Cherry Mobile Cubix Morph Quick Review

Cherry Mobile, through their sub-brand Cubix, has released a new dual-boot tablet that comes with a keyboard case making it a full-blown convertible for the masses. With its sub-6k price tag, it could be an easy buy but is it well worth your money? Here’s our quick review of the Cubix Morph.

Design and Construction

The tablet itself is fairly large due to its 10.1-inch IPS LCD sporting a WXGA resolution. That’s 1280 x 800 pixels in a 16:10 aspect ratio. Clearly, a thick bezel borders the device although it helps with the handling. A 2MP camera and an LED indicator hide above the display while a capacitive home is placed below.

The right side of the tablet doesn’t have any ports or buttons. The left side houses a number of ports namely the 3.5mm headphone jack, DC-in, full-size USB 3.0 port, mini HDMI, and a micro-USB port for charging and data connectivity. A flap hides a microSD card slot.

The top of the tablet has the volume rocker and power/lock button while the bottom end has the Pogo pins and connecting dock for the cover.

The back features a circular pattern to the center with a printed Windows logo. A 2MP rear shooter is present up top while down below is a pair of stereo speakers.

As for the build of the tablet, it is cheap as it gets. It’s made out entirely out of plastic with annoying creaks when lifted. Although, the suede fabric of the keyboard cover is pleasant to hold and carry around.

Display and Keyboard

Cherry Mobile is kind enough to include an IPS LCD on the Morph. It has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels that stretched to fit a 10.1-inch touch panel. That gives an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a 149ppi pixel density. The display has wide viewing angles although the colors are not that vivid. Surprisingly, it supports multi-touch for up to 10 fingers. There’s no glass protecting the panel as it’s just using plastic. We’re already seeing some unsightly scratches on it that’s caused by the keyboard cover. You should definitely get a screen protector for this if there’s one available.

The keyboard keys are cramped but are practical to type on when you get used to it. The trackpad has its buttons built in allowing it maximize its size. It’s as big as most notebooks in the market.

OS, Apps, and UI

You get two OS on the Morph – Windows 10 and Android 5.1. This means you can run full desktop apps as well as mobile/tablet apps. Switching is easy, simply double-click on the icon on the desktop of Windows 10 or slide down the notification panel on Android and you’ll see the OS Switch shortcut. You don’t get to choose which OS will boot when powering on, it will automatically boot up your previously used OS.

The Android system gets 4.8GB of storage while Windows gets the chunk of the share with 20.2GB. Good thing though that there’s not much bloatware onboard as everything is kept to what’s essential for immediate use.

Camera and Multimedia

Both the front and back cameras are nothing to write home about. The two are identical 2MP shooters with no LED flash. Perhaps they are just meant to be used as your everyday webcam for Skype and other apps that’ll require it. They are noisy and bland to be used for social posting. As for the video, you get 720p recording using the rear camera. Our unit’s microphone garbles when used and we hope it’s just an isolated defect. So make sure to check it out upon purchase so you can get a replacement just in case.

You get stereo speakers at the back which are okay for casual sound playback. It’s quiet for our taste and its position doesn’t help either. But, at least you get stereo.

Performance and Benchmarks

The Cubix Morph is powered by an Intel Z8300 quad-core processor with Intel HD Graphics. It’s paired with 2GB of RAM. With our initial use, everything is smooth on both OS. Given the power and memory loaded on the tablet, a number of Windows desktop app could run into a few hiccups although Android apps should be run fine. We noticed that unlocking the tablet for sleep in Android takes a while but it’s instant on Windows.

Here are the benchmark scores from Android:

AnTuTu Benchmark v6.2.1 – 56453
PCMark – 4887 (Work)
Quadrant Standard – 8916
Vellamo – 3599 (Browser), 1212 (Metal), 1479 (Multicore)
3DMark – 1080 (SlingShot ES 3.1), 1412 (SlingShot ES 3.0)

Battery Life

A sealed 6600mAh battery is present on the tablet. It’s rechargeable by either the microUSB port or using the DC-in charger. We recommend using the DC-in since it acts like a fast charger for the device. With our video loop battery test, it was able to last for almost 10 hours when using Android.

Conclusion

Admittedly, the Cubix Morph is an ideal solution for those who needs a cheap Windows machine plus the advantage of having Android onboard. At just Php5,990USD 102INR 8,653EUR 97CNY 743, it’s really an easy sell for a convertible and a decent device to run basic apps and do everyday tasks. Of course, there’s also a catch to it and if you can overlook those, this is for you. It’s exclusively sold through Lazada (link here)

Cherry Mobile Cubix Morph specifications:
10.1-inch IPS LCD @ 1280 x 800 pixels, 149ppi
1.44GHz Intel Z8300 quad-core processor
Intel HD Graphics
2GB RAM
32GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD, up to 64GB
2-megapixel rear camera
2-megapixel front camera
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
6600mAh non-removable battery
Windows 10 / Android 5.1 Lollipop (Dual Boot)

What we liked about it:

• Affordable
• Decent specs
• Suede keyboard cover

What we didn’t:

• Creaky plastic build
• Sub-par display