Cherry Mobile Flare HD Review “HD ng Bayan” Quad Core — PHP5,499

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    Cherry Mobile Flare HD Review “HD ng Bayan” Quad Core — PHP5,499

    So finally Cherry Mobile has released the official pricing for the Flare HD and it cost PHP 5,499 and it’s time for my official Review of the Flare HD , in case you missed I also uploaded the Full Review Video version last month so what I will be sharing to you is a review after a month of usage 🙂

    This is the Flare series you are waiting for 🙂

    Build Design and Quality

    Of all the Flare Series so far this is my favorite in terms of Build and Design, you will notice that it’s a slimmer version of the Flare 1.0 and the back is a semi-glossy glittery type plastic which is very elegant looking and not a finger smudge prone 🙂

    It’s a 4.3-inch IPS HD Display (720 x 1280) and the display is almost flat on the glass which really makes the display stands out of all the flare series. It is also very thin that you will love to use all throughout the day. In terms of build it’s very sturdy although it feels very plastic but because of its weight I still find it premium build in terms of quality

    all the buttons are on the top and right side of the phone the bezel in front is really sexy and comparing to other 4-inch phone this way on the top for me.

    Storage and Memory

    Flare HD is equipped with a 1GB of RAM and has a storage of 4GB (1.2GB for Internal Storage and 1.48GB for Phone Storage and the rest if for the system/cache/dalvik files) the storage is enough to install large size games like Modern Combat 4,Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Real Boxing, N.O.V.A. 3 and other casual games, but later I will share some issues on games so just read along in the Gaming and Performance section 🙂 it is also expandable upto 32GB which is also I think upto 64GB but I haven’t tested it 😉 so if ever for some users who have tried it just give me a heads up on that. 🙂

    one thing to take note of this is the default storage is the SD Card which means you can still play games that are stored via SD Card for example if you put the OBB files on the SD Card it will still be readable, the advantage of this is you can have more rooms for games but the only disadvantage is if the SD Card is removed you cannot play that game because it will have missing files. but other than that it also has the transfer to SD Card feature which makes it easy for users to transfer files.

    Move to SD card feature is available on the Cherry Mobile Flare HD yipee!

    for the 1GB of RAM its quite enough to run multitasking like browsing while using social media apps but of course do not abuse the 1GB it still suffers if you don’t close other apps running in the back ground. and for months of usage this has been my point and shoot phone on some of my events and it didn’t disappoint me more details on the camera later 🙂

    Performance and Gaming

    Flare HD has a PowerVR SGX 544MP which is base on the flyer they sent us on the Dealer’s night it is a Mali 400 well Cherry Mobile said that they had a typographical error on that. so given that the PowerVR SGX 544MP is still a high performance GPU buttttt with multiple “t” for some games you will encounter some hiccups, I tested out in some HD Graphics Intensive Game and here are some of the issues that I encountered, first take note this are the games I tested out personally.

    Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas

    since GTA:San Andreas has settings where you can choose how high is the traffic and you can control how depth is the shadow and other settings I put it the highest settings and the results is quite disappointing once you set the traffic to high the game will stutter and almost not playable because it will be in slow motion but after you run away from the traffic area or more graphic part of the game it will be playable again but overall if you want to have a smooth experience I suggest just set it to mid level settings in that way it will be very playable and the graphics is still good 🙂

    Moving forward to the games I also tested it out with Real Boxing and it was very smooth fast frame rate and very playable but just take not for some if you first used the Flare HD and installed tons of games be sure to Reboot your phone so it will cache all the other data’s so if you are encountered stutter in some part it might need to reboot if you haven’t reboot it since the day you used it.

    but here is the sad part I tested out also the Modern Combat 4 and N.O.V.A. 3 and both of this game didn’t boot up although the N.O.V.A. 3 loads the game but only at the narration part after that it force close so that is my experience on some games but here are the other games I also tested out and see the result for yourself on how you find the performance 🙂

    http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-R4sZbQhsPL03IkThEhKMM7HOQelM3sL

    Features and Bugs

    In terms of features actually there is no fancy stuff here other than the new lock screen launcher, Cherry Mobile Apps of the Flare HD although I like the launcher but I find it a bit bloated because when you view it on the app settings there is a bunch of theme that Cherry Mobile has installed to it so it adds processing on the System file and in fact you cannot uninstall it if you want so that’s the only thing I don’t like about the launcher but in terms of feature it’s really portable BTW the launcher is called “START” so you can also download it on your other smartphone but of course this is a modified version dedicated for the Flare HD users 🙂

    The Flare HD has 4 Available Sensors the Light,Accelerometer,Proximity and Sound Sensors all of this sensors a working fine but what is missing here is the Magnetic sensor which is comparing to Cherry Mobile Apollo it has that sensor and very useful for maps and other stuffs related to navigation.

