Cherry Mobile Razor Review: Cutting Edge

INTRODUCTION:

The Razor was the most anticipated Android smartphone from Cherry Mobile back then until they announced the Cosmos Series. It is the cheapest Android phone to date with Dragon Trail glass protection and as the name suggests it is also the thinnest among its competitor.

The device was not meant to be the flagship, instead it is a mid range device capable of performing the tasks a high-end phone can offer. The chipset of choice is MediaTek MT6589 which is clocked at 1.2GHz bundled with PowerVR SGX544MP GPU coupled with 1GB of  RAM.

Key Specs:

• Sleek profile, only 7.7mm thickness
• Quad-Band GSM, Tri-Band HSPA+
• 4.5" capacitive IPS qHD LCD (960 x 540), 5-point multi-touch, Dragon Trail Glass Protection
• Android Jelly Bean 4.2.1
• 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 Quad Core CPU, PowerVR SGX544MP GPU MediaTek MT6589 chipset
• 1GB of RAM
• 4GB internal, expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD
• 8MP auto focus main camera with LED Flash, Simultaneous Picture and Video Recording
• 2MP secondary camera
• GPS with A-GPS and EPO assistance
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi Direct
• 3.5 Audio Jack
• Stereo FM Radio
• Multi-media Player
• Micro USB 2.0
• Bluetooth
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Light, Orientation, Proximity, Sound and Magnetic 
• 1750mAh Li-Ion

Main Disadvantages:

• Tends to be reflective under direct sunlight
• Low-pixel count
• Non user-replaceable battery

UNBOXING:

The retail package is as basic as it gets, it includes the unit, a charger with a detachable USB cable, a wired headset and a manual.

Retail Package

The Razor has a premium build quality, having a thinner profile makes it look sexier than other phone. Honestly, it is the best I ever had from Cherry Mobile in terms of design.

Front

The screen is 4.5 inches and it mostly covers the front of the device, the bezels are just right. The resolution is just qHD but it is quite sharp and has a great viewing angle, the downside, it tends to become reflective under direct sunlight.The secondary camera is located at the upper left corner, the earpiece at the center while the proximity and light sensors at the right.

Micro USB and 3.5mm Audio ports at the top

The top features the micro USB port that doubles as the charging port (no OTG support). The 3.5mm audio jack can be found here as well.

Capacitive Keys and Mouthpiece

The capacitive menu, home and back keys are located below the screen. The bottom has nothing on it except the secondary microphone.

Power Button and Micro SD Slot

The right is where the micro SD goes together with the power button.

Volume Rocker and SIM Slot

On the left side there are the volume rocker and the SIM slot. Both the SIM and Micro SD slots have rubber covers which seem to be not sturdy, therefore I suggest you don't change SIM too often.

Back

The 8MP camera and is located at the back on its upper left section, it is accompanied by a single LED beside it. The loudspeaker grill is placed at the bottom part, above it is the cherry mobile branding while the RAZOR is comfortably printed at the center.

One thing I hope to find is the reset button since the battery is not removable, sadly it is nowhere to be found.


INTERFACE:

Upon turning on the device, you will be greeted by its gorgeous qHD screen. The Razor has OOBE or out of the box experience start-up application that prompts you to set-up some basic settings such as language, date and time.

OOBE

After the OOBE set-up, you will now be directed to a quick start guide app which is basically a tutorial on how to use your phone.

Quick Start Guide

Like most of the local branded Android phones (and even those that originated from China), it utilizes the stock version of Android Jelly Bean. The Razor runs Android 4.2.1 which is similar to some phones I have reviewed before.

In a lockscreen you can swipe it to the left to unlock the device, dragging it left will direct you to camera interface while swiping up will bring up Google Now. If you have any notification like a missed call it will appear somewhere above the lock icon wherein you can drag it inward so that you can easily view it without going to the homescreen.

During a lockscreen you can swipe the screen towards the right for the camera shortcut, swiping it left will reveal a vacant shortcut which you can customize with calendar, clock, Gmail and message.

Lockscreen

Passed the lockscreen you will be greeted by the homescreen which is consist of five panes. You cannot add any additional pane neither delete them. The middle always opens the app drawer and the remaining 4 can be customized based on your needs. You can always add your favorite app or widget to the homescreen by tapping and holding it.

Homescreen

Clicking the app drawer will reveal the factory installed applications and widgets.The Play Store shortcut is always present at the upper right hand corner. The apps are listed in four columns and up to five rows, while the widgets are in a 2x3 format.

Default Apps

Default Widgets

The notification panel can be accessed by swiping from the top of the screen going down. If you have any notification you can directly access it on a notification panel which gives you several options to choose from. For example, a missed call will provide you the option to call back or to send a message.

Notification

The available shortcuts at the notification area are Owner, Airplane mode, Battery, Wi-Fi, BT, GPS, Data Connection, Data Usage, Audio Profile, Brightness, Timeout and Auto Rotation.You can access them either by clicking the icon on the uppermost corner or simply by swiping from top to bottom using two fingers.


