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Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z Review

Cherry Mobile is perhaps the most aggressive of all local phone brands. This is evident with their frequent product launches and the introduction of the Cosmos series, specifically the Cosmos Z. Check our full review of the Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z after the jump.

Cherry Mobile has come a long way from creating entry-level feature phones to pushing the prices of Android smartphones to insane levels in the local market. Now, they’re doing it again but this time, its a jab at the flagship category.

By flagship handset, we mean large full HD displays, quad-core processors, and the close-to-the-latest Android flavors. The Cosmos Z is, by far, the only evidence that obviously points to that direction.

Design and Construction.

The Cosmos Z looked very simple and unassuming. Much of what it can boast are all hidden inside the 5-inch polycarbonate chassis. The review unit we got is the all-white variant with the front panel covered with glass from edge to edge, Android soft buttons at the bottom end and earphone speakers at the top end along with the front-facing camera and sensors.

The volume controls are found on the left side, power button on the right side, the microphone at the bottom end, and the 3.5mm audio port and micro-USB port at the top end. The large 18-megapixel camera is found at the back side along with the LED flash and the phone speakers. The Cosmos label is smack in the middle and another Cherry Mobile logo painted in embossed at the lower corner.

The device looks really sleek and very slim, the pearl white color is accented with silver buttons and silver trimmings around the sides. The smooth, matte finish feels a bit slippery and attracts oil and smudges very easily.

Over-all, it has a good build, nothing fancy and looking decent. Cherry Mobile’s formula for the Cosmos Z in the design department can go either way and it will boil down to personal preference.

Display.

The biggest feature that Cherry Mobile is very proud of with the Cosmos Z would have to be the full HD 1080p IPS LCD display. That basically puts it in the same league as the top flagship handsets of other global brands, like the Galaxy S4, HTC One and Xperia Z1.

The front panel is completed covered by tempered glass, the display is surrounded with narrow bezel that allows some space for capacitive buttons. If you want to nitpick a bit, you will notice a little black gap (about a millimeter wide) between the bezel and the border of active screen.

Needless to say, the screen is very sharp, clean and crisp. This becomes more evident when you’re browsing the web, viewing hi-res photos or watching a full HD 1080p video.

It is very rare for a local brand to go as high as this type of display but Cherry Mobile has proven they can do better than what the market expects of them. On that note alone, props to Cosmic Technologies for pushing the boundaries in the smartphone market.

OS, UI and Apps.

Cherry Mobile did not really touch the vanilla UI of Android Jellybean. If there were some customizations made, these were mostly light cosmetic additions like home wallpapers and pre-installed apps like Cherry Fun Club, eWarranty, Cherry Play and Software Update (OTA).

The Cosmos Z comes with Android 4.2.1 Jellybean right out of the box making it at par with most other handsets released this year. Access to Google Play gives you choice of hundreds of thousands of free apps and games. Customization is available via several themes and Home Launcher apps.

The virtual keypad for making calls and keyboard for SMS is as plain as you can get and should be familiar if you’ve tried the vanilla UI of Android Jellybean. As an option, Cherry Mobile has pre-installed TouchPal V5 should you wish to change the keyboard layout.

Multimedia and Camera.

On paper, multimedia is supposed to be a strong suit for the Cosmos Z especially with its full HD 1080p display and an enormous combo of 18MP and 8MP rear and front-facing cameras.

As mentioned earlier, the full HD display coupled with IPS LCD provides great video experience for the user. The same is true with mobile gaming. However, we noticed that the resulting audio from movies are a bit weak than normal.

The speakers at the back seemed to do its job when playing MP3 music or even with games. Despite it lacking in bass, the volume is more than enough to fulfill our needs.

The 18MP rear camera was very controversial since it rode on the megapixel marketing hype. Nevertheless, we were after on image quality rather than image size. Here are the sample photos we got using the rear camera.

[fancygallery id=”45″ album=”48″]

We were initially skeptic with the performance of the camera but the results showed above average picture quality.

Here’s the sample HD video we got from the same camera:


Don’t forget to tick the 720p or 1080p video in the quality settings before playing.

We were actually fairly impressed with the image quality. The camera apps was full of options and settings for tweaking the performance of the camera. There was no option for a 16:9 aspect ratio though and everything was in 4:3 aspect ratio.

Performance and Benchmarks.

