Just when everybody thought that Cherry Mobile’s days of local market dominance are numbered with the release of competitive mid-range smartphones, they’ve shown that they’re not going to go down without a fight – and it comes in the form of the new CM Flare X.
The Flare X isn’t exactly an attention-grabber. Its straightforward design coupled with a conventional form factor will not immediately impress any on-looker at first glance. It’s only when you held the handset, however, will you appreciate the Flare X’s minimalist design and pretty decent build quality.
The uncluttered layout of the handset’s front panel is almost screen with just enough room at the top for the earpiece and 5-megapixel front camera, and three capacitive Android navigation buttons at the bottom.
Both the Power button and volume rockers are located on the right side of the Flare X and are placed ergonomically to suit the natural position of the right thumb when holding the handset. These buttons are a tad too flushed for our liking, but provides a satisfying feedback when pressed.
Meanwhile the audio jack and MicroUSB ports are situated at the top and bottom portions respectively.
At the back you’ll find a 13-megapixel camera smacked right in the middle, neighbored by a dual-LED flash unit. Below is a speaker grille that hides two speakers units underneath.
Prying open the polycarbonate back cover will reveal two microSIM card slots and a microSD card slot. Sadly, user’s need to first take out the handset’s 3,000mAh battery to access any of these card slots.
The slightly curved back panel of the Flare X together with the non-glossy coating of the removable back plate makes the smartphone comfortable to hold.
Cherry Mobile Flare X specs:
5.5-inch Full-HD IPS OGS display, 1920 x 1080 @ 400ppi
Gorilla Glass 3
1.7GHz MediaTek MT6752 octa-core processor
Mali-T760 GPU
3GB RAM
Expandable 16GB internal storage
Supports up to 64GB MicroSD card
13-megapixel rear camera with LED Flash
Sony IMX 214 BSI sensor
5-megapixel front camera
Dual-SIM, Dual Standby
4G/LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
NFC
3000mAh battery
152 x 75.6 x 9.1mm (dimensions)
Cherry Mobile has been pushing the boundaries for really affordable yet very powerful devices. Granted that they still mainly use Mediatek chipsets for most of them, they are still relatively high-performance chips that are in the same level as last year’s global flagship devices running Snapdragon 800/801.
With a price tag of just under Php7k, it will certainly raise a lot of interest among those who are looking for bang-for-the-buck handsets, regardless if they’re local ore re-branded.
Cherry Mobile has a strong contender in their hands with the new Flare X. The combination of very decent specs, and competitive price tag puts the local brand’s new smartphone in a good position to compete with the likes of the Alcatel Flash Plus and Lenovo A7000.
Stay tuned for our full review in the coming days.
Gawin nyo sa QUAD BAND ang CM kasi mahalaga parin sa phone ang call and text nito. Sana may free j.case na katulad ng starmobile. Kahit dagdagan ng presyo ok lang kay sa maghanap pa kami. Thank you..
Kelan po to Iaannounce o ibebenta sa SM megamall ?
Mahigit 5 times na akong nasiraan ng cherry mobile pero mga low end lang naman na units, sa mga nabasa kung user experiences pati na rin sa friends ko ok ang mga mid—end to hi—end nila simula sa Fusion Bolt… magandang panlaban to sa Firefly allure.
rebranded na jiayu s3 advance parehong pecs plus build watch kyo ng reviews yan sa youtube malimaw daw pero may doubts sa gorilla glass 3 netoh ksi may gasgas daw yung screen ng sa reviewer kaya pag full review dapat itest yung screen kung gorilla glass nga
wag kana magdalawaang isip Brad yan din bibilhin ko
Good performance b tong Cm flare x? dalawa kc pinagpipilian kung bilhin ei
.. Cm flare x vs Honor 4c. Mas halimaw kc specification ng flare x ei.. kaso hndi ko type ung brand. Ok lng kung wlang issue ang flare x ,,bibili ako agad nito this month.
