Cherry Mobile W900 LTE was a good device albeit a bit too pricey. It was the company’s first attempt to bring in an LTE device to their Android smartphone portfolio (running on Qualcomm), but it somehow failed to get Pinoys too excited to buy it. It was a good attempt done bravely but was not warmly received by many.
Last May, 30, Cherry Mobile launched their latest smartphone with LTE capability, Ultra. In case you missed our unboxing and first impressions, you may want to check it here. It’s Cherry Mobile’s bold affirmation of their dedication to bring in affordable full-featured devices to Filipinos. Let me take you through my experience and review of this ‘mighty’ smartphone.
Design
At first look, you can’t help but identify it as an HTC or a Blackberry Z10. It’s a total headturner, and you wouldn’t think that it’s a phone from Cherry Mobile.
Packed with 5″ screen with IPS and a resolution 1280 x 720, the display of the Ultra is really good. With 320 ppi, its screen displays crisp and sharp details. Viewing angles are ridiculous, and can still be useful even at direct sunlight. I find its bezels too thick though, but it isn’t exactly a bad thing.
The black and white pearl finish around the device makes it super professional and decent to look at. The sleep/wake up button is placed at the right side of the device while the volume rockers are on the left side. Three capacitive buttons are located at the bottom of the screen. Typical.
The phone has 2 cameras – one located atop the screen, and another one (main camera + LED flash) is beautifully placed at the back of the device.
Performance
The Cherry Mobile Ultra is definitely a kicker when it comes to performance. Its 1.2 Ghz MSM8926 Qualcomm quad-core processor powers the device, which basically make it perform really fast and put it almost at par with Galaxy S3! In terms of Antutu Benchmark, the Ultra scores with flying colors with 16,682 points. Playing games like NBA 2k14 and Modern Combat 4 works like a charm.
#LTEngBayan
The Cherry Mobile Ultra’s best feature is its LTE connectivity. So far, the LTE speed that I’m getting is an average of 7-15 mbps. It’s not LTE-A, obviously, but the fact that I’m able to browse the net, download and upload files at lightning speed especially on Smart, Ultra is a tough phone to topple especially at its pricing stand point.
Battery
The Ultra has a 2000 mAh which an upgrade compared to the Cherry Mobile W900 LTE which only has 1810 mAh. It’s battery management app and Qualcomm’s hardware tweaks are responsible for its good battery life, but I still find it too mediocre.
Camera
The Ultra has a 13 megapixel camera with Auto-focus. It is able to capture sharp and crisp photos. However, there’s a bluish tint on every photos I captured. It’s barely noticeable though, but it may post a great issue of you love taking flawless photos. If happen to be in a not-well lighted place, the LED flash will help you to bring light to your picture. So far, the pictures I’ve taken are actually really good. As you can see, the bokeh in the pictures are impressive enough.
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Verdict
Cherry Mobile definitely proves that the Ultra is a better upgrade than their last W900 LTE. Faster processor, LTE connection and much more juice. What more can you ask for? Price tag is only at PhP8,999, so if you want to experience an internet speed of 6mbps to 25mbps, Cherry Mobile Ultra can provide you with that.
Gianfranco is the co-founder of gadgetpilipinas.net. He graduated from Far Eastern University. A Psychology student turned tech-savvy. He's currently the HR Supervisor of Blip Media and one of the content producers of Gadget Pilipinas. He enjoys playing competitive video games and binge-watch American TV series.
