This year, Quad-Core smartphones are getting cheaper and they’re being sold as a mid-range or an entry level smartphone. At PHP4,000 you can now get a quad-core smartphone that would surely run apps and games smoothly. Yes, CloudFone GEO 400q brings you a MTK6582 1.3 GHz Quad-Core processor for P4,000. Not only that, because when you get a CloudFone GEO 400q, you’ll also get a FREE Powersurf 299 for 2 months. That’s free 300 MB of data! Very interesting right? Check out the full specifications after the break
CloudFone GEO 400q Specifications
MTK 6582 1.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor
4” FWVGA touch-screen display
512 MB RAM
4 GB Internal storage w/ MicroSD card slot up to 32 GB
5 MP Rear Camera
VGA Front Camera
Dual-Sim
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
2000mAh
By just basing on the specifications, this is the best P4,000 smartphone that we can get right now. It might only have a 512 MB of RAM but it runs on a MTK 6582 1.3 GHz Quad-Core processor which performs slightly better than the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 200 processor or MSM8225q processor. It also have a bigger 2000mAh battery which would surely last longer than other smartphone in its price range.Another interesting addition in here is the free Powersurf 299 for 2 months. Who doesn’t want free data, right?
The CloudFone GEO 400q is now available for P4,000.
Cherry Mobile doesn’t stop creating phones for the Filipino consumers. They have different phones that cater different people. They have waterproof phones that float, a watch phone that make you look like an 007 agent and even a phone that connects to your phone (Yeah, phoneception). And now, Cherry Mobile brings us the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro, a phone that brings us a gesture pen that supports pressure sensitivity to an affordable price. Cherry Mobile proves us once again that having a phone with a stylus that supports different features doesn’t have to be expensive. Check out my review after the break.
The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro only has a 5.0” display which might be quite small for some who use a stylus. The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro display looks pretty great but I was highly disappointed with the refresh rate of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro. It was only set at 40.36 Hz. In layman’s term, playing some games like Flappy bird wouldn’t be enjoyable. When playing Flappy birds, you’ll notice that the bird moving slowly. Why? Because of the low refresh rate. A big deal breaker for some people who loves to play games.
Cherry Mobile Titan Pro looks pretty damn good. The front actually reminds me of the HTC One minus the metal body and design but the design has flaws, because the black bezel is raised over the white part. Yeah, it was not flat that’s why sometimes you’ll see backlight bleeding on the phone. You’ll probably notice that the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro’s back is still made up of plastic but it was still solid. I actually had a hard time removing and placing back the back cover of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro.
The stylus of the phone was nicely placed at the back but the stylus design was kinda awkward. Not that really awkward, it is just because of the top end of the stylus, which makes it awkward. There’s a big bulge at the top end but that won’t distract you from writing on the phone. Just like the Stylus of the Samsung Galaxy Note, there’s a button on the stylus too, it can also be used for some features. I also noticed that the stylus was thin which makes it less comfortable when writing. When you’re writing on the display, you could notice the smooth and glossy texture of the tip of the pen and the display.
There are no special hardware features aside from the stylus that is built-in the smartphone. Despite surpassing the PhP10,000 mark, the internal storage of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro is still at 4 GB but of course, you could expand that via MicroSD. It wasn’t really a deal breaker since most phones still have a 4 GB Internal storage but c’mon, they should’ve improve it to at least 8 GB of Internal Storage. There’s a 1 GB of RAM too which is enough
The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro is still using a MediaTek MTK6589 Quad-Core processor This year, we might see this quad-core processor for the mid-range phones. It isn’t really disappointing since the Cosmos Z2 is the only Cherry Mobile smartphone powered by an Octa-Core processor and if they used an Octa-Core processor in it, people would probably choose this over the Cosmos Z2 because of the included G-Pen. Cherry Mobile Titan Pro has a dual-sim slot, one is a micro-sim while the other one is a regular sim slot or the mini sim card slot.
The battery life of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro was alittle bit long that I expected. On normal usage, the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro was able to last up to a normal day of usage or at 15 hours of use. I barely used the stylus that time. That’s not actually bad for me. If you’ll be using the stylus more, I bet the battery life would be shorter. The sound quality of the phone isn’t that bad but it was already acceptable.But I was hoping that the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro had a better sound quality.
