The Cherry Mobile Desire R8 is definitely one of the best smartphones from Cherry Mobile that we’ve reviewed. It packs a premium build and also a dual-lens camera that can really do good bokeh shots. So what do I think about the smartphone? Check it out in our review below.

Design and Hardware

The Cherry Mobile Desire R8 is a premium smartphone from the Filipino company. It packs an aluminum body which made the smartphone really premium and good to hold and also the curves of the smartphone is just comfortable to the hand.

It has a unibody design which is why you cannot remove the back of the smartphone. The Cherry Mobile Desire R8 also features a home button that also serves as the fingerprint scanner of the smartphone that can be pressed down and also two capacitive buttons just beside of it. However, some people might get confused with its design as it is only represented by two-dot buttons. Speaking of the fingerprint scanner, the smartphone can swiftly recognize my fingerprint however, it’s still not the best one in its price range.

The smartphone features a USB Type-C design. It’s not a first from Cherry Mobile but I really appreciate that Cherry Mobile has adapted that port. The 3.5mm audio jack of the smartphone is placed at the top of the smartphone as the speaker grills are placed below along with the USB Type-C Port.

Display

The display of the smartphone is one of my favorite features of the smartphone. It features a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display and actually, I was surprised as I really like the quality of the display of the smartphone. The colors are good, the viewing angles are great and it’s even better than most Cherry Mobile smartphones.

Battery Life

The Cherry Mobile Desire R8 packs a 3000mAh battery inside. It might look good to the paper however in my use, I notice that the smartphone’s battery dropped quickly. Bringing a powerbank with your or a charger is highly recommended when using the smartphone as the Cherry Mobile Desire R8 might not last a single workday even in average use.

Fine Processing Power

The Cherry Mobile Desire R8 packs a MediaTek 6750T chipset inside along with 3GB of RAM. Not the best in the market but it can definitely do fine when it comes to gaming. Yes, you may not play the latest games at the highest settings but you can definitely play those games by just turning down its graphics settings.

Playing games such as NBA and Asphalt 8 will be fine in this smartphone as long as you turned settings. The apps? I really didn’t have any problem when using the smartphone in different applications.

However, I had a problem with its software. Despite being a premium smartphone from the brand, I’m bombarded with ads most of the time.

Camera

The main feature of the Cherry Mobile Desire R8 is the dual lens camera. It’s not a fake dual lens camera as the bokeh shots really work on this smartphone. It features a 13-megapixel + 5-megapixel rear camera setup.

In my use, I got some good shots on the smartphone and when I used the bokeh mode, it can really take portrait shots with bokeh but it’s not perfect. Also, I noticed that the shots are a little reddish than I thought. But overall, the Cherry Mobile Desire R8 is definitely one of the best Cherry Mobile smartphone shooters out there. Check out the shots that I took using the smartphone.

Verdict

Without a doubt, the Cherry Mobile Desire R8 is one of the best Cherry Mobile smartphones out there. It has a solid design with an aluminum body which really adds to the premium feel of the smartphone, it has a decent software, the camera is really great for a Cherry Mobile smartphone, and it has a decent performance. The dual lens camera of the smartphone works, however, I still wished that Cherry Mobile still fixes it as it doesn’t perform to my expectations. But again, it is still great for a Cherry Mobile smartphone.

Overall, I like the solid design of the smartphone and its camera, however, it falls short on the battery life.