This is the Cherry Mobile Spark TV review that you’ve been waiting for! A few years ago, I thought that a decent Android smartphone couldn’t reach the super budget friendly SRPs. But take a look at this one, The Cherry Mobile Spark TV. It might not have a very powerful hardware but the specifications of this phone is already enough to run most smartphone apps and the have an enjoyable and fluid experience. I know all of you guys want to have a free smartphone (raffle soon!) so why don’t you check out the review of this smartphone after the break
What’s inside the box?
Hardware
I didn’t expect that much on the construction of the phone since this is one of their most affordable offerings. The Cherry Mobile Spark TV sports a chubby design, which makes it cute and the curves of the phone also made it more attractive and comfortable to hold.
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| The 4 sides of the Cherry Mobile Spark TV |
The display of the phone isn’t its best feature but the sunlight legibility was acceptable. I wasn’t surprised that the resolution of the phone isn’t QVGA. HVGA is already acceptable is my personal minimum on an affordable Android smartphone. Don’t expect IPS or whatever special something on the display of the smartphone, because it’s just an affordable one. Unfortunately, the Cherry Mobile Spark TV doesn’t have 3G so you just have to rely on the WiFi.
The only internal storage that can be used on the phone is just around 100 MB++. You really need to have that MicroSD in your smartphone. It’s really a pain having a small storage on your phone; there are only a few apps that you can install if you don’t have a MicroSD. Speaking of apps and games, there would be a really big problem because there’s no G-Sensor on this one. Yes, you can’t play Temple Run on this phone because you can’t move Guy Dangerous since the phone doesn’t recognize the motion because there’s no G-Sensor. A deal breaker for some people who really loves to play games that are using G-Sensor.
The battery of the phone is rated at 1200mAh and it managed to last up to more than a day or two on my test. Not really that bad for that smartphone. The sound quality of the phone isn’t that great but for its price, I think it’s acceptable. And of course, there’s the Dual-Sim card slot that you always have been looking for on a smartphone.
And from the name itself, the Cherry Mobile Spark TV sports a mobile TV. I noticed that sometimes, it can’t really have a good signal even when outside. It’s really annoying but I used the phone to watch the NBA Finals. By the way, this is just analog TV and not digital TV.
Software
The phone is just running on Android 2.3. Yeah, I know. It’s a little bit disappointing not to see an Android smartphone running on Android 4.0. Almost all devices right now are already on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Some apps might not work on the device like Google Chrome but don’t worry, there are still a lot of apps and games that support Android 2.3 Gingerbread. There are only a few apps that are preinstalled on the phone and most of them aren’t bloatware. I bet you’ll use some of them everyday.
The Mobile TV app that was used on the Cherry Mobile Spark TV is also the same with most Android smartphones that you use. It’s very easy to understand and to use. Having a 1 GHz single core processor isn’t that bad on an affordable smartphone these days. Browsing and navigating the phone is already fast enough for your everyday tasks. I benchmarked this phone on Antutu and I got a score of 3478. Not bad for a single core smartphone.
The Cherry Mobile Spark TV can play the not-so-heavy games but not those demanding games that you really wanted to play like Gangstar Vegas and TDKR. Minion Rush and Temple Run 2 can run on this phone but unfortunately there’s no accelerometer to detect the motions of the phone. So you can’t play those games on the phone.
CAMERA
The camera of the phone isn’t one of its advantages. The Cherry Mobile Spark TV got a 2.0 Megapixel camera without a flash on the back and a VGA front camera. And yes, you can use it on Skype for video calls (But the phone always restarts whenever I’m starting a video call! I hope that they can fix that one soon!) . Oh and before I forgot, Instagram supports this device too so you can share your vain moments in it. Anyway, here are some photos that I took using the Cherry Mobile Spark TV:
Yeah, I know. All of the photos are portrait. I can’t turn it into landscape because there’s no G-sensor on this one. While here’s a video that I recorded using the Cherry Mobile Spark TV. Yes, it isn’t HD.
CONCLUSION
Obviously, this isn’t the best smartphone in the market right now but this is certainly one of the most affordable Android smartphones that is worth its price. You might be disappointed with the version of Android which is outdated but this device is just one of the few affordable smartphones that rocks a Mobile TV and Android. The Cherry Mobile Spark TV is now available in the market with a SRP of P2,699.
Do you want this phone? Don’t frown! Because we’ll be giving away this phone soon at JAM Online. Thanks to Cherry Mobile Philippines!
