Cherry Mobile’s Android One Offering

Google finally unveiled and launched Android One in the Philippines earlier this afternoon. To kick things off they partnered with two local brand smartphone companies for their first salvo of devices. One of those companies is none other than Cherry Mobile and we’d like to share with you guys our hands-on initial impressions review of the Android One powered Cherry Mobile One.

Before anything else let’s quickly review the specs!

Cherry Mobile One specs

1.3GHz quad-core processor

1GB of RAM

4.5-inch TFT capacitive display, Asahi Glass

8GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB

5-megapixel rear camera with BSI

2-megapixel front camera

Dual-SIM

3G

WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS

Android 5.1 Lollipop

1780mAh battery

Sweet. Yes folks, that’s Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box! On to our initial impressions!

Beautiful Hardware: The Phone Looks Much More Expensive Than it Actually Is

The Cherry Mobile One is a beautiful device. It looks absolutely phenomenal for a smartphone under Php5,000. Heck in the looks department it beats the living crap out of other devices that have three times the price! This smooth rectangular block of tech just oozes with appeal which is just worthy of Google and Android One.

At the front we have the 4.5-inch TFT display with Asahi scratch resistant glass. While it’s not AMOLED, the quality is still very much impressive. At the back we have some sort of faux metal silver finish which just adds to the elegance of the build of the device.

At 4.5-inches the Cherry Mobile One is very much easy to use and navigate with just hand. It also feels good in the palm and fingers thanks to the glass screen quality and the faux metal back plate. By the way, the back plate is removable and there you’ll find the battery, two micro SIM card slots, and the SD card slot. Pretty much everything you need.

Smooth Android Lollipop Goodness!!!

And this is the main reason why you would even consider buying this device: it ships with Android 5.1 Lollipop OUT OF THE BOX. Yes folks, it runs Google’s latest software and it is amazing.

What’s so special with Android 5.1 Lollipop? There are tons of new features but we’d like to zero in on three major ones that makes the experience totally different.

SHIFT TO ANDROID RUN TIME (ART): This is a new Android software level optimization which grealty improves over-all application performance and responsiveness. Google says that it gets you up to 4x better performance with your device and it also helps deliver better and smoother UI. Here’s the good news: we felt it with the Cherry Mobile One. Despite running just a quad-core processor, it felt so much smoother and seamless compared to devices packing octa-core processors.

MATERIAL DESIGN: Google calls this new UI design language “a bold, colorful, and responsive UI design for consistent, intuitive experiences across all your devices”, and we agree with them 100%. Everything feels more responsive, natural, and modern. Everything from the design elements to the typography are all superb!

BETTER NOTIFICATIONS: You can now view and respond to messages from your lock screen. You can also use Priority mode so that only certain people or notifications pop up (if you don’t want to get interrupted all the time).

Google also promised that the Android One line-up will be among the first devices to get updated to their newest software release, Android M.

Initial Verdict: TAKE MY MONEY

We haven’t even done a full review yet and we already want one. The Cherry Mobile One makes for a superb first smartphone for feature phone users, a great affordable upgrade for people who bought more expensive but outdated smartphones, and a fantastic back-up phone for people with flagship premium phones.

How much? No official SRP yet but we’re told it will be sold for around Php5,000. NOT BAD.

Watch out for our full review soon!!!

UPDATE: Android One Devices to Get Android M First