THIS IS HUGE!
Philippines’ mobile phone company giant, Cherry Mobile, finally outs the very first Android One device – the Cherry Mobile One. The device was announced earlier during my interview with Mr. Caesar Sengupta, the VP for Product Management of Google Inc., at Whitespace Makati.
Cherry Mobile One is the country’s first Android One device, and Sun (and also Smart) will be the first telco to offer it.
Here’s a quick round-up of Cherry Mobile One’s specs:
- Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
- 1.3 GHz Quad Core
- 4.5″ TFT Capacitive Asahi Glass LCD
- 8GB ROM
- 1GB RAM
- Expandable up to 64gb MicroSD
- Dual Micro Sim
- 4.5″ Capacitive Screen
- Scratch Resistant
- 5MP Main Camera with BSI support
- 2MP Front Camera
- 1780mAH Battery Capacity
- *Receives 2 year update from Google
The new smartphone is equipped with a MediaTek MT6582 SoC with 1.3Ghz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and Mali MP2 GPU. It is also packed with a 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM (with hopefully more than 6gb available space for apps and other files). It’s storage is expandable too via MicroSD.
Display-wise, CM One has a 4.5-inch, 852×480 resolution display. In terms of battery, Cherry Mobile One has a 1780mAh battery, which should be enough to run for a day from single full charge (this depends, however, on how frequent you use the device). Off the bat, we find these specs very decent and highly optimized to run Android 5.0 and the succeeding updates directly from Google. It’s also good to know that this device is very compliant to the Google’s reference design for all Android One devices.
Being the first telco to offer the country’s first Android One device, Sun Cellular is definitely at the first mover advantage. Available at Sun Plan 399, Cherry Mobile One is Sun’s 2nd most affordable plan next to O+ 8.37z, Starmobile Play, Starmobile Sky and Alcatel Touch Pop D3.
If you get Cherry Mobile One via Sun Plan 350, you are entitled to the following services:
- Unlimited Sun calls and texts
- 250 texts to other networks
- Unlimited Facebook – will not be highlighted in communications
- 200 MB for App downloads/updates via Play Store (first six months)
- 100 MB for OTA update (first six months)
Android One? Why would you care?
Think of Android One as Google’s way of bringing Android to everyone. Simplistically, I view it as Google’s initiative to bring software and security standards seen on their Nexus line for people who have limited budget to buy their more premium smartphones. Since Google wishes to bring such premium standard to budget-friendly devices, they’ve got a huge say in the hardware design of all Android One devices.
But then again – why should you care? Here are few reasons:
- Software and security updates will be available as OTA, and will be handled by Google
- No bloatwares
- Slightly faster than its MT6582 counterparts
So, that’s it guys! I told you this one’s huge! But, I would love to hear your thoughts. Please let us know by using the comments section below.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
