While my girlfriend and I are on vacation in Davao City with her kin, I was able to get a Cherry Mobile Flare S3 unit from a CM outlet in G-Mall.
I’m sure many of you want to know if the first octa core Flare lives up to expectations. Hence, I immediately checked its design, features and capabilities.
The Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa comes in this an unassuming blue box.
Removing all the contents of the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa box reveals two booklets – one for the device manual and another for Cherry Mobile’s software services.
There’s also the usual earphones with microphone, USB to micro USB connector, USB OTG cord, mobile charger, the 1,800mAh battery and the unit itself. A 2,500mAh powerbank is also included in a separate package.
A screen protector is already installed in the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa out of the box.
In terms of design, the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa resembles the Cherry Mobile Flare S3. You can use the same accessories for the two.
I am impressed by the quality of the display. Of course, this is because it’s an IPS panel with HD resolution. The user interface is almost vanilla or pure Android 4.4 Kitkat except for the customized icons, Cherry Mobile apps and that Start launcher.
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Jumping straight to camera performance, I’m a bit disappointed. The sample photo above was taken using the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa’s 13MP rear camera with flash and a fluorescent lamp illuminating the room.
I’ll test this once again during daytime and see if it spits out better quality pictures. Here’s another sample photo:
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Yup! That’s a selfie using the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa’s 5MP camera in the same lighting condition as the previous picture.
That score is very good! The octa core MT6592M from MediaTek is definitely doing its part. AnTuTu also shows that the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa supports up to 5 touch inputs.
Here’s the user interface:
You can also choose to install an app to the SD card right before the installation begins. USB OTG is also confirmed to be supported by the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa!
The speakers are not that good though. Raising the volume too high results in an unpleasant audio quality.
This is the biggest problem. I’ll test this battery out if it can survive a day of heavy usage.
For now, I can say that the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 has a very nice screen and design. Its biggest disadvantage is its battery. Nevertheless, the free powerbank easily solves that problem.
Follow us on Facebook for the full review in a few days. I’ll then give my verdict in terms of camera and gaming performance as well as durability. You may also check its full specs here.
Update: Here’s the promised full review of the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa.
