Cherry Mobile recently became serious with LTE devices with the announcement of Cherry Mobile Ultra & Superion Scope LTE a few months ago. The Cherry Mobile Superion Scope LTE is their first tablet to sport LTE but it isn’t out in the market yet while the Cherry Mobile Ultra isn’t their first LTE phone but this phone is actually my favorite Cherry Mobile smartphone They already have phablets and Octa-Core phones but even if you’ll give any one of those, I would rather choose the Cherry Mobile Ultra rather than those phones.
Design and ConstructionAt first glimpse, you’ll never think that it is from a local brand. Most people that saw the Cherry Mobile Ultra for the first time thought it was from an intenational brand. The Cherry Mobile Ultra is purely made up of plastic but the curves of the phone were perfect. It looks elegant and the build of the phone was very solid. Yes, there are no openings, squeaks or gaps in its body and I really like the Ultra’s minimalistic design. This smartphone was also taller than I expected thus, making it less wider and more comfortable to use in one hand.
At the back, it looks very simple and minimalistic. The curves of the phone is beautiful and the placement of the camera, LED flash and the speaker grill looks neat. I also like the logo of Ultra at the back, it’s very minimalistic and neat just like the smartphone. Unfortunately, this phone doesn’t support Dual-Sim since Cherry Mobile Ultra has LTE which can only support a single SIM card. Not a deal-breaker for me since the Cherry Mobile Ultra is aimed to focus on the LTE market and not on the dual sim market.
There’s a plenty of storage on this phone, there’s an 8GB storage inside and you can install applications and games on the MicroSD card but if you’re not a serious mobile gamer like me, I bet the 8 GB internal storage would be enough for you (But of course, it is less than 8 GB).
The Cherry Mobile Ultra doesn’t have the best audio quality unlike other smartphones but I’m already happy and satisfied with its quality. The LTE connectivity? That’s one of the things that you’ll probably love on the Cherry Mobile Ultra. Its biggest feature is LTE and yes, the LTE of the Cherry Mobile Ultra doesn’t disappoint. Most of the time, the signal was pretty strong, the internet is fast and there were no disconnections. The GPS was pretty good too, my location locks up pretty fast on the Cherry Mobile Ultra.
Display
There’s a 5″ HD (1280×720) IPS display on the Cherry Mobile Ultra and it was taller than I expected which makes the phone easier to use in one hand. It’s a Dragontrail display, which will protect your display, but unfortunately, I got a deep scratch on my Cherry Mobile Ultra’s 5” display. The display is also bluer than I expected but don’t worry guys, it isn’t that noticeable.
There’s Android 4.3 inside the Cherry Mobile Ultra and there’s no word if it will be upgraded to Android 4.4 Kitkat. The launcher inside it is not vanilla and it was tweaked a little bit and it is very similar to the Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z2’s interface. The icons are nice to the eyes and the colors are very similar to Android L. But of course, I would rather have an Android L inside rather than a skinned Android 4.3 that looks like Android L. LOL
Since Qualcomm Snapdragon powers this device, there’s battery guru on the phone, which will help your device save some juices but I barely notice how this app help the battery life of my smartphone. Speaking of battery life, the Cherry Mobile Ultra was able to last up to a day of heavy use. At LTE, It was able to last up to 7 hours. The battery life of the phone was quite good
Performance
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 powers the Cherry Mobile Ultra and there’s an enough 1GB of RAM inside. The hardware inside Cherry Mobile Ultra is placed at the mid-range category and it performs just well for the mid-range category. The smartphone powered by Snapdragon 400 was able to get a score of 17483 at Antutu, which is just right for a Snapdragon 400 smartphone.
The games? I was able to play a lot of games without problems however not all of them are smooth. I was able to try heavy games like Edge of Tomorrow & Modern Combat 4 and yes, it was playable but unfortunately, it wasn’t that smooth. However, some games like Real Boxing, NBA 2k14 and Dead Trigger 2 are playable and smooth.
Camera
There’s a 13 Megapixel Camera with LED flash at the back of the phone while there’s a 5 Megapixel front camera. The camera of the Cherry Mobile Ultra is not one of its strongest points. The camera took some time before it can shoot a photo. The images that I took were kinda bluish too. Check out the photos that I took below:
Despite its imperfections, I still think that Cherry Mobile Ultra is very nice device. Despite having a plastic build, I still love this phone. The curves and its design were great for me but of course, there are still room for improvements. For now, this is my favorite Cherry Mobile device. I’ve been using it everyday especially when I need LTE. The Cherry Mobile Ultra is now available for P8,999.
