Cherry Mobile Flare 2x Review 1GB RAM — 1.2 Quadcore MSM8625 Chipset with Adreno 203 GPU

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    Cherry Mobile Flare 2x Review 1GB RAM — 1.2 Quadcore MSM8625 Chipset with Adreno 203 GPU

    Since my unboxing I used the Cherry Mobile Flare 2x for months and you might be asking am I going to release the Video review? the answer is Maybe! 🙂 but since I can’t promise when I will release it here’s my blog post version of the full review.

    Have you watched my unboxing video of the Cherry Mobile Flare 2x? well if not I have included the video here.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VacWvy4oYN4

    Top Viewing angle you will notice that the color changes.

    Build and Design

    Flare 2x has good build plastic body and design, although what I really don’t like it’s a finger-smudge prone so you need to wipe every now and then and the back is really glossy so your fingers are really noticeable but in terms of build its a premium plastic comparing to Flare2.0 and Flare 1.0 this is way better for me in terms of build it feels more solid, sturdy and comfortable holding in one hand because of the 4″ size.

    Front View has the 3 capacitive buttons the first one is the menu button next is the home button and last is the back button.

    Back View of the Flare 2x is the Speaker grill and at the bottom is the Micro USB 2.0 port for transferring data and charging.

    Although the Flare 2x is just a 2 point touch capable phone don’t worry it doesn’t have issues on touch bug and some collide issues but sometimes you might encounter unresponsiveness in terms of touch if you are swiping the notification area of the phone, you need to swipe it a couple of times just for it to drop-down and also you will notice while scrolling you will see that it stutters when you scroll very slow but when you do it really fast it’s not noticeable.

    Storage and Memory

    The Internal ROM capacity is a total of 4GB but of course it’s still partition to different sizes for the system and other allocation so you will not have that full 4GB capacity, but the good thing here is the Phone Storage is already 1.40GB and the internal Storage is 1.41GB which is enough to install around 3–5 large size games like, NBA2k13, N.O.V.A. 3, or Modern Combat 4. and of course a 1GB RAM for the processing.

    1GB is pretty enough for this kind of specs it can run and do multitask using this phone for months I didn’t encounter any force close issues on apps. even lots of app running in the background I didn’t notice any effect on the stability and performance of the phone on a day-to-day basis.

    You might think the storage is quite small if you’re into gaming don’t worry all the OBB files of the games can be transferred to SD Card and it can read the files on it like what I said it can install large games and if your Phone storage is full just transfer it to the SD Card so you will have more space for the internal and phone storage that is a feature I like about the Flare 2x.

    Performance and Gaming

    So is the Cherry Mobile Flare 2x worth for gaming? well the answer is just average , because it will vary on the games you play overall performance the Flare 2x can Play High 3D Graphics Intensive games but the problem is you will experience it on a low settings so if in case you want to play with a high settings that is not possible on some games like , Asphalt 8, Riptide GP2 and other games that has custom settings sometimes it automatically disables it. I also do not recommend adjusting it on a high settings because you will surely face lag all throughout the game. so stick with the low settings.

    Riptide GP2 on a low settings

    The only issue I encounter when installing large games is that sometimes you will not see it compatible in the Google Play Store but when you have a backup of the APK. on your memory you can manually install it (no rooting required) and it will run like the Modern Combat 4, I needed to manually install the APK because if you’ll install it directly via Google Play Store it will not install which is disappointing.

    N.O.V.A. 3 Running on cherry Mobile Flare 2x.

    Casual Games are very playable but for 3D Graphics games you will encounter some hiccups when playing on a long period of time that sometimes the responsiveness of the touch is getting weaker but over all games are playable. just close other apps running in the background when playing games.

    Modern Combat 4 is playable but I am really having a hard time on the small screen 🙁

    Features and Bugs

    Now let’s get into some nifty features of the Flare 2x, first one is the Wireless Manager in the File Manager typically when you want to transfer files on your device you will plug the USB cable or use an app called Airdroid but Flare 2x provide a built-in Wireless Transfer file feature which you just have to go to the File Manager and choose the Wireless manager Tab and activate that feature and you will see an IP address where you can type it in your Windows Explorer Address bar (not on browser) and you can transfer files via WIFI.

    BTW don’t forget to type the ftp:// it is required

    also on the display settings you will see the Proximity calibration and GSensor Adjustment which is pretty helpful if you want to adjust it anytime.

