Cherry Mobile Flare X2 Hands-on, First Impressions

At last, the successor to the famous Flare X handset from Cherry Mobile is finally here. It now has a premium construction and a Snapdragon 430 processor. Here’s our initial impression of the Flare X2.

The Flare X2 sport a 5.5-inch IPS display with a Full HD resolution which gives it a 400ppi pixel density. The phone has a sandwiched Dragon Trail glass design which is like the iPhone 4 back in the days or the recent Xperia handsets. It has an 8MP front shooter for your selfie needs.

To the right side of its cold metal frame is the volume rocker and power/lock button while on the left is the hybrid card for either two SIM cards or opt for microSD card expansion.

The top end of the Flare X2 has the 3.5mm headphone jack and a couple of antenna bands.

The bottom end houses the micro-USB port. The decision not to have a Type-C port would benefit the majority who are yet to adopt the latest USB type. You’d notice that there are grills for the loudspeaker with the microphone on the far right corner.

The white Flare X2 we have presents its back with a slab of glass that requires frequent wiping to get rid of the unsightly grease marks. A round fingerprint scanner is smacked in the middle while the main 16MP sensor is on the upper left with its LED flash. A small slit at the lower end is provided for the loudspeaker.

Rather than the usual MediaTek processor in most local phones, the Flare X2 has the latest Snapdragon 430 octa-core chipset onboard with the Adreno 505 GPU. It’s supported by a large 4GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

Initial performance during our quick encounter with the Flare X2 shows itself to be an impressive daily phone with a classy design. The glass on both front and back may seem vulnerable for those with heavy hands, but it’s definitely an upgrade from the plastic its predecessor.

Cherry Mobile Flare X2 specs:
5.5-inch IPS LCD @ 1920 x 1080 pixels
Dragontrail Glass
1.4 Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor
Adreno 505
4GB RAM
32GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD, up to 64GB
16-megapixel BSI PDAF rear camera w/ LED flash
8-megapixel front camera
Dual SIM
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
USB Type C
Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, G-Sensor
Gyroscope
Fingerprint Sensor
GPS w/ A-GPS
3000mAh battery
Android 6.0 Marshmallow

The Cherry Mobile Flare X2 will soon be available in stores for Php7,999.