Cherry Mobile Flare X3 is the company’s latest contender in the mid-range segment. It packs Full HD display, a Helio P60 octa-core processor, and AI assisted cameras. This device is aimed to take on the likes of the Realme 3 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7.
Design
Flare X3 has metal sides, complimented with glass back construction, which makes it feel very premium. The volume rocker and power button are found on the right side of the device, along with a dedicated fingerprint scanner, which works fast enough.
Cherry Mobile equipped the device with a Type-C connector, which is becoming a standard for most manufacturers. It’s placed at the bottom along with speaker grill. If you’re looking for the headphone jack, it’s at the top.
The 6.18″ TrueView display has a resolution of Full HD+, and shows decent color saturation and sharpness. Brightness level is just about right, though i’ll have to check its visibility under direct sunlight.
Performance
The device runs on a Helio P60 octa-core processor, backed by 6GB. When asked about why they didn’t go for the more recent Helio P70, the simple answer was that they won’t be able to keep the price within a threshold, which is understandable. In any case, it’s still a very capable chip, as proven by other devices that have it.
As the phone isn’t on its final software, I decided to skip on the benchmark for now, and focus on gaming to see how well it will fare. It supports up to HD graphics and High FPS on PUBG Mobile, and the overall gameplay was smooth, except for minor fps drops when resources are initially loading.
Camera
Flare X3 houses three AI-assisted rear shooters – one main, one for depth, and one monochrome.
Our sample shots show good levels of detail and sharpness despite the not so ideal lighting, but its edge-detection in portrait mode needs some work. As far as AI is concerned, well, there’s no option to toggle it on/off.
Upfront is a duo of snappers – one main, and one for depth.
So far, I do like the amount of detail it captures on selfies. The depth effect also has a decent accuracy. Not the best out there, but good enough.
Software
Software-wise, Flare X3 runs on Android 9 Pie. If you’re worried about bloatware, this one only has a few. I did experience some mishaps, such as not being able to swipe through home screens, but that’s mostly because the software isn’t on its final version.
Cherry Mobile is set to reveal the price of the X3 soon, and so far, we’re pretty satisfied with the overall experience. We’ll have our review unit soon, so stay tuned to our full-blown take on this device.
Specifications
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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.
