Cherry Mobile Emerald Quick Review

Smartphones have slowly become a necessity in this day and age, but one of the things that are keeping some people from owning one is the price that it entails. Luckily, Cherry Mobile may just have a solution for that, and it comes in the form of the Cherry Mobile Emerald; a 4-inch smartphone with a sub-Php3K price tag.

Let me begin by saying that the Emerald does not look like your average budget smartphone. Yes, it doesn’t have that much to boast in terms of its specs, but in our opinion its design alone is worth half of the price of admission.

Cherry Mobile Emerald

The CM Emerald looks deceivingly like a premium smartphone made of aluminum or metal, well in fact, its exterior is entirely made of plastic. This faux-metal appeal is mainly attributed to the phone’s Metallic Silver paintjob that’s coated on top of the removable back cover and painted around the surrounding edges.

It also feels very sturdy in the hands too, and its rather hefty frame gives some reassurance that you’re actually dealing with a legit device rather than some cheap plastic phone that can easily be mistaken for a toy.

CM Emerald

Unfortunately, the front section of the CM Emerald is not as pleasing to the eyes as its posterior. Although majority of the real estate at the front is occupied by its modest 4-inch display, there are a lot areas on both the top and bottom sections of the screen that could’ve been shaven off to make it look more presentable.

But despite of its unpleasant façade, the fact remains that CM Emerald is probably one of the most gorgeous looking budget handset in the market. Its design, as well as its build quality, are certainly among the key strengths of this budget Android smartphone.

If you’re here for a blazing fast smartphone that can handle everything that you throw its way, then you’re barking up the wrong tree. As you probably know by now, the CM Emerald doesn’t pack a lot of muscle underneath its faux-metal frame, which is fine since it’s really not to have that in the first place.

In most cases, the phone handles basic task quite well and without too much lag. However, it doesn’t take long before it chokes up on you, especially if you’re pushing it a little too far.

In short, handsets like the CM Emerald aren’t really intended to be speed demons. So as long you can work within the limitations of the Emerald’s engine, then its modest configuration will not become too much of an issue for you.

Despite of having a rather measly 1700mAh battery, we were actually quite surprised by the mileage we got on a single full charge. On average, the CM Emerald lasts for around 7-8 hours on normal use with two SIM cards attached to it, but no browsing over 3G.

During our usual battery test, it lasted for a little over 5-hours when looped an HD video with brightness set to 50% and volume set to half of its max capacity.

Cherry Mobile Emerald specs:
4-inch WVGA (800×480) LCD screen, 233ppi
1.3GHz MT6572 dual-core CPU
Mali 400 MP GPU
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
5 megapixel rear camera w/ Flash
0.3 megapixel front camera
Dual-SIM
HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth
1700mAh battery
Android 4.2 Jellybean
Price: Php2,899

With the kind of spec sheet that the Emerald has, it’s understandable how some people can easily suggests to “just add PhpX,XXX and get this XXXX smartphone instead”.

But the thing is, not everyone has the luxury to spend an extra PhpX,XXX to get the “better option”. That being said, if you’re working on a very tight budget, the Cherry Mobile Emerald is not as bad as you think, considering that is capable of handling your basic smartphone needs like being able to browse over 3G network, plus is has a very decent build to go along with it.

What we liked about it:

* Great design for its price
* Decent display quality despite low screen resolution
* Good mileage despite of low battery capacity
* Price

What we didn’t like about it:

* Buttons are a little hard to press
* Poor and soft audio output
* Fixed-focus rear camera, and crappy front snapper
* Voice calls get garbled at times (not network-related)
* Noticeable lag and locks up every now and then

Ronnie Bulaong

This article was written by Ronnie Bulaong, a special features contributor and correspondent for YugaTech. Follow him on Twitter @turonbulaong.

https://www.yugatech.com

14 Comments

agustinodatiles says:

4 years ago

any available touch screen in this unit
- Reply
edward says:

9 years ago

Can’t upgrade to Lollipop? :3
- Reply
diane datul says:

10 years ago

Ano ba maganda na cellphone na 3k or 4k lng ang presyo pero maganda…. Ang pangit kasi ng emerald logger…
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Hunter says:

10 years ago

XOLO A500 lite, pinoy version!
check this out: http://www.dspecs.com/sp/1407/Xolo-A500s-Lite-Features-and-Specifications.html
- Reply
kenny says:

10 years ago

ok naman sya tumatagal ung battery, nakaka run ng maayos ung ilang apps ang problem lang “hard to touch” sya which is not much of a problem for me saka may occasional lag. But i wont expect too much for the price since mura lang sya ang mahalaga lang napapatakbo nya ung iilang apps na ginagamit ko.
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alexandria says:

10 years ago

You get what you pay for.
- Reply
lei says:

10 years ago

lighted po ba nav keys?
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jah says:

10 years ago

worst phone ive had!!!. hirap mag-type. hndi makapagdownload sa playstore. ung camera parang hndi 5mp. walang silbi ang flash, dhl kht naka turn on, super dilim prin. basag ang sound pag naka earphones. hndi worth it ang 3k ko. super sisi ako sa phone na to.
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ivane reyes says:

10 years ago

ano mas maganda O+ 3.86 0 yung Cherry M. Emerald??? thanks you. :)
- Reply
dwe says:

10 years ago

hnd b@ logger it0ng emerald
- Reply
Ace says:

10 years ago

IPS ba to? O kung hindi, di nmn blue-ish yung screen?
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Zobel says:

10 years ago

Well, just add 3K and get the Starmobile Energy. lolz. Which a friend bought, unfortunately. Though maganda tingnan sobrang mahal naman at halos pareho lang specs nito. Lamang lang nun battery at TV.
- Reply
ty says:

10 years ago

Starmobile Play is still king in this pricepoint
- Reply
Easy E says:

10 years ago

Why put attention to this phone?
- Reply

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