There were occasions when we notice some significant lags. This was evident when we first used the phone that had Live Wallpaper running on the background and transitions were a bit choppy. It only disappeared when we changed the background to a static wallpaper. It’s curious though that CM used a custom Live Wallpaper as the default background without checking the user-experience at that level.

We played a number of usual games on the phone without any problems — starting out with simple ones like Fruit Ninja, to Temple Run 2 and Fast Racing 3D. For the most part, gameplay is smooth and appealing. Graphics might sometime become pixelated especially when they’re designed for 720p instead of full HD 1080p like the display of the Cosmos Z.

Our benchmark results show some struggle by the Cosmos Z in the graphics department, mainly due to the number of pixels it has to push per frame. Nevertheless, the numbers are still good enough with a Nenamark 2 score of 33.9fps.

Quadrant Standard gave the handset a score of 4,674 while Antutu Benchmark scores reached a high of 15,431.

Call Quality, Connectivity and Battery Life.

The Cosmos Z uses a dual-SIM functionality although only the primary SIM has 3G capabilities. Call quality is good though not as clear as we would have wanted. This is probably due to the lack of a secondary noise-canceling microphone. SMS delivery works fine and there was no noticeable delays in sending and receiving text messages.

The handset is all the connectivity options required from it — from cellular data, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and stereo FM tuner. What’s obviously missing is LTE capability and NFC connectivity we normally see in other flagship handsets. This is an inherent disadvantage when using a more affordable Mediatek processor where LTE and NFC are not yet integrated into the chip, unlike Qualcomm.

Based on our standard test bench for battery life, we were able to last up to 7.5 hours playing a full HD 1080p video at 50% screen brightness and 0% volume. That’s slightly lower than our average of about 9 hours on most other flagship handsets.

Conclusion.

Cherry Mobile has a solid contender in the Cosmos Z. Pretty solid set of hardware, good camera, impressive display — all in a very affordable price tag. We could not complain much except for the battery capacity.

With a suggested retail price of Php11,999, the Cosmos Z has the makings of a flagship smartphone at a mid-range price. It’s a proven and tested formula that will sell well.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z specs:
5-inch IPS LCD display @ 1080×1920 pixels, 441ppi
Mediatek MT6589 1.5GHz quad-core processor
PowerVR SGX 544MP
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage
micro SD up to 32GB
18.2MP BSI rear camera with LED flash
8MP front-facing camera
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
3G/HSPA+, Dual SIM
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS w/aGPS support
FM Radio tuner
Li-Ion 2,000mAh battery
Android 4.2.1 Jellybean

What we liked about it:
* Impressive display quality
* Good over-all performance
* Large front and rear camera sensor
* Very affordable price

What we did not like:
* Below-average battery performance
* Low internal storage

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

83 Responses

  1. Avatar for luigi luigi says:

    its a half baked review. wlang msyadong cnabi 2ngkol sa camera! im so disappointed

    • Avatar for Mhark Mhark says:

      Coz panget camera ng Cosmos Z.. Di siya totoong 18mp. Syempre Cherry Mobile nagbibigay sa kanla ng units. they cant say something na bad diba? Kasi if they say na bad siya di na sila papahiramin ng phone sa susunod. :)))

    • Avatar for wew wew says:

      dagdag mo pa ung undersaturated images….

  2. Avatar for Carlo Carlo says:

    My dual core Xperia SP is still smoother than this, and has LTE for just a few more bucks. LOL.

    • Avatar for abuzalzal abuzalzal says:

      Philippine LTE = HSPA +

      yeah right…as if big deal ang LTE dito na puro palpak naman

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      di kailangan ni mr. abusalsal este abuzalzal ng lte..

    • Avatar for wew wew says:

      @abuzalzal tama ka…pero bibilis din yang LTE dito sa Pinas…di ko sure kung sa yugatech ko un nabasa pero tungkol un sa smart at huawei na nagtetest ng LTE-A dito…umabot siya ng 200 mbps kung di ako nagkakamali

  3. Avatar for Jinky Jinky says:

    Ganda naman ng review sa games temple run lang.. La kwenta. Sana yung mga hd games ng gameloft hindi yung sobrang casual. E puro yan ginagamit nyong sa review

    • Avatar for John Alemar John Alemar says:

      Sabi nga kasi walang kwenta sila mag review. Kita mo isang comment sa taas. Ganun rin sabe. Wahahahahaha!!

      Di pulido mag review. Gusto lang may page views. :) Mukha pera kasi. Sana may parang Gsmarena tayo sa Pinas. Pero ok na mga blogs natin pagdating sa tech news ahh. Updated!

