First Look: Cherry Mobile Flare HD

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What a surprise! I was with fellow tech bloggers last night at the Cherry Mobile Thanksgiving Party when each of us were given Christmas gifts.

After unwrapping, a box with the label Flare HD got us all excited! A new Cherry Mobile Flare that we have not seen in the pricelist 2 months ago. A Flare with an HD display – who would have thought? I certainly didn’t!

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The back of the Flare HD’s packaging shows that it has an MTK-powered 1.2 GHz Quad Core processor, 4GB of ROM and 1GB of RAM expandable with a MicroSD card, a 12 Megapixel camera at the back and 5 Megapixel camera at the front, Android Jellybean 4.2, and of course a 4.3″ HD IPS display with 1280 x 720 pixels. Full HD baby!

THE UNBOXING

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Unboxing the Cherry Mobile Flare HD shows they have included a free jelly case to protect the smartphone. I wonder why pink of all colors, but I didn’t mind since I normally prefer using my Android smartphones bare.

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I love in-ear headphones and boy am I glad to see this pair in the package of the Flare HD. I don’t recall if they have included in-ear headphones in a sub-6k smartphones before (I am not saying that the Flare HD’s price is below 6k, but I have a feeling that it is) so this is a welcome change.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

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There are a lot of Flare variants today that I have forgotten the names of these models. Last week, I played with the Flare S and though I found it sexy, it doesn’t resemble the original form factor of the Flare. The Flare HD is somewhat similar to the original Flare’s design, only longer, slimmer, and lighter. Those who have owned or used the original version will agree with me that the back cover of the Flare HD was taken from the original Flare.

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The Flare HD on top and the Cherry Mobile Apollo

 

Flare 2.0 and the Flare HD

Flare 2.0 and the Flare HD

I love holding the Flare HD. Even with the battery installed, the phone feels very light and can be easily placed inside my pants pocket.

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Fellow tech bloggers were wowed by the new lockscreen of the Flare HD. The good news is, this lockscreen is not limited to the Flare HD but also to the newer Android smartphones that will be released this month, including the much awaited Omega HD 2X. Shortcuts to Facebook, Twitter, Contacts, News sources are all there which can give quick access to the user.

At first glance, I already the noticed the beauty of the Flare HD’s Full HD screen. I would definitely do some tests on this area of my review.

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So far, I have installed my usual apps and set up my credentials and as expected for an MTK powered quad-core device, the Flare HD runs pretty smooth. Honestly speaking, I still prefer a Qualcomm processor to power up the Flare. That’s how the Flare got known anyway, but so far, MTK processors have impressed me in the past with the Cosmos X2 and Apollo so I’m pretty sure the Flare HD will show some good results.

As of the moment, we were not yet told of how much it would cost but I’m estimating this will be less than Php 6,000.00. The Cherry Mobile Flare HD is one of the new devices that will be released in 2014, and we can’t help but thank Cherry Mobile for making us as the first owners of this device. Expect my review to pop up in the next 2 weeks!

 

 

4 Comments
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  1. lols… you prefer the piece of shit qualcomm msm8225q over the mtk6589? you must be totally out of your mind!

  2. Gusto ko magkaroon niyo :3

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