Cherry Aqua GR Hands-on, They are back!

Last year, a leak of the upcoming Cherry device surfaced, but today it’s official. Cherry has just launched 11not one, but two new devices: the Aqua GR and Aqua S11 Pro. For now, we’ll take a closer look at the Cherry Aqua GR.

The Cherry Aqua GR comes in sleek, pure white box packaging. In front, the CHERRY logo is prominently displayed alongside the AQUA GR name in a striking glitter typeface at the lower left.

Turning the box over reveals the highlight specs with a headline tag: “Powerful AI 5G Chipset, 108MP UHD AI Camera.”

Upon opening the box, we find a neatly packed device along with some essential accessories. The package includes a free jelly case, a SIM ejector, a quick start guide, a Type-C to Type-C charging cable, and a 66W fast charger.

There is also an included type-c earphone with a button as seen in the unboxing video

Watch our Unboxing short video

The new Cherry Aqua GR strikes a different design language. It’s not the usual Cherry Mobile device we’ve seen in the last couple of years. The design is refreshing; it’s a different take.

Starting with its display, a 6.8-inch Full HD Plus AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080, 388ppi. Cherry opted to add up to a 120Hz refresh rate with a base of 60Hz. There is a setting to set it to Dynamic, which automatically adjusts from 60Hz to 120Hz.

Up top is a punchout cut hole that situates the selfie front camera of 16-megapixel. with this Cherry also joined the party for the capsule or dynamic island~ish feature, naming it Dynamic Capsule (I saw what you did there Cherry **wink**).

But the catch is, the Dynamic Capsule is actually an app called Dynamic Box-dynamic island by Dobest Mobile. 96 It has a dedicated setting that by default will show the status of battery charging, Bluetooth-connected device, ring notification, audio recording, FM radio, and Music playback. The great news is it works with Spotify and YouTube Music and I think even with YouTube Premium if you are currently subscribed.

Additionally, the display has a curved edge similar to the Honor X9b. A fingerprint sensor is also baked into the display, located at the center bottom.

The left side has the volume rockers and power button in a glossy texture, positioned slightly offset center but perfectly blended into the side glossy frame. The top of the phone has a secondary mic for noise cancellation, while the left is just plain.

Moving to the bottom part, where we see the Dual 5G Nano SIM card slot (no expansion card), main microphone, USB Type-C Port, and the mono speaker grill.

Now let’s move to where this device shines. As mentioned earlier, Cherry didn’t follow the usual camera module trend that we often see with other mid-tier smartphones. Instead, they decided to try something different.

As you will see the 50-megapixel in the dead center top. while having two cameras beside it. the one on the right is the 8-megapixel ultrawide and the one on the left is a 2-megapixel depth map camera. They also added a dual-tone flash. It’s actually quite a unique design, in my opinion, very refreshing to see.

I like that the back has a sparkle matte finish texture which is less prone to fingerprint smudges, and just a minimalist Cherry logo at the center bottom.

Overall the build quality is premium and very comfortable to hold thanks to its curved edges both front and back.

The Cherry Aqua is powered by a 2.6GHz Octa-Core MediaTek Dimensity 7050 paired with 8GB RAM and can be expanded up to 8GB. Plus, it has 256GB UFS 2.2 internal storage.

In terms of battery, it is packed with a 4,700mAh capacity, with a quick charging feature, but unfortunately, doesn’t have any wireless or reverse charging capability.

In terms of the software side of things. Cherry Aqua GR is running on Android 13 with a custom UI. But the great thing here is, no bloatware, but only a handful of built-in custom apps like change wallpaper, cleanup acceleration, flashlight, and lenscase.

Will dive into more details about the phone’s capability, performance, and software features in our full review in the next couple of days. But for now here are our initial benchmark results.

Tested in 8GB Expanded RAM
Antutu Benchmark v10: 531,243
Antutu Storage: 1,063.7MB/s (read), 887.3MB/s (write), 454MB/s (Random Read) & 338MB/s (Random Write)
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance Score: 13,583
GeekBench 6 CPU: 1,079 (Single-core), 2,613 (Multi-core)
GeekBench 6 GPU: 2,483 (Vulkan), 2,501 (OpenCL)
3DMark Wild Life Extreme: 642
3DMark Wild Life: 2,313
Sling Shot Extreme: 4,317
Sling Shot: 5,428
WideVine: L3

That’s it for our Cherry Aqua GR Hands-on, will dive more into the nitty-gritty details of this device. There’s really a lot to cover from camera quality, battery life, gaming performance, software features, and many more.

The Cherry Aqua GR is now available for only PHP 11,999 at Shopee 90and Lazada 46.

But for now, what do you think about the new Cherry Aqua GR? Is this the comeback of Cherry in the smartphone scene? Let us know in the comment section. and would love to know your thoughts and the things you want to see with this device.

CHERRY Aqua GR Specs:
6.8” FHD+ AMOLED Display
120Hz Refresh Rate, 2400×1080 388ppi
2.6GHz Octa-Core MediaTek Dimensity 7050
8GB + 8GB
256GB UFS 2.2 Internal Storage (No Expansion)
Dual Nano SIM
5G / 4G / LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/a/g/n/ac/ax
Bluetooth 5.2
GPS
NFC
108MP Super Pixel Camera
8MP Ultra Wide
2MP Camera
16MP front camera
USB Type-C
4700 mAh 66W Fast Charging
Android 13
Price: P11,999