  4. Avatar for stitchy stitchy says:

    available naba to sa market? i wanna buy na po kasi

  5. Avatar for Gretzch Gretzch says:

    wala to. omega hd 2.0 parin ako. kung lte na ito. pwede pa. di naman nagkakalayo yung specs same parin.

  6. Avatar for Dins Dins says:

    Is it available now in the market?

  7. Avatar for leroyrobles leroyrobles says:

    For the money. I’d rather go for a Cherry Mobile Omega HD2 plus a portable LTE router. This thing is too expensive.

  8. Avatar for Tsktsk Tsktsk says:

    Review ba ‘to? Parang hands on lang ah! lang kwenta.

  9. Avatar for drew drew says:

    Pro:
    441ppi
    Full hd display
    1.5 ghz

    Cons:
    Non USB OTG Capable.
    Low battery mAh
    Bad customer service
    Non scratch resistant screen

    3/5

  10. Avatar for FanBoy FanBoy says:

    lol nakakatuwa mga hirit, banat at pintas dito! pero ang totoo, wala talagang isang smartphone na ang lahat ng tao ay sasabihin na “yan na”! maski anong produkto yan, laging may pipintas at pupuri. pag may nag labas nang 4GHz, Octacore, 16MP cam (front and back), 16GB RAM, 128GB Storage, card slot up to 128GB, display na may 600ppi, 10000mAh battery at kung ano ano pa tapos presyo Php60,000, sasabihin “masyadong mahal! may mas mura dyan na tulad nyan! etc..” Pag may nag labas naman ng mababa specs, yun din ang banat! lol Kung may pera, bumili, kung wala, manahimik!

  11. Avatar for wew wew says:

    cherry mobile di mo pa rin ako mapapabili nyan kahit pang high-end na ang specs nito,LUGI lang ako pag nasira agad tsk tsk

  12. Avatar for Name: mdm782010 Name: mdm782010 says:

    wow…parang Alcatel idol x..1 gig lang yung dehado..pero panalo nman sa less 12k…at sana may otg din.

  13. Avatar for Jay Jay says:

    1GB RAM? Fail. It’s 2013. You need 2GB minimum. The 2000 mAh battery is also a fail for that 441 PPI display

    • Avatar for abuzalzal abuzalzal says:

      Bopols ka din ano?

      Sige maghanap ka ngayon ng 2gb RAM + 2000+++ mAh sa ganyang price-point

      Cutting corners nga eh para bumaba ang presyo

    • Avatar for simultaneous simultaneous says:

      yung muka mu ung fail! 512mb nga dati masaya ka na mghahanap k pa ng mataas n ram?? xa bili ka ng note 3 pra my 3gb ram ka!

    • Avatar for mga e-pal kayo mga e-pal kayo says:

      haller mr. simultaneous, malamang masaya na tayo sa 512 dati kasi yung mga apps eh gagana na sa 512mb ram. ngayon good luck sayo qng matiwasay kp mkpagcellphone sa 512mb ram.

      may point si jay, sa screen size at resolution ng phone, mxdo tlg mbaba yung 2000mah na battery. and yung 1gb ram, mabagal na yan sa demands ng android ngayon. android needs a lot of ram pra magrun smoothly, like 2gb.

      dpt ang ginawa ni cherry, nag720p screen nlng xa, with arnd 2300mah bat. anyway 5 inches screen xa, eye candy nlng yung 1080p sa 5 inches.

      tpos magrelease p sila ng mas mahal na phone na may mas magandang specs. yun nga lng wala bbili non, kasi mas ggustuhin ng market bumili ng sammy/sony/appy kaysa mahal na cherry.

  14. Avatar for mike mike says:

    there’s a typo on the LTE part.. you typed in mission instead of missing. with regards to the Cosmos Z. Is there any special feature offer from this phone?

  15. Avatar for Anti Troll Anti Troll says:

    Who says that abuzalzal’s chery mobile is not good? Who? Come out now iphone and Samsung fans, Sammy has full hd 1080 display panel, but iphone? sucks! you’re dead with the year 2000 640pixel display LOL.
    Abuzalzal’s chery mobile has a lot more camera pixel to give than iphone antiquated camera LOL!
    Oh wait, abuzalzal’s phone is not GOLD COLORED? But its just 11K right. And you could buy in Binondo real gold anyway with the savings rather than the china gold paint in iphone, and still have plenty remaining to buy a brand new AIRCONDITIONING UNIT from abuzalzal shop. LOL.
    But then you can’t have alleged apple experience? Oh Abuzalzal shop is also selling lots of apples at divisoria price, what do you want California, Chinese, or Japanese apples? LOL!