BENCHMARKS:

The Cherry Mobile relies its power from a 1.2GHZ quad core MediaTek MT6589 processor, PowerVR SGX544MP GPU and 1GB RAM. This chipset is already proven in terms of processing power even in a device with 512MB of RAM like Arc Mobile Nitro 450QD.

Antutu, 13140

As expected, the Antutu score able to reach the 13K mark which is typical for the MT6589 chipset.

Quadrant, 3890

The same goes with the quadrant result, score is on the same level with similar devices with the same chipset.

Nenamark2, 40.4fps

The Nenamark2 benchmark results max out at 40.4fps.

Vellamo, HTML 1422 & Metal 502

There is nothing special either in Vellamo test. The good NEWS here is that, for a lower price tag you can get the same performance from more expensive devices like Omega HD 2.0.

TELEPHONY:

Selecting the Phone icon on the homescreen will bring the dial pad which has smart dialing that searches both names and numbers. Under this tab you can also add speed dialing up to eight contacts. The second tab will list your call history which you can filter for missed, incoming and outgoing calls. The third tab will list your frequently contacted persons.

Telephony

The call reception is quite good, the sound at the earpiece is clear and loud. It is also equipped with a secondary microphone that makes the crystal call clarity possible.  The option during a call are loud speaker, mute, hold, add a person on the current call and record the call. The proximity sensor turns off the screen automatically during a call which prevents any accidental touch on the screen.

 
PHONEBOOK:

The Contact icon corresponds to the phonebook, it uses a tab interface for groups, contacts and frequently contacted. If you are having trouble finding your contacts you can always utilize the search button at the bottom left. Under frequently contacted tab, any contact you "starred" will appear at the top.

Contacts

Group

It has virtually unlimited capacity with all the functionality you need. You can opt to choose which address book you want to display - SIM card, Phone or Online addresses. Adding a new contact or new group will prompt you to which account you want it to be saved. You can also import or export contacts. Each contact can contain multiple information such as emails, numbers, address etc. You can also join contacts from multiple accounts.

MESSAGING:

The messaging application is quite simple, the new button is found at the bottom left while the search button is at the bottom right. The threads are listed based on the latest message created/received. The message thread is color coded, your message goes on the right side (color blue background) while the recipient message on the left side (color gray background).

When you create a new message, the recipient or "To" space accepts name or number and you can also add multiple recipients. Under a certain conversation, you can find two shortcuts at the upper right hand. The first option will call the said contact while the second option will bring up the attachment options. Once you have attached anything on a message it will automatically converts to MMS.

Messaging

The default keyboard is only the QWERTY type, it supports auto-capitalization, haptic feedback (vibration on key press) and sound on key press. It also offers an auto correction. If you got bored with it you can easily activate the Touch Pal which comes pre-installed.

TouchPal

EMAIL:

For the email department, it consists of the stock email app as well as gmail app. The stock email app handles virtually every internet email. Adding an email account is quite easy you just need your email address and password then hit next and it will automatically look for the correct email settings. You can attach any file you want and can include CC/BCC. You can also change the frequency of sync, include signature, always BCC yourself and change the notification sound. Vibration for incoming email can also be set.

Email

The Gmail can automatically sync the Google account you use during Play Store set-up. The Gmail app is basically the same as the email app, however it limits your attachment to only picture or video. The workaround you can do is to go to the file you want to attach, press and hold that file and you will have the option to share it on Gmail. You can swipe a message left or right in order to navigate between them.

Gmail

Both email apps can handle multiple email accounts.


MULTIMEDIA:

Gallery:

The gallery houses both pictures and videos, you can arrange it based on Albums, Locations and Times. The camera shortcut is always present at the upper right hand.

Gallery

You can group a set of pictures or videos and you can also share them via email, Bluetooth or social media.

Pictures

Videos

The Photo editor comes as a bundle with Android Jelly Bean, and the Razor has it too.

Photo Editor

Video Player:

The Stock Android video player will list all the files which are associated as videos. It can play up to 1080p videos of almost any container - .avi, .3gp, .mp4, .mkv and .flv works fine. It has no subtitle support so I suggest you use third party apps like MX or Mobo which has richer settings and options.

Video Player

Watching is a pleasure, though you need to keep it away under direct sunlight to enjoy it well since the screen becomes reflective.

Music Player:

The music player has a tab interface, it will list the music based on four (4) categories namely Artist, Albums, Songs & Playlist. It has the option to search, party shuffle, shuffle all or sound effects. Selecting sound effects will bring you to the equalizer settings. The equalizer has several presets like Normal, Classic, Flat, Rock etc, you can also turn it off if you prefer.

Music Player

The music interface is quite simple, it provides the option to shuffle, repeat current song, repeat all songs and even use it as a ringtone. It also displays album art if available in your files. Once the music player is running, you can easily access it through the notification panel.

FM Radio:

A headset is pre-requisite for the FM to work. It can search all the available channels (or you can add them manually), record your favorite music and even play it on loud speaker.