    Now in terms of bug we found out that the Screenshot is not working while you are playing games so if you are planning to share screenshots of your games while playing that will not be possible, this maybe a software bug but I am not sure if Cherry Mobile will fix this anytime soon 🙂

    Camera , Video, Sound and Playback

    Ok! moving to the Camera because this is a 8mp Back Camera (7.7mp on software read) I find it pretty decent when capturing on a good lighting environment, well to be honest I am not picky in terms of camera when it comes to entry-level phones like this I know there limitations because of the price range but then if your going to use this just for social media well this is pretty decent already.

    Some of the shots here are taken with flash and without flash, well basically you will notice the difference when it has a flash but I find the Flash not sync when capturing so you need to focus your subject then take photo and unfortunately auto focus is also quite slow so just be patient when using the flash + auto focus LOL!

    Taking Macro shots with this phone is much preferred it has features like smile detection, panorama and unfortunately it doesn’t have a burst shot but can capture photo while recording video by just taping the screen, the UI is pretty much simple although the settings is quite minimal but you will still see some of the typical settings like adjustment of the size,exposure,white balance, and other more.

    In terms of Front Camera (0.3mp VGA Camera) you can expect decent shot although it doesn’t have auto focus on the front not like on the back which it have, taking shots in a low light is not that good but you can adjust the exposure just to give a punch on the brightness, but overall don’t expect too much on the camera for me it’s an average 🙂

    Going to the video recording it can record upto 720p with only 17fps and also when recording the screen is a bit zoomed in so for fast-moving subject you will notice the difference in terms of frame-rate.

    Now going to the Video Playback the built-in video player cannot handle the 720p video so you need to use 3rd party app like MX player that has a S/W or H/W decoder to play the video smoothly when set to H/W mode the video will drastically stutter and almost not playable but when you set it to the S/W settings it will playback the video without any issues.

    I do not recommend watching Full HD on the Flare 2x because you will just get annoyed, like what I said the default player can’t handle it so you need to decode it before you can have a smooth experience when watching HD Videos.

    Because this is not a CTIA Compliant it means you cannot use your latest headset that has a mic to talk button so you need to use additional converter just to have a good audio experience but I find the audio of the Flare 2x pretty fair good audio on speaker as well.

    Other Stuffs

    Just an additional note although the UI is a bit customize I still find it pretty decent looking especially the icons although I still prefer a the stock Android experience if I were to choose 🙂

    Flare 2x has only 3 Available sensors the Accelerometer,Proximity and Light Sensors, it is not a dual 3G standby only the first SIM slot is capable of having the 3G connection.

    Battery.. Battery.. Battery

    The moment you all been waiting for the Battery life, well first major feedback on the Flare 2x is it is very HOTTTTTTTTTTT! yes with additional TTTTTTT! well to be honest so far of all the Cherry Mobile units that I have reviewed this is the most HOT! in terms of battery temperature especially at the back side if you’re going to put it on your pocket boy! you will surely feel it on your legs. this is the major issue I don’t like about the flare although I love how it performs but for me it drains the battery fast because of that heat issue, I put the display to full brightness and WIFI on the whole time you might worry that it will melt the phone but good thing to know even though it has this issue, using the phone for months It’s still alive but then again it’s still scary that it might explode or melt in something because if the Heat issue in the back.

    You might say I might be over reacting but again of all the Units I have reviewed I never experienced this kind if heat issue on other phones especially with Mediatek Smartphones and other Qualcomm phones also.

    But How long it will last? well because the heat that it gives on the phone it also give drastic battery drainage so it just last 3–4 hours of full usage although it’s a 1,500 mAh for sure it can last a day, but once you feel the heat at the back it suddenly drains the phone.

    but when on a normal usage typical texting, social media and calling I have manage to have 18 hours of battery usage but take note almost half of the time it was idle so it doesn’t consume heat that’s why it last that long.

    Verdict!

    If you’re just a casual Smartphone user I highly recommend this because of the build and design and it can give you the typical Quad Core experience with less software bug 🙂 and can run your favorite apps just fine 🙂 for an entry-level Smartphone this is still one of a great choice! because of its price point PHP 4,499but I think they have a sale so just check if they have a price drop on this unit 🙂

    So there you go guys that is my full review of the Cherry Mobile Flare 2x hope you like my very long post which I typically not do your feedback’s and comments are much appreciated so stay tune for my next review 🙂

    We will be happy to hear your thoughts

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