    • Avatar for Jimmy Nap Jimmy Nap says:

      Your grammar is so much more funny than your abuzalzal attacks.

      Mag tagalog ka na lng.

    • Avatar for Miriam Defensor Miriam Defensor says:

      Hey Man!!! your english really sucks!!! Mag tagalog ka nalang!!!!

    • Avatar for Smokescreen Smokescreen says:

      Sir Jimmy Nap, there is no such thing as more funny though….correct term should be funnier.

    • Avatar for jakolero jakolero says:

      Hey napster, its your sentence construction, that is a lot funnier than “even” your face. Lol. Review your sentence construction; it’s what grammarians refer to as dangling modifier, amplified with lost, or, broken thought or sense. Bottomline, huwag kayo magyabang if grade one lang tinapos mo!

    • Avatar for inday inday says:

      Mr. Nap, mag nap kanalang pwede, he is not attacking abuzalzal, he is attacking apple and the fanboys. Read again. Or sadyang mababa lang os mo at mababa din ang ram at cpu ng pang intindi mo. Nap nap ka nalang kaya. Buwahahahajahahahahahaha engot!

    • Avatar for teacher teacher says:

      Sana ang sinabi mo nap ay “your sentence construction is funnier than your criticisms against abuzalzal”. But no, he is not attacking abuzalzal. The tirade is directed against apple and apple fans. Samsung is just a decoy. Mag aral ka muna. Else, you’re the Beatles song, “I started a joke”.

    • Avatar for guardia civil guardia civil says:

      Santisima, mga kaibigan, iyang jimmy at mirriam na alyas ay mga call girls este call center agents na bading dito sa amin iyan. Ala, niu nman maere mga iyan pa english english, kalababaw naman. Tapos nuknukan pa ng yayabang akala mo yung kakarampot na twenty thousand na sahod nila eh twenty million na. Panay credit card lang nman sila at budget meal para lang may panghulog sa hulugan nilang iphones at ipad. Hulugan sa mga bombay sa grinhills! Nyak nyak nyak.

  16. Avatar for Janet Lim Napoles Janet Lim Napoles says:

    If you’re a newbie sa mga smartphone and budget-conscious, then this phone might fit you..

    Sa mga techies jan, bka ma-put-off sila sa processor (never was a fan of mediatek processors), and/or battery life..

    baka pag-ipunan ko na lang ang Note 3..

    (wait, what am i saying?? Nasakin pa ang kaban ng bayan! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

    • Avatar for Junngoy K. Watan Junngoy K. Watan says:

      Well, you get what you pay for..:-)

      On par na nga siya sa Galaxy S3 given the 1080p screen resolution (partida pa yun)

      Bummer lang talaga yung battery life, they should’ve upped it a little bit

    • Avatar for panggap na techie panggap na techie says:

      Baka MT6573 pa ang huling nagamit mo na MediaTek SoC. Or do you know anything about that at all? LOL

    • Avatar for Janet Lim Napoles Janet Lim Napoles says:

      @panggap na techie, sa pangalan mo pa lang alam ko nang epic fail yang comment mo..

      narinig mo na ba yung qualcomm o kaya exynos? alam mo ba mga processors na yun? google google din pag may time..

      kung anu man yang gamit mong phone isaksak mo na lang sa pwet mo, tutal mahilig ka naman na pasukan sa pwet.. tanga ka din noh?

      pasalvage kita jan..

  17. Avatar for abuzalzal abuzalzal says:

    Boss Yuga

    * Large front and rear camera sensor (?)

    since software interpolation lang ginamit, I doubt it kung malaki talaga ang sensor size neto

  18. Avatar for HiERARCH HiERARCH says:

    whey.. peggy

  19. Avatar for yt_gab yt_gab says:

    Sir, non-removable battery po ba ang Cosmos Z?

  20. Avatar for Jun Jun says:

    “6GB internal storage” — must be at least 16gb.
    “3G/HSPA+” — 4G becoming more standard thru mid-highend phones right now even our cellular connection here in PH really sucks.

    Other than that everything seems right on top! Awesome phone for the price.

    {Cherry Mobile Fusion Bolt owner here}

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