Cherry Mobile finally outs the pricing for their 7.7mm smartphone, the Razor. As expected, it didn’t go beyond the Php8k mark of the Omega HD, making it the most affordable smartphone to pack DragonTrail glass.
Cherry Mobile RAZOR specs:
4.5-inch qHD IPS display, @245ppi
1.2GHz MT6589 quad-core processor
PowerVR SGX544MP GPU
1GB RAM
Expandable 4GB ROM (up to 32GB)
8 megapixel camera w/ flash
2 megapixel front-facing camera
HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0
GPS
Li-Ion 1,750mAh battery (non-removable) Android Jellybean v.4.2
Dimension: 135.4 x 68 x 7.7 mm
Weight: 157g
Arriving this July, the CM Razor will be retailing for a price of only Php6,499.
After the release 2 months ago, we got our hands on the Cherry Mobile Hyper. We’ve played around with the device for a couple of a weeks now, and so far it feels solid and well-made. Packing a 5-inch display, a dual-core CPU and a 2,000mAh battery, the Cherry Mobile Hyper goes through our full review.
We already have our first impressions here, tackling most things that are found in the surface. Read on to see what lies underneath.
Design and Construction
When I was with handling the device, a lot of people mistook the Hyper for a Galaxy Note; only if you look closely, you’ll see that it has differences. It feels very bulky, as it is wide and thick all around. The impression it leaves us with is just that, with a little mix of solidity.
On the front side of the phone is the 5-inch display with three capacitive buttons and a microphone below that. Above are a few sensors, the front-facing camera and the chrome-colored earpiece.
Found on the top left part of the phone is the power button alongside the place for the 3.5mm audio jack and the micro USB port, and on the right side of the phone is what seems to be the secondary microphone and the volume rocker; there is nothing found on both the bottom and the left side of the phone.
The rest of the phone is wrapped around in white, and it attracts quite some dirt. While it isn’t made out of glossy plastic, we have to say that it doesn’t feel premium in the hand either. The Hyper feels durable and well made, however the ergonomics and the experience in handling this heavy device takes the fall for it.
Display
The 5-inch display on the Hyper runs on a resolution of 480 x 800, giving a pixel density of merely 187ppi. It responds very well for the most part, but we weren’t as impressed with the colors and the viewing angles.
Its washed out colors are a pain to look at, and everything else lacks in contrast. On the other hand, the viewing angles of the device from both sides show discoloration; only from the top and the bottom parts you’ll find decent angles.
Moreover, a 5-inch display with a phone of this size is hard to navigate. As we mentioned above, the power button is found on the top left corner of the phone, which is hard to reach. Everything about navigation proves to be difficult, so be ready to use your two-hands with this phone because even the larger Galaxy Note 2 feels easier to use.
OS, Apps and UI
The phone runs on the Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s quite outdated for our taste, but it gets the job done nonetheless.
The Hyper features the usual apps from CM – Fun Club & eWarranty, with a couple more additions such as a third-party keyboard, a stopwatch and more. It’s easily one of the cleanest phones we’ve handled in a while, but we’re still wishing that it could run a more updated version of Android.
Multimedia & Camera
Sound quality brought by the speakers of the Hyper sounds a little muffled; the volume on the other hand is decent and workable. We found video playback to be smooth and pleasurable because of the size of the display.
When we previewed the shots that we took with the camera of the Hyper, we felt that it wouldn’t be impressive at all – we were wrong. The display of the Hyper hid the beauty of the photos taken, and we only appreciated it when we took the shots to the big screen. The images were sharp enough, and all the colors were vibrant and natural.
In low-light conditions, as expected, it didn’t do as great as it was very noisy. Anyways, there is a flash to make up for it.
Taking video is the mess here, as we were presented with different shooting modes that most consumers won’t recognize – D1, FWVGA, WVGA and so on, all the way to QCIF. We shot one in FWVGA (480 x 854), and we were presented with very slow frame rates. We took another in D1, and results barely changed. To cut it short, you’re not going to have a good time using this camera for video.
Performance & Battery Life
The phone is fairly fast as it runs on a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU, and casual gaming works very well. There are slight hiccups here and there at times, and we think the blame should be put on the memory, the 512MB RAM.
Antutu – 5,924
Quadrant – 2,945
Nenamark 2 – 32.3fps
Placing the phone in a video loop with 50% volume and 50% brightness caused the battery to deplete more or less 60% in 5 hours. On standby, it didn’t do much better too as we saw it draining half in a day without use.
Conclusion
For us, the Hyper is a tough pick at the moment. Cherry Mobile has a lot in line for this year, and most of them are running on much updated hardware and software. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Hyper is a joke – the device actually does a couple of things well.
If you simply want a huge phone for watching video and browsing content, if you take photos more than you take video, and if you simply want a solidly built phone for Php4,990, the CM Hyper is the one for you.
However, if you can’t stand a washed out display, a huge and bulky phone and if you really need decent video recording, you might want to save a little more and just wait. The good thing about Android devices is just, you’ll always have options.
Cherry Mobile Hyper specs:
5-inch capacitive display @ 800×480pixels, 187ppi
Qualcomm MSM8625 Snapdragon 1.2GHz dual-core processor
Adreno 203 GPU
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
microSD up to 32GB
WiFi
Bluetooth
GPS w/ a-GPS support
Dual SIM
3G
5MP AF camera w/LED flash
720p@30fps HD video
VGA front-facing camera
Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Li-Ion 2,000mAh battery
Last month, CM released a new Android phone – theCherry Mobile Hyper, which packs a 5-inch display & a 5 megapixel camera together with the other goodies for just Php5k. We have one now up for hands-on, so let’s see how it fares up.
