Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE Hands-on, First Impressions

One of Cherry Mobile‘s newest offerings this summer is the Flare Y7 LTE, packing a big display, a 13-megapixel rear camera, and Android Go on board. It’s also currently hailed as one of the most affordable smartphones with a dewdrop notch today. Here’s your first look on the device.

The box itself is reminiscent of other Cherry Mobile offerings. A slide out will reveal a box full of the usual components — the phone itself, a SIM ejector tool, a few papers, a micro USB cable, earphones, and the wall charger.

When we removed all the stickers on the device, the Flare Y7 LTE is not your usual Cherry Mobile device in terms of aesthetics. We mean it, the device exudes a premium-looking feel with a glass-like back finish and matte polycarbonate chassis.

We have the 6.2-inch display at the front with the top being notched by a 5-megapixel selfie camera. The chin at the bottom is also massive but is very helpful when navigating in landscape mode.

Surprisingly, all the buttons of the device are the left side of the phone. The volume buttons are individual and are of a circular shape, contrary to the pill-shaped power/lock button.

The card tray can be pried open with an ejector at the right side, but we’re surprised that it is a hybrid setup — either you put in two nano-SIMs or a SIM-microSD card combo. Up top are the micro USB port and the audio jack, while the lone speaker grille with a small gut for the microphone is at the bottom.

Flip the device over, and we find the glossy back of the Flare Y7 LTE. Not much is seen here aside from the Cherry Mobile logo, and the 13-megapixel rear camera with its accompanying LED Flash.

The device reminds us of earlier iPhone iterations with flat-out edges and boxy grip. Despite that, the phone is easy to hold and is light despite the glass components at its front and back. Navigating the phone is also seamless, thanks to Android Go.

Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE key specs:

• 6.2-inch HD+ (720 x 1520 px) notched TrueView 19:9 display
• Quad-core 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6739WW
• IMG PowerVR GE8100 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage
• microSD up to 32GB
• 13MP rear camera with LED Flash
• 5MP front camera
• 4G LTE
• Dual SIM, Dual Standby
• WiFi b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.0
• GPS
• Android 8.1 Oreo (Go Edition)
• 2800mAh battery
• 158.7 x 76.5 x 8.15 mm
• 139 g

The Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE is now on sale in stores for PHP 4,299. We’ll be taking the phone for a spin, and a full review shall be out in the coming days.