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| SKK Mobile Charm |
The Charm was announced earlier this month by SKK Mobile on their Facebook page, a smartphone powered by a dual core processor and runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly out of the box for only Php2,299.
It is 300 pesos more expensive than the SKK Mobile Neo, but with that price difference you get a high speed mobile data connection via 3G.
Key Specs:
- Dual SIM , Dual Standby
- 3.5" capacitive HVGA (320x480) touchscreen display, 3-point multi-touch
- Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2
- 1GHz Cortex-A7 dual core CPU, Mali-400 GPU, MediaTek MT6572 chipset
- 256MB of RAM
- 512MB internal storage (186.15MB available), expandable up to 32GB via microSD
- 2MP auto focus main camera without LED flash
- VGA secondary camera
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi Direct, WiFi Hotspot
- 3.5 Audio Jack
- Stereo FM Radio
- MP3/MP4 Player
- Micro USB 2.0
- Bluetooth
- Sensors: Accelerometer
- 1100mAh Li-Ion Battery
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| CPU-Z Info |
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| Front |
The front is mainly occupied by the 3.5-inch screen, below it are the capacitive keys imprinted on the lower bezel. The VGA secondary camera and the earpiece can be found at the upper part of the display
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| Back |
The 2MP main camera is located at the back of the Charm, it has NO flash of any kind, what you see above is just a design on the cover. The back is made from a textured plastic and is resistant to any form of fingerprint or smudges
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| Battery, micro SD and SIM cards compartments |
Removing the back cover reveals the 1100mAh Li-Ion battery, did you notice something? Yes, that is correct, the battery is labeled with NEO which is another phone model from SKK Mobile. None of the micro SD or SIM can be accessed without removing the battery.
If you look carefully, the main camera is a bit small and I am not sure if this type of sensor is really 2MP.
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| Top |
The micro USB port and the 3.5mm audio jack are both located at the top of the phone.
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| Bottom |
Only the microphone pinhole can be found at the bottom part of the device.
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| Left |
At the upper part on the left side of the smartphone you will see the power button.
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| Right |
The volume rocker is placed on the right side of the phone.
If you read my review of the SKK Mobile Neo, you will notice that they have similar designs and constructions. The positions of the buttons, the silver lining, the back cover and the locations of the ports are all the same. Their main difference is the Home button where in the Neo used a physical one while the Charm is a soft-touch key.
Overall, the design is still pretty solid, it is a bit heavy for its size that is because of its metal frame.
DISPLAY:
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| 3-point multi-touch |
The display is made from an ordinary touchscreen panel, the colors are easily washed out when viewed from the side. The good thing is that it supports up to 3-point multi-touch which ensures that there is no bug when typing.
SENSORS:
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| Sensor |
Like other low-level smartphone from SKK, this one only has an accelerometer sensor. NO light sensor for automatic brightness and NO proximity sensor for auto screen turn off during a call.
BENCHMARKS:
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| Antutu, 9777 |
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| Quadrant, 2174 |
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| NenaMark2, 52.2fps |
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| Vellamo, HTML 1388 & Metal 454 |
The benchmark scores are quite good especially that it only has 256MB of RAM. When compared to its SKK siblings, the results are pretty much the same with the Neo (please see below).
INITIAL VERDICT:
If 3G connectivity is important to you, the SKK Mobile Charm is a good buy for Php2299. However like any other entry level smartphone, the main concern here is the 256MB of RAM. Even though it is a dual-core device the miniature amount of RAM will limit the choice of apps you can install as well as the number of applications that can run on the background.
Please kindly stay tuned for the full review that will be out soon. Thanks a lot for reading!!