Since the CM Flare X is a rebrand of the Jiaoyu S3, you may want to see the Jiaoyu’s specs at their own site, for full spec info about the cm flare x.. :)
rebrand ba to ng jiayu s3 , parehas lang sila ng specs
Maganda to……my first flare series phone ung…flare 2x…nabasag nlng ung screen….buhay parin…and ngaun im using cosmos one…from cherry…wlang problema…smooth..parin….nka ilang beses na akong mg palit nang rom….ngaun meron na namn bago…from cherry….flare x….
gawa din sila ng 64 gb internal memory at 3gb ram na octacore sa presyong 9999…
If only this was a 6-incher, i would swap my cosmos one to this because of its 3Gb & Battery
dami mo reklamo brad, may pa “6-incher” ka pang nalalaman
lawl
5-incher lang tayong mga pinoy. 5.5 minsan sa umaga pag gising.
64bit ba to?
yes
TAIWAN, Hsinchu – 25 February, 2014 – MediaTek today announces the MT6752 , a 64-bit octa-core LTE SOC. The MT6752 deploys eight 2.0GHz ARM Cortex-53 CPUs and a Mali-T760 GPU – the next-level 64-bit mobile computing and LTE. It is pin compatible with the previously announced quad-core MT6732 – shortening the product development cycle.
The solution is the latest in a series of announcements MediaTek has made to give consumers in the Super-mid market high performing smartphones at an affordable price.
The MT6752 platform delivers:
Advanced Multimedia Features
Supports low-power, 1080p, 30fps video playback supporting the emerging video codec standard H.265 and legacy H.264 and 1080p, 30fps H.264 video recording
Integrated 16MP camera image signal processor
MediaTek ClearMotion™ technology eliminates motion jitter and ensures smooth video playback at 60fps on mobile devices
MediaTek MiraVision™ technology for DTV-grade picture quality
Integrated Multi-mode 4G LTE Modem
Rel. 9, Category 4 FDD and TDD LTE (150 Mb/s downlink, 50 Mb/s uplink)
3GPP Rel. 8, DC-HSPA+ (42 Mb/s downlink, 11 Mb/s uplink), TD-SCDMA and EDGE are supported for legacy 2G/3G networks
Thanks for the tip Jude :)
hi napansin kulang na sa ibang review e naka lagay 3G paki liwanag naman po, nalito ako bigla :)
flare user po ako at naga hahanap nang i papalit sa flare 1stgen ko kc almost 3 years kuna ginamit and its time na palitan siya.
thanks in advance !!
wow! ang galing mo naman. saludo ako sayo.
Not seeing any information about what sensors are on this thing (gyroscope, compass, etc.). Please include those in the full review :)
mamatay nalang ako na gamit ko lagi ay cherry mobile pero ayun, lahat nabenta ko na sa buy and sell, hindi naman nasisira at dinadag dagan ko nalang. nabasa ko ang review ng Jiayu S3 at maganda daw ang camera. Sony imx214 at f2.0 ang apperture. Mabilis din ang focus at shutter speed. nagtaka nga ang nagreview kasi antay sya ng antay na mag take ang camera, un pala tapos na. wala kasing animation. parang oppo din daw ang user interface. di ko lang alam kung ganito din ang ilalabas ng cherry mobile. ang battery non ay 3050 mah. lahat ng nabasa kong review, ang complaine ay slow charging. may option din sya na i calibrate ang screen, temperature, saturation, contrast.. lg ltps ang screen.
i think a7000 is not comparable to the flare x. maybe k3 note
hi, i would like to suggest that you include loudness of the audio quality to all the phones ur reviewing. like audio quality for incoming calls. nakaka dismaya maganda nga ang porma ng cellphone kaso ang hina ng ear-piece kahit todo na, handsfree audio at loudness ng ring tone. coz ito ang problem ng mga local brand like starmonile(astra) starmobile(roar) at O+ … wala magawa ang service center ng starmobile coz nasa piyesa na yan at kahit may audio boosting apps wla pa rin.
