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| Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Review; A Jam-packed Smartphone under Php4K? |
Known for offering affordable devices, Cherry Mobile didn’t fail consumers as it was able to pack its smartphone line with trendy features considering that it has a low asking price. Looks good on paper, our team was lucky to play around with its regular variant – the Cherry Mobile Flare P3.
As an entry-level smartphone that comes with good features and specs, let’s see what more it can offer to consumers. Continue to read, and let’s find out!
PHYSICAL:
Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Unboxing and Hands-on
In terms of packaging, Cherry Mobile houses the Flare P3 using its standard box. Its front showcases the Flare P3 tag, while it is also stamped with a Google Certified sticker. Its key specs, on the other hand, are displayed on the back.
Inside the box, it contains the Cherry Mobile Flare P3 unit, manual, MicroUSB cable, adapter, earphones, and battery.
The Cherry Mobile Flare P3 is a good-looking device compared to other smartphones on its segment. It is dressed with a polycarbonate body with a metal framing just like other Flare devices. The handset is tall, and a bit thick and heavy. Fortunately, it is easy to hold, while all of its keys were thoughtfully placed where we can easily reach it.
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| 18:9 Screen |
Its front is dominated by a 5.5-inch panel. Above the screen, its speaker, selfie snapper, and LED notification light are sited. The phone sports an on-screen navigation keys, leaving its thick chin unoccupied.
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| On-screen Navigation Keys |
You'd see its 3.5mm audio jack and MicroUSB port on top, while its bottom part accommodates its speaker grills. Meanwhile, its power/lock button and volume rocker are placed on the right side.
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| 13MP Main Camera |
Flip the device on its back to reveal its 13-megapixel main camera, LED flash, and fingerprint scanner, which are all aligned vertically. Its back is also stamped with the company’s branding. Sadly, the device could easily attract fingerprints and smudges. As a result, we had to wipe it every now and then to remove the marks.
Also works as a cover, it hides its 2400mAh battery, two SIM card slots, and its MicroSD slot.
DISPLAY:
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| Multi-touch Test Result |
Going back to its display, the Cherry Mobile Flare P3 flashes a 5.5-inch screen with TrueView display. Impressive enough for its price, the brand equips it with a well-appreciated 18:9 panel. Personally, I like how its brightness could go so dim, as I always prefer to put it at its lowest level. In addition, its brightness works fine in both indoors and outdoors. The device is also good for watching videos, and could handle some clips with heavy graphics. However, its color isn't that accurate and crisp.
Meanwhile, it only scores 5 on multi-touch test, which is just acceptable for its price.
See Also: Cherry Mobile Omega Lite 4; 18:9 TrueView Display, Android 8.1 Oreo Go Edition for Php2,999
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| Software |
The regular variant of the P-series runs on Android 8.0 Oreo (Go edition). It comes with a few pre-installed apps, including some Google Go apps, and YouTube Go. Loaded with Android Go, the P3 packs lighter versions of applications, which will help users to enjoy a smoother mobile experience. It will allow you to save some storage, as well.
Navigating the device is easy. Swiping from the top to bottom will reveal your notifications and some of its settings, while swiping from the bottom in upward direction will bring you to its app drawer. It also comes with multiple home screens, letting users to organize their apps by simply creating a folder.
PERFORMANCE:
Under the hood, the Flare P3 carries a MediaTek MT6580 quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz. Complemented with Mali-400 graphics, the phone is packed with just 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage up to 64GB via MicroSD.
Having these things on our mind, we still ran it on various benchmark apps to give us a preview about its overall performance.
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| Benchmark Scores |
Here are the results:
- AnTuTu - 20,108
- 3DMark - 2,892 (Ice Storm Unlimited)
- 3DMark - 1,989 (Ice Storm Extreme)
- Geekbench - 430 (Single Core)
- Geekbench - 1,194 (Multi Core)
Although it runs on Android Go, we still didn't expect much about its performance, knowing that it has a small RAM/ROM configuration. Surprisingly, the Flare P3 gave us a decent performance. Browsing social media apps was smooth, and when lags started to hinder our activity, we simply had to close other active apps to refresh its speed. Multitasking was hard, but still possible, too.
Meanwhile, the Flare P3 was still able to play videos and games. It had a hard time dealing with heavy graphics, though.
CAMERA:
On paper, the Flare P3 comes with a notable camera setup as it is mounted with 13-megapixel BSI rear shooter with soft LED flash, and 5-megapixel selfie snapper. To enhance photos, it features different modes including HDR, Scene, and Face Beauty. You can also adjust its exposure, white balance, and image properties on its settings.
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| Camera Interface |
Equipped with good sensors, we’re excited to play around with the Flare P3. Did it disappoint us? Check our snaps!
Sample Photos:
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| Indoor |
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| Outdoor |
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| Macro |
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| Night |
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| Selfie |
In terms of its photography department, the device gave us a so-so experience. In places with good lighting, both of its cameras could produce good images. During our tests, it was able to deliver clear photos with impressive colors. Its front camera is also good for taking selfies.
In low-lit settings, on the other hand, both of its cameras struggle to perform well. Also, we noticed that its sensors were slow to focus on our subjects. However, considering its price, the Flare P3 still exceeded our expectations.
CONNECTIVITY:
The Flare P3 is a dual-SIM device that supports 3G connection. It has basic connectivity features, including WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. All of these worked well during our test, but limiting us at 3G, left us with a not-so-good web-browsing experience. Nevertheless, it still has a good signal reception.
Other connectivity features include its 3.5mm audio jack, and MicroUSB 2.0 with OTG function.
Related: Cherry Mobile Omega HD Duo Silently Announced for Php4,999
Jumping off to its stamina, the device is geared with 2400mAh battery. Tapped as our daily driver, we're happy that it could last for almost six hours, even though we're actively using our social media apps. It could last for almost a day when we only used it for basic communications, with a casual browsing of our social media accounts.
Since the PCMark Battery Test app repeatedly crashed when we're running it, we just did our conventional video loop test. In this process, its battery was able to power up the device for only 4 hours and 37 minutes.
Meanwhile, it took us almost two hours to charge the Flare P3.
CONCLUSION:
That's it! The Cherry Mobile Flare P3 might have everything you could ask for a smartphone under Php4K price tag.
Running on Android Go, you will worry less about your storage as its apps were available in lighter versions. This means that your apps won't consume too much of your juice, as well. In addition, users can expect software updates as its OS is Google-certified.
Moreover, it comes with good 18:9 display, which is good for multimedia consumption.
The Cherry Mobile Flare P3 is available for only Php3,799.
Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Specs:
- Dual Micro SIM, supports 3G connection
- 5.5-inch IPS LCD FWVGA+ (960 x 480) capacitive touchscreen, 195ppi
- Android 8.0 Oreo (Go Edition)
- 1.3GHz quad core Cortex-A7 CPU, MediaTek MT6580 chipset, Mali-400 GPU
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB internal storage, expandable via MicroSD up to 64GB
- 13MP BSI main camera with LED flash
- 5MP front camera with soft LED flash
- Multimedia Player
- FM Radio
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Bluetooth 4.0
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
- GPS with A-GPS
- MicroUSB 2.0 with OTG
- Sensors: fingerprint, proximity, light, accelerometer
- Battery: 2400mAh Li-Ion, removable
- Colors: black, blue, purple, and red
- Price: Php3,799