When it comes to smartphones, Cherry Mobile is still the #1 in the game and they’ve been doing really well in the Philippines and of course, the company doesn’t want to be left out in the mid-range segment that’s why the company released the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus, their best smartphone yet. So what do we think of the smartphone? Check it out on our review of the smartphone below.

Yep, like what I’ve said earlier, the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus is the company’s best smartphone ever. Actually, this is the best Pinoy smartphone that we’ve ever reviewed as the Flare S7 Plus not only got the power but also the design that we all crave for on a local-branded smartphone.

First, let’s talk about the design of the smartphone. One of the biggest change that the company has done on this smartphone is the exclusion of the Cherry Mobile logo on the smartphone which is a plus for some people who prefer not to have their smartphone branded and wants to remain their smartphone brand’s anonymous.

Premium design and build

Don’t get fooled with the Cherry Mobile brand on this one because this one is really premium and really damn solid. Again, it’s the best one that we’ve ever reviewed. The back of the smartphone is covered with glass which feels really premium on the smartphone and then there’s the fingerprint scanner of the smartphone at the back too. Surprisingly, the back is clean from the logo of the brand and the camera was well placed at the top left of the smartphone with no protruding design.

The fingerprint scanner of the smartphone at the back is really fast which really surprises me as the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus even surpassed some international smartphone brands and the face unlock was just great on the smartphone. Actually, I barely use the fingerprint scanner of the smartphone as the face unlock of the smartphone is already enough and really fast.

The frame of the smartphone is also solid and thanks to the slight curve at the back of the smartphone, the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus does feel comfortable to hold and I do have a good grip of the smartphone, though, it wasn’t the best one.

The smartphone also comes with a USB-C port below that supports 10W fast charging or you can opt for the 5W Qi wireless charging. Yep, there’s a wireless charger on a mid-range smartphone from Cherry Mobile which is really awesome.

Unfortunately, the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus ditches the headphone jack in favor of the USB-C dongle. Don’t worry because Cherry Mobile does provide a dongle out of the box so you won’t have to worry about using your smartphone for your favorite Spotify playlist.

A fine display

I was actually surprised that the smartphone does sport a notch. Well, it’s not the most ideal notch on the smartphone market right now but it’s something that you can appreciate as Cherry Mobile does have a good implementation of the notch on the smartphone. You can actually turn it off by just swiping down and I really didn’t have any problems with running apps on the notch of the smartphone.

Cherry Mobile calls the display of the smartphone as a TrueView IPS display with Full HD+ resolution and 19:9 display aspect ratio. The 6.2-inch display of the smartphone is actually fine and it is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The display quality of the smartphone is really fine, viewing angles are good and the colors are really fine on the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus.

Battery life needs improvement

While we love the build and the specs of the smartphone, we find the 3000mAh battery of the smartphone lacking for some people. We benchmarked the smartphone using PC Mark for its battery and we got a score of 6 hours and 2 minutes which may not be able to last a day of use to some heavy users.

Decent performance

The Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus is still one of the most affordable smartphones with Helio P60 Octa-Core processor inside along with 4GB RAM. The smartphone is definitely one of the most affordable smartphones out there with Helio P60 chipset and the benchmarks that we got? we’re pretty happy with it on synthetic benchmarks and also on real-life gaming tests. Check out the scores that we got below.

HD Settings – High Frame Rate – No AA

As seen in the benchmark, the smartphone managed to have a great FPS stability however, ultra settings (40fps) isn’t available in the smartphone. Nonetheless, the smartphone is really a performer.

You can check out the GameBench Benchmarking app at (https://www.gamebench.net)

You can also download the app at the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gamebench.metricscollector)

Bloated UI

There’s no bloated Cherry OS on the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus but the smartphone definitely feels bloated with applications and customizations. I find the customizations of the UI of the smartphone a little bit messy to me including the elements and sizing. There are also some pre-installed apps that you probably won’t use but don’t worry, there’s a decent 64GB internal storage so you won’t have to worry about that one.

But thankfully, despite the cluttered UI of the smartphone, the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus feels snappy and it has fewer bugs compared to previous software of Cherry Mobile smartphones. Also, the cluttered launcher of the smartphone can be easily fixed with just a 3rd party launcher. Ta-da! Problem solved.

The best camera on a Cherry Mobile smartphone

We took the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus for a spin in Japan last year and we were really surprised that the shots that we got on the smartphone were great. Yep, everything was mostly great on the shots that took on the smartphone. We got decent colors, the low light shots on the smartphone was fine and I was actually satisfied with the selfies that I took. Check out the shots that I took using the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus below.

As you can see, the shots that we took using the Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus were really good.


Verdict

This is the best Cherry Mobile smartphone yet. Actually, this is the best local-branded smartphone ever. The Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus can definitely compete with most mid-range smartphones out there in the market despite the tough competition. We love the build quality of the smartphone and the exclusion of the logo is a plus for some people who don’t want their smartphone to be branded as a local brand.

The Helio P60 octa-core chipset also performs and the camera of the smartphone was just fine. However, some of you might find the battery of the smartphone lacking but bringing a powerbank with you will solve the problem. Another thing that I didn’t like about the smartphone is its UI. It’s cluttered and feels like a little bit messy but a 3rd party launcher like NOVA launcher will fix the problem.

The Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Plus is now available for PHP11,999

2 COMMENTS

  1. ‘Cherry Mobile is still the #1 in the game and they’ve been doing really well in the Philippines’ – Jam, where did you get this statement? I don’t see people lining up to buy this, have you seen people lining up to get a Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 at their stores? when you say have been doing really well in the philippines, that was probably many years ago. When chinese brands like huawei, oppo, vivo and xiaomi were not yet in the country.

    Aside from the Redmi Note 7, another phone people are lining up for is the Realme 3, from oppo sub brand Realme. Those are 2 brands currently killing it, I don’t know where the cherry mobile flare s7 fits in the equation.

    • Here’s the thing. The Redmi Note7 is a very popular smartphone but when it comes to sales, Cherry Mobile still has a big chunk of market share as proven by the data by IDC. (https://jamonline.ph/cherry-mobile-the-1-smartphone-brand-in-the-philippines-for-2017/). They’re selling really well in the affordable and entry-level segment. Oh, and you should’ve seen the line when the Flare S7 series was launched.

      And no, I’m not denying the fact that these new brands are selling really well. It’s just that we have the data from IDC and other companies that are sharing the different manufacturer’s market share.

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