Last year, Cherry Mobile has introduced their first Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices and one of them is the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph. Actually, the Alpha series wasn’t the first Windows devices of Cherry Mobile. A few years ago, Cherry Mobile introduced the Eclipse smartphones which are powered by Windows Mobile 6. Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph is one of their first Windows 8 tablets and no, you can’t run Android on this tablet but you can certainly run apps and games for Windows like Warcraft III & Adobe Photoshop.
Hardware
Unlike the Cherry Mobile Alpha Play that I’ve reviewed before, this one doesn’t have a metal body. This one has a rubber matte body and it is a little bit thicker compared to other Windows 8.1 tablets. This one also comes with a keyboard cover just like the Microsoft Surface. This keyboard cover doesn’t have a storage or an extra battery inside but this one serves as a stand for the tablet.
The keys are a little bit cramped but I already expected that since this is just a 10.1-inch tablet. There’s a small trackpad too which is a little bit of a problem because you have to use the fn key to do right . The trackpad is quite small but again, you should remember that Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph is just a 10.1-inch device.
The connectivities of the tablet can be found on the left side of the tablet and compared to the smaller Cherry Mobile Alpha Play, this one doesn’t have a USB 3.0 port and it doesn’t come with a USB OTG out of the box. You can also find the MicroSD card slot, Mini HDMI port and the 3.5mm audio jack here. Unfortunately, there’s no 3G on this tablet.
One thing that annoys me is the capacitive Windows button because whenever you accidentaly touch it, it will automatically wake up the tablet. That’s why my battery drains faster whenever I just put the tablet on sleep and put it on my bag. That’s quite annoying especially when you don’t have your charger with you.
Inside the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph is a Quad-Core Intel Atom Z3735D Processor, 2GB of RAM and there’s a 32GB of storage inside which might be small for some people because you know, Windows takes too much space. But don’t worry, there’s a MicroSD card slot on this tablet to help you with that problem.
Display
Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph sports a 10.1-inch HD display. The resolution of the display can’t match most of the flagship Android tablets and iPads these days but I still like the display of the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph.
There are two things why the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph only sport an HD display – First, the lower the resolution, the lower the cost and the lower the resolution, the lesser the power consumption. The colors of the display and its viewing angles are good however, when outside, the display isn’t really visible under direct sunlight.
Battery Life
The Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph got an 8000mAh of battery. The numbers might be great but it wasn’t impressive as I thought. At 50% brightness with all the connectivites turned on, you can get a 4 hours of battery life. If you compared it to an Android tablet or iPad, the battery life is a little bit short but hey, you should remember that this one is running on Windows 8.1 and you could run games and applications for Windows.
However, if you’re a heavy user and you’re playing some heavy games you might get a battery life of 1-2 hours so whenever you have the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph, be sure to have that charger in your bag too.
Software and Performance
The biggest selling point of the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph is its operating system. Since this one is powered by Windows 8.1, you’ll be able to run different applications and games like Microsoft Word and Warcraft III. Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph also comes with Office 365 but it will expire for 1 year so I would recommend you guys to get a 32-bit version of Microsoft Office 2013.
As for the games, there aren’t too much games that can be played on this tablet. Remember, the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph is only powered by a Quad-Core Intel Atom processor and a 2GB of RAM and there’s a 32GB of Internal Storage too which might not be enough for the tablet and for your games so I is really recommended for you guys to get a 32GB MicroSD card or more because I’m pretty sure that the 32GB of internal storage isn’t enough for you.
Some of the games that I’ve managed to run and play on the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph are:
- CS:GO
- Warcraft III
- Simcity IV
- DOTA 2
- NBA 2k14
Verdict
Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph are just one of the affordable Windows devices out there but compared to other devices, this one comes with a keyboard sleeve. The software needs to be ironed out from bugs but it’s a decent Windows tablet that is probably great for students especially for having their theses but as a desktop replacement? You might have some problems with the power and its storage. Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph is now available at Cherry Mobile stores, kiosks and authorized resellers nationwide.