Taking the phone out of the box, it felt huge and bulky. It was quite thick and was barely tapered on the sides, and the 5-inch display didn’t help in making the handling much easier.
However, we have to say that the design employed by the Hyper is refreshing as it engages in two color tones – black covered in glass on the front and white plastic on the rest.
Found on the top left part of the phone is the power button alongside the place for the 3.5mm audio jack and the micro USB port, and on the right side of the phone is what seems to be the secondary microphone and the volume rocker; there is nothing found on both the bottom and the left side of the phone.
We put the phone under the pressure of benchmark tests and here is what we have.
Antutu – 5,924
Quadrant – 2,945
Nenamark 2 – 32.3fps
So far, it looks like a decent deal from Cherry Mobile. The Hyper seems like a solid phone all-around, but we have yet to go further in detail with it.
Cherry Mobile Hyper specs:
5-inch 800×480 capacitive display (187ppi)
1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8625 Snapdragon processor
Adreno 203 GPU
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
microSD up to 32GB
WiFi
Bluetooth
GPS w/ a-GPS support
Dual SIM
3G
5MP AF camera w/LED flash
720p@30fps HD video
VGA front-facing camera
Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Li-Ion 2,000mAh battery
The Cherry Mobile Hyper is out for Php4,990 if you are interested. We’ll be posting a full review soon, so stay tuned.
We already have several CM phones out with the moniker “2.0″ such as the Flame and the SkyFire. The company’s Thailand site seems to show that there are more on the way – Flare 2.0, Burst 2.0, Thunder 2.0 & Blaze 2.0.
We took the pleasure of taking the (distorted) images from the site and reformed them according to their displays, so let’s start with the smallest one – the Flare 2.0.
The phone will run on a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1GB RAM. It also has a 4-inch display with a battery of 1,500mAh and it will all be powered by Android 4.1 Jellybean.
Cherry Mobile Flare 2.0 specs:
4-inch 480 x 800 display
1.2GHz quad-core CPU
1GB RAM
4GB internal memory
micro SD up to 32GB
5MP camera w/LED flash
VGA front-facing camera
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
Dual SIM
Android 4.1 Jellybean
1,500mAh battery
124 x 63 x 9.9 mm (dimensions)
The Burst 2.0 takes on where the Flare 2.0 went off, bumping up the screen size to 4.5-inches. It is powered by a 2,000mAh battery and is also running the latest version of Android, 4.2 Jellybean.
Cherry Mobile Burst 2.0 specs:
4.5-inch 480 x 854 display
1.2GHz quad-core CPU
1GB RAM
4GB internal memory
micro SD up to 32GB
5MP camera w/LED flash
VGA front-facing camera
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
Dual SIM
Android 4.2 Jellybean
2,000mAh battery
Entering the 5-inch craze is the Thunder 2.0. Packing a slightly larger battery – 2,100mAh, it has a downside too. It runs on a much criticized 512MB RAM. We don’t think there’s a need to worry though, as the original Thunder is sold affordably, and this one runs on the latest Android 4.2 Jellybean too.
Cherry Mobile Thunder 2.0 specs:
5-inch 480 x 854 display
1.2GHz quad-core CPU
512MB RAM
4GB internal memory
micro SD up to 32GB
5MP camera w/LED flash
2MP front-facing camera
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
Dual SIM
Android 4.2 Jellybean
2,100mAh battery
145 x 74 x 9.9 mm (dimensions)
Last but not least, here is Cherry Mobile’s beast – the 5.7-inch HD display packing Blaze 2.0. It has a 12MP rear camera with a 3MP front-facing one. It also has the usual goodies such as the quad-core CPU and the 1GB RAM. Android 4.2 also runs the show here on a 2,500mAh battery.
Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 specs:
5.7-inch 720 x 1280 IPS LCD display
1.2GHz quad-core CPU
1GB RAM
4GB internal memory
micro SD up to 32GB
12MP camera w/LED flash
3MP front-facing camera
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
Dual SIM
Android 4.2 Jellybean
2,500mAh battery
157.8 x 83.3 x 9.9 mm (dimensions)
Well, CM has several phones running on a Snapdragon chipset now, so here’s to hoping that these quad-core beasts are on that bandwagon. No prices and availability whatsoever yet, and the images look unofficial – after all, these are yet to be seen in the PH.
Successors to the Flame and the Omega are already out, but it looks like CM has another sequel up its sleeve, and it’s for the Skyfire. A photo on their Facebook page teases a Skyfire 2.0 that is supposedly quad-core like the Fusion Fire, the Fusion Bolt and the Flame 2.0.
CM has been planning a lot of follow-ups lately, since they also teased another phone. At first, we thought that it was the next Dragon phone, but if you make out with the motion blurred text, you’ll definitely read Skyfire 2.0.
The first Skyfire hosts a 4.7-inch display & a dual-core CPU, running Android 4.0, and that sold for Php5,999. Aside from the confirmed quad-core processor, we can observe that the other devices in the teaser feature Android 4.1 & 1GB RAM – so there’s a high chance that this one will be similarly spec’d.