    It’s also a Dual 3G Standby phone with Quadband which if your planning to bring this to other countries it will surely work for the Dual 3G standby mode you can easily switch it in the settings and look for the Mobile networks > 3G Service and you can choose what sim to enable the 3G Connectivity. the HSPA+ connectivity also of the Flare HD is superb in terms of speed it can easily connect and download pages even on a 3G connection only.

    Camera , Video, Sound and Playback

    The Camera of the Flare HD is a 12MP OmniBSI Rear Camera and a 5MP Front Facing Camera I find the Camera pretty decent in taking Photo’s so take a look at some of my sample shots from outside and in a Studio lighted environment and if you watch the video I have a quick comparison of the camera to the Omega HD 2.0.

    The Camera feature has the same settings just like the other Mediatek Devices of Cherry Mobile but the Good thing here is it can record 30fps on any video format from low settings upto fine settings, and not only that it has a really quick shutter speed so if you want to take photo’s instantly it’s really fast. 🙂 Auto focus also works like charm and even the front facing camera has decent quality but it doesn’t have autofocus feature not like the back camera.

    Now since this phone is a CTIA compliant phone you will surely enjoy listening to your favorite music with your latest headsets and the microphone will work fine and also the control buttons, so you will not have problem of buying 3rd party converter just to use your newest headset.

    Although the only downside of the Phone in terms of sound quality is the speaker it has a great volume but when you set it to the max volume it will become distorted so I recommend not to maximize it and just set it to the mid-level and it will sound better .

    I’ve been using this phone on my Spotify account and it is superb and can be your daily audio driver when you usually go out.

    Since Flare HD has a great display quality you will definitely use this for watching videos and the good thing here is that you really don’t need a 3rd party video player just to play the 1080p and 720p video it will playback using just the build in video player which is pretty nice.

    Battery.. Battery.. Battery

    Now Going forward to the battery life I didn’t find any issue of heating on the back even on a high performance settings so this really helps to have long battery even though it only have 1,800mAh it still can last a day, like when I used this if I will go out around 8am and go home around 6pm I still have some 15% battery juice and that is on an average usage with batter saver app, typical social media calling and texting plus on an average brightness settings.

    But for a stress test when I loop a video (1080p muted volume) with full settings (wi-fi on all throughout , full brightness, no sleep on display) it last around 4 to almost 5 hours.

    Flare HD is really one great phone that you can use for multimedia and gaming as well for me this is the best Flare series so far at the moment with its price and performance it’s really worth the bucks and I can guarantee you that this will last long with you 🙂

    Verdict!

    Display and Performance combined in this phone notable superb display quality
    premium looking although there are some hiccups on some games but for a daily driver this is worth it! but if want an alternative and have a budget go for Cherry Mobile Apollo although a bit pricey but almost have the same performance + with magnetic sensor 🙂
    So there you go guys that is my full review of the Cherry Mobile Flare HD if find this useful feel free to share so other will also have an idea on how this phone perform 🙂 so see you on my next review 🙂

    Cherry Mobile Flare HD Specifications

    • Android Jellybean 4.2
    • 1.2GHz Quad Core MT6589
    • PowerVR SGX 544mp
    • Dual Sim (Dual 3G SIM Slot)
    • GSM / GRPS / EDGE | 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 | UMTS 900 / 2100
    • 4.3″ HD IPS Touch Panel
    • 720 x 1280 HD
    • 12mp Rear Camera with Flash (1080p 30fps)
    • 5mp Front Camera
    • Wifi b/g/n
    • Bluetooth 4.0
    • 4Gb ROM
    • 1GB RAM
    • Micro SD upto 32GB
    • 1800 mAh Battery Capacity
    • G-sensor | Proximity and light Sensor
    • 5 Multi Touch

    Price: PHP5,599

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