The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro isn’t running on the latest Android and there is no word regarding the Android Kitkat 4.4 availability on the phone. But I hope that it’ll be updated to Android 4.4 because Google had done a great job in improving Android and lessening the fragmentation on their operating system.
There are a lot of apps that are included on Cherry Mobile Titan Pro to maximize its G-Pen. One of it is the doodle app. It basically acts just like the S-Note of the Samsung Galaxy Note and the features on the app were very similar but sometimes, when I’m drawing something on the doodle app, the phone suddenly doesn’t recognize the G-Pen which leaves a missing sketch on the drawing app.
Another feature that you would probably love on the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro is the preview. By just hovering the Gesture pen on the album on gallery or a message on the messaging app, you could see a preview of the images or the message respectively.
If you feel that the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro’s display is too big for you then you could turn on the one hand easy feature. Basically, when you turned that on, all you need is to tilt the phone to the preferred side and then the display would automatically tilt to the side which makes it easier to reach the other side of the display. A really nice feature that I would like to see on phablets. 5” display is just the right size for me that’s why I didn’t used the one hand easy feature.
I find it easier to navigate on the smartphone using the Gesture Pen or the G-Pen but unlike other capacitive stylus, the G Pen is much smoother which gives less friction compared to other capacitive stylus. Whenever I removed and use the G Pen there’s a memo app that automatically appears on the screen which makes it easier to jot down notes. But sometimes, the G-Pen isn’t responsive.
Since the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro uses a MediaTek MTK6589 and with a 1 GB of RAM, don’t expect too much on the phone. The performance is still on par with the other phones using the same chipset. Gaming isn’t the smartphone’s best feature but it could play heavy 3D games like the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at mid settings without lags. But when youturn it to high settings with advance settings on shadows, the game would be laggy and unplayable. I would still prefer a Mali-400 equipped smartphone like the MTK6582 chipset but the difference was not really dramatic. The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro got a score of 12995 at Antutu. A score expected on a smartphone with this specs and chipset.
The Cherry Mobile Titan Pro has a 12 megapixel camera with LED flash and it doesn’t use interpolation unlike the cosmos phones. But the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro’s camera was easily beaten by the camera of the Cherry Mobile Apollo and the Cherry Mobile Flare HD. The noise on the lowlight shots were very noticeable and most of shots that I took weren’t really sharp. It’s not the worst 12 Megapixel Camera that I’ve seen on a smartphone but I wish they’ve improved it more. Not really a phone that you would want to buy if you taking shots using your smartphone.
As far as I know, the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro is the only local branded smartphone that utilizes the stylus and has some special features. Some people might not like stylus or the gesture pen of the Cherry Mobile Titan Pro but artists or people who just want to draw and maximize the stylus, would definitely love the phone especially when they’re on the budget. The main deal breaker on the phone was the refresh rate. It is really disappointing, some games can’t be played such as flappy bird but a software update might come soon to fix that problem.
Aside from the Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung also announced their new wearable focus on fitness — The Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit. It is the first wearable devices to feature a curved Super AMOLED display. It is a fitness band that focus on health but it also functions as a Smartwatch. The Samsung Galaxy Gear fit also notifies you when you have a new SMS, calls, emails, S-Planner and other 3rd party apps. You can also interchangeable straps. Check out the specifications after the break
Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit Specifications
1.84” Curved Super AMOLED display 432×128
Pedometer
Exercise
Heart Rate
Sleep
Stopwatch
Timer
Notifications
Changeable strap
IP67 Dust and Water resistant
Bluetooth 4.0
210mAh battery with 3-4 days usage
The Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit will only work on Samsung Galaxy devices. There’s no SRP yet but it is expected to be released on April 2014.
The next flagship smartphone of Samsung has just been announced today at Unpacked 5. One of the biggest addition to the Samsung Galaxy S5 is the IP67 certification. It means that the Samsung Galaxy S5 would be water and dust resistant. Other new features that we could see on the Samsung Galaxy S5 are the fingerprint scanner and the heart rate sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S5 also has a larger display at 5.1″. Why don’t you check out the full specifications after the break
Samsung Galaxy S5 Specifications
5.1 FHD Super AMOLED display
Snapdragon 800 2.5 GHz Quad Core processor
2 GB RAM
16/32 GB storage w/ MicroSD card slot
16 MP Rear camera
2 MP Front Camera
Heart rate sensor
Pedometer
Fingerprint scanner
Ultra power saving mode
2800mAh Battery
Android 4.4.2 Kitkat
I’m not a fan of the new rear design of the Samsung Galaxy S5, I liked the faux leather back more than this. They should’ve also made the RAM up to 3 GB to make the Samsung Galaxy S5 faster and on par with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. However, I applaud Samsung for making it just Full HD instead of a QHD because having a larger resolution on a display would be pointless and it will just suck out more battery. The new features are also enticing.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is expected to be release on April 11.
