Cherry Mobile One First Impressions

Along with MyPhone, Cherry Mobile is one of the first two local brands that partnered with Google to spearhead the Android One initiative in the Philippines, and their first Android One smartphone is conveniently called the Cherry Mobile One.

Unlike its local Android One counterpart from MyPhone, the CM One has a more straightforward candybar design that shares a slight semblance to the Xiaomi RedMi 1S minus the three illuminated capacitive buttons.

Similar to the MyPhone Uno, the CM One sports a 4.5-inch display which is surrounded by thick black bezels. A front-facing snapper with 2-megapixel resolution is located at the top which is neighbored by a circular earpiece.

SEE MORE: Cherry Mobile One Now Official

Cherry Mobile went for a two-toned paintjob on the One which, in our opinion, adds a hint of class to the device. In addition to that, a thin strip of glossy plastic that frames the front panel of the handset helped in creating a clear separation between the front and back portions of the device.

The Power button is placed on the right hand of the handset just beside the Volume Up and Volume Down keys. Meanwhile, the audio port is located at the top-left portion while the Micro-USB port is situated dead-center of the handset’s bottom panel.

The somewhat curved design of the Cherry Mobile One made it easy to pick the phone up when it’s lying on its back and feels very good in the hands. It’s good to note though that the smartphone doesn’t lay totally flat on its back because of the slightly protruding 5MP rear camera, but not as much compared to the one found on the MyPhone Uno.

Although we prefer the finish of the MyPhone Uno despite of being a fingerprint-magnet (black variant), the smooth surface of the smartphone’s removable back cover is still commendable because it didn’t make the device look cheap and it provides just enough traction for it not to slip on our hands when held.

Cherry Mobile One specs:
4.5-inch FWVGA IPS display, 218ppi
1.3GHz MediaTek MTK6582m quad-core CPU
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD (with free 8GB microSD)
5 megapixel rear camera w/ LED flash
2 megapixel front camera
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby (micro)
3G HSPA+
WiFi
Bluetooth
GPS, A-GPS
FM Radio
1700mAh lithium-ion battery
Android 5.1 Lollipop

Since there’s really no clear difference between the two Android One smartphones, we feel that it will just boil down to the consumer’s design preference. Although we feel that MyPhone has a slight advantage over the Cherry Mobile One in the design segment, we won’t be surprised to see consumers pick the latter because of its no-frill design.

The official SRP of the Cherry Mobile One hasn’t been disclosed at the time of writing, albeit it will be offered by Smart under Plan 499 and Sun Cellular under Plan 399.

RELATED: 

• Hands-on with the MyPhone Uno
• Google Launches Android One in the Philippines