FM Radio

Camera/Video:

The camera and video share the same interface, each on-screen buttons are placed on top of each other on the right portion. The main camera can shoot up to 8MP still and up to 720p video and it is accompanied by a single LED flash. The front camera only shoots VGA for both pictures and videos.

Camera Interface

Camera Settings

There are plenty of options for both camera and video as seen on the above screen shots. One of the highlights of its function is the ability to shoot 720p video and capture a 2MP picture at the same time.

Simultaneous Still and Video Capture

Sample Pictures

Macro

Day

Inside the car

Zoom In

Night

Panorama

Sample Video

720p

Front Camera (2MP)

VGA (front)

The pictures are very usable especially with good lighting condition, during close-up shots it can still focus very well same goes when you zoom in a subject. Night shot is a tough job, but still it can capture good images. The video is pretty good too, it offers continuous/infinity focus which means that even you move it away from one object to another you will still have a decent shots.

Browsing:

The browser is quite fast, it loads the web pages even those with many images pretty quickly. It supports up to sixteen (16) tabs. You can save a web page for offline reading or even share it to someone, Incognito mode is also present. Due to lower screen resolution, you need to zoom in those pages with little text in order to read it without stressing your eye.

Browser

Gaming:

I was able to play Asphalt 7, though the transitions are not that smooth, I believed this is because the refresh rate is capped (Quadrant shows only 22.4 Hz). Other games like Temple Run, Subway Surfer and Candy Crush are also playable.

Asphalt 7

Temple Run 2

Candy Crush

Subway Surfer

The on-board storage of 4GB may not be enough but you can easily purchase a 32GB micro SD card for expansion and you can easily transfer all your games into it without even the need for root access.


CONNECTIVITY:

It supports Triple Band GSM/EDGE/GPRS and dual band HSPA+. It can perform both USB and Bluetooth tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot. Wi-Fi Connection is good, it can get a good signal even my neighbor hotspot and also supports Wi-Fi direct. In addition it also has Bluetooth, Micro USB 2.0 and the 3.5mm audio jack completes the list.

One thing missing is the OTG support.


SENSORS:

The Razor has basic sensors such as Accelerometer, Light, Orientation, Proximity, Sound and Magnetic.

Sensor Box

PRODUCTIVITY:

The calendar is there to organize your schedules, you can view it by Day, Week, Month or Agenda.

Calendar

The clock is pretty standard too, you can use it as stopwatch, timer, world clock or as an alarm.

Clock

The calculator installed can solve basic mathematics and even some trigonometric or logarithmic functions.

Calc

The sound recorder offers you to adjust the voice quality, recording mode and recording effect.

Sound Recorder

NoteBook is for notes to keep and can be organized it various categories.

Notes

ToDo serves as a reminder for the task to be accomplished in a given period.

To Do

The file manager is there for you to navigate your files.

FileManager

The most important productivity tool is missing though, there is no document, spreadsheet or pdf editor not even a viewer, though you can easily download it for free in the Play Store like Kingsoft office or Documents to go.

GPS

The Razor is equipped with GPS that has A-GPS support and GPS EPO assistance. Using the inbuilt Google Map, I manage to get a satellite lock at around 1 minute, which is quite good (A-GPS and GPS EPO are on). The satellite tracking is also pretty accurate.

GPS using Google Map

BATTERY:

It is a small phone, which means less space for components and the battery was the one that suffers the consequence. The battery is rated at 1750mAh and it is not removable either, thanks to the power efficient chipset and it can still manage to last at least for a day with data connection almost on. I played a two-hour movie and got 77% left after I was done watching it.

Battery

OTHERS:

Cherry Mobile Fun Club is a collection of topics such as horoscope, feng Shui etc.

Cherry Fun Club

The Cherry Play is the Cherry Mobile own apps store, though you can only find limited apps there.

Cherry Play

Over-the-air software update was pre-installed too, that means no need to go and queue in service centers.

OTA

Google Apps

Google Now - It is the default voice assistant of Android phones, and it works like a charm with Razor. You can ask anything under the sun and it learns from your usage patterns.

Google Talk - A messaging app wherein you can communicate with other Google subscribers.

Google + - Google's version of Social Media

Local - it detects your current location and list several places like restaurants, bars etc.

Google Apps

Navigation - it is a turn by turn instructions for either driving or walking. However you need to plan your route first in order for it work.

Navigation

If the stock browser is not your taste, you have the option to use the Opera Mini.

Opera Mini

The Movie Editor is also there for creating or editing video clips.

Movie Editor

The Media 3D is an app that acts similar to a screen saver on your PC.

Media  3D

News and Weather comes pre-installed too.

News and Weather

CONCLUSION: CUTTING EDGE

The Cherry Mobile Razor, despite of being a mid-ranger offers a top-class performance which gives it a cutting-edge advantage among its competitor. It offers a good optics with the ability to simultaneously record video and capture photo, it is also a capable media player. In terms of looks, it is quite stunning and won't let you down when compared to others.