Sony unveiled their newest Xperia products today at MWC including their newest flagship phone and tablet. Both of them will still sport an IP67 certification or waterproof and dustproof. The Sony Xperia Z2 would still feature a very similar design from its predecessor. The only noticeable difference was the larger and better display but still, it is still at Full HD. The Sony Xperia Z2 has also a bigger 3 GB RAM which allows it to record 4K videos. Check out the full specs of the Sony Xperia Z2 and Sony Xperia Z2 tablet after the break.
Sony Xperia Z2 Specifications
Snapdragon 801 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor
5.2” Full HD Triluminos display
3 GB RAM
16 GB Storage with MicroSD card slot
20.7 MP Exmor RS camera with 4K video recording
2.2 MP Front Camera
Android 4.4 Kitkat
3200mAh battery
Waterproof and Dustproof
Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet Specifications
Snapdragon 801 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor
10.1” Full HD Triluminos display
3 GB RAM
16 GB Storage with MicroSD card slot
8.1 MP Exmor RS camera
2.2 MP Front Camera
Android 4.4 Kitkat
6000mAh battery
Waterproof and Dustproof
Both the Sony Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z2 tablet will be available on March 2014 globally.
The first wave of Nokia Androids are here — the Nokia X, Nokia X+ and the Nokia XL. The Nokia Android phones might sound like an awesome idea but the Nokia X phones were placed under the Nokia Lumia line so don’t expect a top-notch hardware and a Pureview camera on it. Check out the new phones after the break. Nokia X
4” IPS LCD 800×480 display
Snapdragon 200 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor
512 MB RAM
4 GB + MicroSD up to 32 GB
3G
WiFi
3 MP Fixed Focus Rear Camera
Nokia X+
4” IPS LCD 800×480 display
Snapdragon 200 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor
768 MB RAM
4 GB + MicroSD up to 32 GB
3G
WiFi
3 MP Fixed Focus Rear Camera
Nokia XL
4” IPS LCD 800×480 display
Snapdragon 200 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor
768 MB RAM
4 GB + MicroSD up to 32 GB
3G
WiFi
5 MP AF Rear Camera w/ LED Flash
2 MP Front Camera
All of these phones would run on a forked version of Android and it will have the Microsoft services that you could see on your Nokia Lumia phones. Basically, they just want to connect to the people who can’t leave Android. Once they’re get used to the services of Microsoft, they’ll probably switched to Windows Phone. You know what, now I really wonder why Nokia didn’t choose Android in the first place. Oh and there’s no Google Play on these phones, only Yandex and Nokia Store.
The Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL will be priced €89, €99 and €109 respectively
Finally, the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are now official. These 2 smartwatches ditched the Galaxy along with the Android in favor of the new operating system — Tizen. It also comes in two variants, one smartwatch has a camera while the other one has none. One of the main features of these smart watches are heart rate sensor, pedometer, exercise and sleep& stress. Unlike the previous Gear, both the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo would be dust and water resistant. Looks like MWC 2014’s keynote would be very interesting. No word regarding price and availability.
Looks like Samsung can’t control the leaks. This time, it’s their smartwatches and just like the Samsung Galaxy S5, the new smarwatches from Samsung would come in two variants. And according to a recent tweet of evleaks, these smartwatches might not be Galaxy-branded which means it might use Tizen OS for it. Well, that’s what we know for now. All we have to do is wait for Samsung’s announcement on MWC 2014.
The next Galaxy is coming. No, not a new galaxy outside the space but a new Samsung Galaxy flagship smartphone. It is expected but I didn’t expect that it would be launched earlier because the Samsung Galaxy S4 haven’t had its first birthday yet. Moving on! The Samsung Galaxy S5 is expected to be announce on Monday at Barcelona and it seems that there would be not one, but two Samsung Galaxy S5. According to the Samsung Galaxy S5 Spigen case listing at Amazon, there would be a Samsung Galaxy S5 and a Samsung Galaxy S5 Prime. The specifications are still unknown but it seems that the one is buttonless while the other one retains the home button. Well, all we can do right now is wait for more leaks or just stay tuned for more news at MWC 2014 that will happen in Barcelona.
