suck.

COSMOS S DISPLAY

5-inches of 720p HD IPS goodness comes into play with the Cosmos S. It’s big, yes, but you might ignore that for the moment when you see it; it’s gorgeous beyond measure. At the lowest brightness level, it could outclass several IPS displays that I know of, and the colors just pop.

Go ahead; you won’t find any problems here, from viewing angles to responsiveness. A pixel density of 294ppi is also enough for most users, so what else are you looking for?

OS, Apps and UI

Android 4.2 Jellybean runs the show here, and glad to say it doesn’t run on top of any skin. The UI is top down vanilla Android, safe for the semi-transparent app drawer, a new wallpaper, a modified camera interface and some usual CM apps.

COSMOS S SCREENSHOT

I wouldn’t have clapped my hands for this; I would have given CM a standing ovation – the live wallpaper is one of the best I’ve seen (including the image selections; I love how they showcase parts of the Philippines), everything felt very clean, and to be honest things would have been perfect if it weren’t for some hardware slow downs and still some CM bloatware. Nevertheless, it’s getting a lot better.

Sad to say though, CM is still inconsistent with its UI implementation. While the Cosmos S has to be applauded for this, the Cosmos X features different icons & some minor changes. It would have been a lot better if CM had finally decided on what road to take.

Multimedia & Camera

The speakers on the Cosmos S are pretty weak – to the extent that it became a deal breaker for some. On the other hand, video playback is a wonder on this 5-inch IPS display. We didn’t encounter any problems with playing any of our movies & recordings.

cosmos s shot

Now as for the camera, an 18 megapixel BSI sensor sounds so pleasing to the ears. However, just like how most people would have guessed – it’s basically an 18MP camera that takes 8MP-like images. It’s very obvious that all of the images were just stretched.

cosmos s

There certainly is a lot of processing going on behind the photos, as even the viewfinder is slow. In great lighting, expect sharp photos and less noise, while if you’re shooting in low-light, it’s a trade-off; you’re going to get bright shots, but extremely muddy & noisy ones for that matter. You won’t need to worry about auto-focus & everything else – they work very well.

For video recording purposes, it’s almost the same story, but you’re going to get less light. Also, expect a few dropped frames from time to time.

Performance & Battery Life

Powered by 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, the Cosmos S still stutters in day to day use, but glad to say it’s a lot better than CM’s past phones. The 1GB RAM helps a lot here, just as always, but what makes this faster than CM’s other phones is probably the lighter UI. Going through most of the basic stuff is a breeze.

BENCHMARK CM COSMOS S

  • Antutu Benchmark - 16,662
  • Quadrant Standard - 4,846
  • Nenamark 2 - 50.6

Call Quality & Battery

We took a few calls on the Cosmos S, and everything sounded decent. It’s not entirely crisp & clear, but it wasn’t that bad and muffled either. To add, we didn’t experience inconveniences when connecting to wireless networks as well.

COSMOS S BACK

The Cosmos S packs the largest battery among its other space siblings; it’s non-removable at 2,500mAh. During our battery test (looping video at 50% brightness & 50% volume), we managed to squeeze out approximately 6 hours of video playback, which is very impressive for a phone this thin & of this caliber.

Conclusion

Cherry Mobile has made a lot compromises for the Cosmos S; it lacks dual-SIM capabilities, it has no micro SD card slot & it doesn’t have a removable battery. But even with that said, CM has managed to create an amazing device – one that has exceeded our expectations.

COSMOS S CM

The Cosmos S packs a beautiful display, a solid build, a long-lasting battery & decent internals into one thin desirable design. CM’s hardware & software combinations are getting there, and while there are indeed drawbacks, they’re not much to rant about. After all, you’re paying an affordable price to go along with all of that.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos S specs:
5-inch IPS LCD 720 x 1280 HD display
1.5GHz quad-core processor
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage
18MP BSI camera with LED flash
8MP BSI front-facing
WiFi b/g/n
3G HSPA+
Bluetooth
GPS
2,500mAh battery
Android 4.2 Jellybean
Php10,999

What we liked about it:

  • Amazing display
  • Affordable price tag
  • Premium feel
  • Extremely thin
  • Improving CM Android experience
  • Good low-light camera

What we didn’t like about it:

  • Odd button layout
  • Weak speakers
  • Sub-par video recording capabilities
  • Muddy image captures

The post Cherry Mobile Cosmos S Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.