A Cherry Mobile action camera is something interesting to come from the local brand. It’s cheap, functional, and a good alternative to other pricier similar cameras. And here’s its successor stepping up the game with the addition of Android OS. Yes, a full-functioning Android device with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and apps.
Table of Contents
Cherry Action Cam Explorer 2 box
Like the previous Cherry Action Explorer action camera, the second iteration comes in a tall package with a suite of accessories to get your started including a waterproof case, dashboard mount, bicycle mount, and a frame cover.
The waterproofed case and the camera itself
The included accessories: (from top left to right) USB cable, cleaning cloth, charger head, frame, bike mount, dashboard mount
Additional and spare accessories
The device itself is compact and light and putting in the battery gives it adequate heft for handheld use. Design-wise, the Explorer 2 is a rectangular brick camera with familiar layout of buttons and a touch display.
The copper steel front plate
The front features the camera lens, power button, mode button, microphone, and the charging LED indicator. The replaceable plastic faceplate is not present here but there’s a fixed brushed steel plate that adds attitude to the action camera.
Top side
Bottom side
The top side is where the shutter button and the activity LED light are while the battery slot, speaker, and another LED indicator are at the bottom.
Left side
Right side
The microSD card slot and micro-USB port are situated on the left side with no cover for protection. The right side solely features the Wi-Fi hotspot button and its LED indicator. Something similar to GoPro’s design.
The 2.4″ TFT touch display
Lastly, we have the touch display measuring at 2.4-inches. It’s a TFT panel with no suited viewing angle at all which is cumbersome since you’ll be viewing the camera usually at extreme angles.
As mentioned earlier, what set this camera apart from its predecessor or even other action cameras in the market is it’s the world’s first smart action camera. It’s running Android 5.1 Lollipop with a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB internal memory. It’s already pre-loaded with Facebook, Instagram, OneDrive and Xender, and you can download more from the Play Store.
For the camera, it has a 12-megapixel sensor with a wide-angle 170-degree lens. It can record up to 1080p at 30fps. Good thing Cherry tweaked the UI to be friendly with the small display with large shutter buttons and a quick access to settings. Here are some full-size photo samples:
We’ll be testing out the Cherry Mobile Action Camera Explorer 2 action camera through its pace and see if it can be the perfect alternative to the pricey GoPros or a good option aside from SJCAM and other cheaper ones. Initially, the build of the devices seems like it can handle some beating except for the display which is of low-quality and has horrible viewing angles.
Cherry Mobile Explorer 2 specs:
2.4-inch touchscreen display
12MP camera with 170-degree wide-angle lens
1080p video recording
1.3GHz MediaTek processor
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD up to 64GB
1050mAh battery
Android 5.1 OS
It’s now available for just Php 5,999.