One of the most interesting mobile brands that recently arrived here in the Philippines is Kata and earlier this year, they introduced their newest flagship phone, the Kata i3. One advantage of the Kata i3 was the 16 GB of internal storage and the 1.3 GHz Quad-Core MTK6582 processor that packs a Mali-400 GPU which runs pretty well on gaming. There are so much to love about this phone, why don’t you check out my review of the phone after the break.
The build of the Kata i3 was actually the best that I’ve seen on a MediaTek smartphone. The Kata i3 was very thin and solid despite the plastic build. At first, I even thought that the Kata i3 wasn’t made up of plastic because it was really solid and it sports a brushed metal looks. Holding it was real nice and comfortable. The curves?, it was sexy too, one of the best that I’ve seen on an Android smartphone. At the back, there’s the Kata logo along with their fish. I wish they should’ve minimize the opacity of the Kata logo and they just ditched the fish to make the Kata i3 more minimalistic.
The buttons were placed nicely below the phone but I felt that they need to brighten up more the capacitive buttons. I’ve got no problems with the volume rocker and power button which was nicely placed on the sides. To add to that sexiness, the Kata i3 has a chrome accent at the bottom edge of the phone. That small aesthetic addition made the phone look sexier and more premium.
The Kata i3 features a 5.0” HD LCD which was quite good too. The size of the display was just right and the bezels on the sides were just right but I wish they could maximize it more and just eliminate the remaining bezels, heehee. The sunlight legibility of the phone was quite good too. I can see and read the texts on the display even at broad daylight. The colors and contrast of the phone’s display are just acceptable. And if you use gloves on your work, you don’t have to worry anymore because you can use that on your Kata i3’s display.
There’s no NFC or LTE inside but there’s HSPA+ for your internet connection. Guys, you must remember that the current MediaTek processor inside the phone doesn’t support LTE yet. The only MediaTek processor that’ll support LTE is the MTK6595. Inside the Kata i3 is a 16 GB storage and there’s a MicroSD card slot when you want to add more storage if you feel that the 16 GB is too small.
Unlike other local branded phones powered by MediaTek, the Kata i3 features a 1.3 GHz Quad-Core MTK6582 processor with a Mali-400 GPU which performs pretty well on gaming. There’s a 1 GB of RAM too which is very common on most smartphones at this price range.
The Kata i3 didn’t really shine in the battery test. I was only able to run the phone at 8 hours of heavy usage. Yeah, not the best on a smartphone. I actually recommend bringing a charger or a power bank if you’re a heavy user or if you love to play games on your phone. The speaker grill is placed just beside the Kata logo at the back and it performs pretty well and it was quite loud.
The Kata i3 is still running on Android 4.2.2. No word yet if it will be updated to Android 4.4 Kitkat but I hope it will be. There are no special UI on the Kata i3 which was good because it will just add some lags and will just hog some of the built-in memory of the smartphone.
I also notice the two apps made by Kata – The Fish market but I doubt that you’ll use that because there’s the Play store already and the Fishcloud but as of this posting, the Fishcloud storage is still under construction. But there’s the Hotspot app which will help you set up a hotspot easily.
The Kata i3 was able to get a score of 17274 on Antutu. I was actually impressed with the score it got and the gaming? Well, you could run almost all games on the Kata i3. I played Real Boxing 3 on the phone and it was really smooth. One of my favourite racing games from Gameloft, GT Racing 2, was also running smooth at maximum settings. The most demanding game that I’ve tried was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game was smooth when the settings of the game was place on mid-high settings.
The Kata i3 sports a 13 Megapixel Camera with LED Flash. I notice that the phone shoots very fast but at low light, the noise and particles are very noticeable. However at broad daylight, shooting using the Kata i3 won’t be a problem. I also notice that the images that I shoot sometime turns pinkish. I am actually not sure why that happens.
The Kata i3 surely has a great build quality and one of the sexiest Android smartphone. The MediaTek processor and the Mali GPU was great on gaming too but I was not impressed with its battery life and its camera. The Kata i3 is now available for P8,499. Yes, the specifications and the build the phone was quite good for its price but let’s remember that there will be octa-core phones that’ll be coming this year.
