Cherry Mobile has just launched its newest smartphone for the market and it’s the first to sport the latest MediaTek Helio X20 in the country and also, the first local brand to put in USB Type-C and 4GB of RAM. Here’s our quick hands-on and impression for the Cherry Mobile M1.
The M1, a new naming scheme from Cherry, is the current flagship handset from the brand. Up front, it has a 5.5-inch Full HD display with an IPS panel that gives out good color reproduction. Along with the display is the 8MP front-facing camera with its own LED flash and a couple of sensors. There are two grilles representing a stereo speaker setup but we are yet to confirm this.
Its right side houses the power/lock button and the volume rocker while the left side doesn’t have any buttons but has the slot for two nano-SIM cards. Unfortunately, there’s no slot for microSD card, so space is limited to the 32GB internal storage.
To the top is the 3.5mm headphone jack for connecting audio peripherals.
The bottom houses the USB Type-C port that supports fast charging and definitely the first to have it among local smartphones. Cherry claims that it can fully charge the non-removable 3600mAh battery for an hour and a half.
Flipping it will reveal the main camera module which has the 21MP Sony IMX230 along with its dual-LED flash. The M1 is capable of shooting 4K videos and that’s another first from Cherry Mobile. There’s also a fingerprint scanner placed on the back.
The main highlight of the M1 is its Helio X20 processor — a deca-core chipset running at a max clock speed of 2.3GHz. Pair that with 4GB RAM and we definitely have a beastly device. We managed to test out its capabilities in gaming with the NBA 2k15 in high settings and it plays with little to no hiccups.
While all the clamor for 4K video, USB Type-C, 4GB RAM, and Helio X20 are exciting, the polycarbonate body of the M1 is a big miss for a device aimed to break barriers in the local smartphone scene. Still, for just Php11,999, it’s one the most affordable powerhouse smartphone you can buy.
Cherry Mobile M1 specs:
5.5-inch Full HD display
MediaTek Helio X20 (MT6797) deca-core CPU
Mali-T880 MP4 GPU
4GB RAM
32GB internal storage
21MP Sony IMX230 PDAF rear camera w/ LED flash, 4K video recording
8MP front camera w/ LED flash
Dual-SIM (nano)
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.1
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
USB Type-C
Fingerprint scanner
3,600mAh battery w/ Fast Charging
Android 6.0 Marshmallow
152.5mm x 76.35mm x 9.8mm
164g
We’ll be doing a full review when Cherry Mobile gives a unit to play with.
Gimme one with windows 10.