Cherry Mobile Flare Infinity Review: Looks Can Be Deceiving

The Cherry Mobile Flare Infinity is the company’s newest flagship device for its Premium Flare Series. And sure, it does look good, and on paper, it also looks promising. But does it perform at par with its rivals? does it deserve the title of being the leader of the pack? Let’s find out in this full review.

Design and Build Quality

I know, the Flare Infinity looks like a very familiar smartphone. Regardless, we can’t deny the fact that it is an eye-candy. The bezel-less display, the 2D Curved Glass, the metal body, and the mild curves all work together to achieve a simple yet, good looking design. I have to say though; they probably went too far with the lines at the back. I think it just destroys the equation. Moreover, the back is a little slippery so you may want to take caution when holding the device with one hand. The position of the fingerprint sensor is a little bit different, as it is on the right side where your thumb will land, and having used the device for a few days, I can say that it actually makes sense.

Display

The 5.5-inch 1080p display certainly does make any content look good on the Flare Infinity, and one of the best I’ve seen to date. May it be a movie, a game, a website, or even just browsing through the UI. Text is sharp and colors pop out with good contrast and saturation. The screen is also quite bright and sunlight visibility is there as well. Color temperature tends to lean more on the warmer side.

Performance

Benchmarks

General Use

The Flare Infinity handled simple tasks such as email, browsing social media, watching YouTube videos, playing music, and web browsing with no hiccups. Switching between apps was also a breeze thanks to the 4GB of RAM. The device tends to get warm quickly though. As for the fingerprint sensor, well, it’s a hit and miss. In my case, it only worked a couple of times. Most of the time, I just resorted to entering my PIN code.

Gaming

10 minutes into playing DJ Max Technika and the Flare Infinity was already heating up it’s almost uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the metal body. The game was smooth alright, but the heat can hamper the experience. On a heavy game such as Asphalt 8, there was a noticeable drop in performance as lag was evident in some instances, though it’s still pretty much playable. Just lower the settings a bit, and you should be ok.

Audio

Don’t expect too much from the speakers here. Volume is adequate, but the sound falls short in clarity and detail. It’s a different story with headphones though, as the details are very much present and bass is just right. Plug in a good pair and you should have a good listening experience.

Camera

The 16MP rear shooter performed well as shots came out with nice detail and sharpness. Colors are accurate too. Even the front camera produced good looking selfies. The camera interface is very limited in terms of settings and shooting modes though, so you may want to install a 3^rd party camera app for in-depth tweaking.

Software

The Flare Infinity runs on Android Marshmallow out of the box. Aside from the usual slew of Cherry Mobile apps, much of the UI is stock, which is a good thing as it favors performance. General navigation is smooth and fluid as well.

Battery

To test the battery, I played a video on loop at 50% brightness and 80% volume. The 3000mAh battery only yielded around 4 hours of screen time, which is disappointing. Charging time however is quite fast as I was able to get from 0 to full charge in under 2 hours. Bottom line is if you plan to use this phone for continuous media consumption or for heavy gaming, you better have a powerbank with you.

Verdict

The Cherry Mobile Flare Infinity is a smartphone which has accomplished quite a few things, but falls short in several key areas. It does have a decent camera, a good display, and an attractive design. But the fingerprint sensor feels more like a gimmick, as its often a hit and miss. The phone heats up a lot as well, which can get quite annoying, the battery life is just plain horrible, and add to that, a hefty price tag. If you have the money or can spend a bit more, there are better options out there.

The Good

• Display
• Stock UI
• Camera Performance
• Overall Design
• Charges Quickly
• Good Sound Quality on Headphones
• General Performance

The Not So Good

• Poor Fingerprint Sensor Implementation
• Device heats up too quickly
• Poor Battery Life
• Speakers
• Price

Emman Tortoza

Website

Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.