Cherry Mobile has just announced its own prepaid service dubbed Cherry Prepaid and it is powered by Globe Telecom. It is pretty much like ABS-CBN Mobile wherein they implement their own promos and combos for its subscribers. Cherry offers three bundles with their prepaid network, namely Lite Bundle, Big Time Bundle, and Partner Bundle.
Let’s take a look at the Big Time Bundle which is priced at Php 999.
With the Big Time Bundle 999, you’ll get a Cherry Mobile Astro smartphone and a Cherry Prepaid SIM. There’s also a P150 Bonus Load (P50/month for 3 months) that Cherry will give to its subscribers upon registration. Aside from that, there’s also free 50 texts to all networks and free Facebook for 2 days.
The included smartphone is a basic Android device with very modest internals keeping it together – a single-core processor, 3.5-inch resistive touch display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 1100mAh battery. It runs Android 4.4.2 out of the box.
Cherry Mobile Astro specifications:
1.0GHz ARM Cortex-A7 processor
Mali-400MP
3.5-inch HVGA TFT resistive display (320×480 pixels), 165ppi
256MB RAM
512 internal memory, expandable up to 16GB via microSD
2-megapixel rear camera
VGA front-facing camera
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1
Dual-SIM
1100mAh battery
Android 4.4.2
What’s interesting about the device is the embedded Cherry Prepaid SIM in it. Upon unboxing, there’s no need to slip in your Cherry Prepaid SIM because it is already built-in the Astro. You cannot remove or swap it with other networks — thus the SIM slot 1 is forever Cherry. The SIM slot 2, on the other hand, is unlocked and can take any SIM card from all networks.
The Astro is not a stellar device and we don’t expect it to be, but it’s a decent Android for less than a thousand peso coupled with Cherry Prepaid’s promos.
Cherry Prepaid offers calls & texts combos and bulk data promos. We tested out their 3G speeds around Quezon City and we usually get about 1Mbps download. Keep in mind that Cherry Prepaid does not offer LTE connections.
The Cherry Prepaid Big Time Bundle 999 and other bundles will be available starting December 1, 2015 at all Cherry Mobile outlets.
Bihira lang ang phone na nakakapagpalaki ng mata ko sa gulat. Isa na ito dun. Lumaki mata ko sa specs. May ganun pa pala ngayong 2015. Ok lang naman sa price. Nakakagulat lang talaga. O_o
Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Just like ABS-CBN mobile.