P.S. pls use samsung galaxy grand-1 as basis for audio quality comparison (volume para sa incoming call, loudness ng ring tone sa kalye at louness ng handsfree speaker). thanks coz this will help me in getting my next phone.
thanks,
wilson
I agree… Mahalaga dn ang audio quality. Madaming android ang mganda specs pero sablay sa audio. Yun at camera pa naman una ko tinitingnan lagi.
nadala na ako sa brand na ito ayoko ng maulit pa
Engot….hindi brand ang Cherry Mobile
Depende sa ODM yan, kung naka tiyempo ka ng sirain na ODM, eh di malas mo
eh di wag kang bumili. nasira siguro ang phone mo sa katangahan mo.
barado si kuya haha..
Guys importatnte ito sa Cherry. Make or break na ito. Sa tingin ko kaya naging Lazada exclusive ito ay para ma-maintain ang mababang price at para ma-isolate ang infinity nila. Will wait for the official review by yuga/unbox.
I don’t think it is online exclusive. Sa Facebook ng Cherry Mobile, they stated that it will be available online and in stores. July pa yata…
Maganda talaga ang specs ng phone, pero known pala ang cherrymobile for sluggish repairs pag may sira ang phone :(
tarantado. kasalanan mo na kung masisira ang phone mo. you get what you pay for. kung poor ka, magtiis ka.
hahahaha.. natuwa ako sa last part ng comment mo pre… oo nga naman puro reklamo di naman bibili XD sa totoo lang maganda nga specs ng flare X. magdadalawang isip ka lang kasi CM yung tatak pero kung foreign brands tapos ganyan specs, mapapabili ka agad agad.
Galing talga ng Cherry. Bili na.
Bakit sa sticker sa pic quadcore pero sa description sa baba octa-core. Paki-clarify please. :D
Octa po tingnan mo lang maigi
Dual or stereo speakers ba yan? sana nga stereo
Never thought I’d ever buy a CM phone until now.
I still had the 1st gen. Flare abandoned by my two children. My wife gave the omega hd 1 to my son after using it for 2 years . then I’m using my cosmos z for 8 months now.recently bought a CM tablet superion navigator the other day. I have no issue with cherry mobile.it’s just luck.i guess.
I guess I’m one of those few CM lucky owners too. I started my dip to CM devices with the CM Flare because it was relatively cheap during that time. Used it for 2 years without any issues. Bought a total of 3 CM phones and 2 CM tablets. Never had any issues. For my most recent CM device, I have a CM Alpha Luxe for 5 months now. Bought it just to try out Windows Phone. Loved it and never had any issues. Loved also that it keeps on getting OS updates, as added bonus! :-)
Just my luck, I guess. :-)
same here.. my flare 1st gen is still running. in all i bought 5 cm phones.. and they all are still working.. hehe. kudos to cherry mobile for bringing up this wonderful phone.. up! up!
i had cm too, my omega hd, still running kahit binabato na ng bunso ko, only defect is the playstore, pinalitan ko na lang ng aptoid apps.
kung ilalabas nila ito paano na yung infinity nila na mas mababa ang specs kaysa dito yung nakita ko ang price nun nasa 14,999 sana gawing 5999 nalang gusto ko rin kasi yun hinihintay ko lang bumaba ang price
*available exclusively on lazada
Wrong phone. The Cubix is the Lazada-exclusive one.
nah…di pa din cherry…metal frame(kaya?), mas magandang build quality at wag yung ganyan laging design.. haha… my opinion lang naman…
Kaya nga ganyan ang presyo eh, pero ayos naman yung display, soc at ram. Gusto mo ng magandang build at design? Mag samsung at sony ka… at magdagdag ng pera.
This is a rebranding of Jiaoyu S3. The built quality and specs are very identical.
Just like another local player firefly mobile’s Allure64LTE, rebranded from Ulefone Be Touch 2.
Waiting for the full review…