Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Cherry Mobile Titan Review and rants

Cherry Mobile the leading smartphone distributor in the Philippines has just released two smartphone models that will certainly make your Christmas merry. How will it make your Christmas merry? Well because these phones are certainly not low quality, by that I mean the specs are not like those on other phones that when you see them you can only say "just another smartphone".

Okay so what about it? Well for me the one that they call the TITAN is not just your ordinary smartphone. For the past 8 months since I bought my first android phone which is Cherry Mobile Nova I thought okay this phone is good. I had no complaints about it, the hardware was good, the OS is good (not the stock OS), everything about the phone was good, plus I got it for a cheap price. It was perfect for me.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx specs
Lenovo P700 specs

As I become more accustomed to using android I wanted more power.  I wanted a phone that could last for at least 2 days without charging. I wanted a phone that could be used for multitasking. In short I wanted a phone that has a decent CPU speed, internal memory capacity, and battery life. Those are the most important aspect that I look for when I look at a smartphone.

So when Samsung came out with Galaxy S3, I said there's a nice looking phone. But is it all just hype? Does this phone have the specs that I am looking for? What about the price? And then there's Motorola Razr Droid Maxx. All I can say that this phone is the BEAST! I mean a phone with a built in battery of 3,300 mah! It's like pushing the envelope for what a smartphone should be. Right?! But the price? Ha! Last I heard it was around 25k php. What?! I can't spend that amount of money on a phone. I got better plans for my money and I just can't spend more than what I can afford.

I admit I am just frugal. I am Filipino and it's a common trait amongst Filipinos. Money is hard to come by right? So there I waited, and waited until Lenovo P700 came out. I said woah! there's the phone that I have been waiting for. It's the perfect phone. Check the specs:


But then I was wrong. It didn't has some of the things that I wanted for in a phone. What was it that I was looking for other than decent CPU speed, decent internal memory capacity and battery life? Well, those are auto-focus and LED flash. Those were the things lacking in Lenovo P700 and P700i. I also didn't want my phone to have a big screen because it would just make it bulky and I wouldn't want that to become a problem when I place the phone in my pocket.

And then TITAN and FLARE came along. Check the specs:

TITAN

5.0-inch WVGA (480x800) capacitive display
with with 2-point multi-touch feature
1GHz dual-core MT6577 processor
Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
PowerVR SGX531 GPU
512MB of RAM
4GB of internal storage
microSD up to 32GB
5MP autofocus camera with LED flash
720p HD video recording
VGA (0.3MP) front camera
Dual SIM/ Dual Standby
GPS with A-GPS support
Bluetooth with EDR & A2DP
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+: 2100MHz
microUSB 2.0
Gravity Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor
FM radio with 3.5 mm Audio Jack
Li-ion 2,350mAh battery
143 x 77.4 x 10.5mm (dimension)
205g with battery (weight)
Price: Php6,499 (Official SRP)



When I looked at the specs, man I said wow, all the things that I said about Lenovo P700 being the best, well I take it back. Haha! I now bestow that title to Cherry Mobile TITAN. If you take a look at the bottom part of the specs list you will see an even more surprising fact. It's priced at 6,499 php! Yes and I am definitely convinced that this is the one I want. I won't change my mind on that not until something better is going to come up and beat it's price.

Here is the specs for FLARE:

Cherry Mobile Flare Specs

4-inch IPS capacitive touch panel (800 x 480)
1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor
Adreno 203 GPU
512MB RAM
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
4GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD
HSPA+ 21Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot
Bluetooth 2.1
GPS w/ aGPS support
5-megapixel rear camera with flash
VGA front-facing camera
1600mAh battery
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby

The FLARE doesn't tickle my fancy because as I have said earlier I am looking for the phone that has a decent battery life, this phone obviously doesn't have that quality. But if you're going to buy this, I suggest just jack your budget up a little and get the TITAN. I mean the specs says it all.

One more thing that I would like to add in this post.

I saw a lot of videos about the phone and many Filipinos still have this inkling that when a phone is being sold at a lower price they immediately dive into the conclusion that it's going to break, or it's not a quality phone.

I tell you I bought my Cherry Mobile Nova last December 2011 and up until now I am still using it. Even though the color has faded, and there are so many scratches on the back cover, it's still performing. It's still usable. I also have rooted the phone, and probably changed it's ROM 20 times in 10 months and it's still working. Therefore I made a conclusion that when a phone is problematic, it probably has something to do with it's ROM. Not unless your battery has bloated and it won't fit in your back panel anymore or you dropped it in your tub just for the sheer clumsiness then it's not Cherry Mobile's problem anymore is it?

If you own a smartphone it would be better if you study it. Learn how to modify it. Learn how to overclock it. It's actually fun. That is the reason why android phone is much better than iPhone. It's only then that you realize your phone has much more power hidden, and waiting to be unleashed.

You guys should also understand when a phone is being sold for a much lower price, that's because it's just how the companies play the game. If you want to be a leader in your own market, you got to be resourceful. Cherry Mobile has rebranded many phones before including NOVA which by the way is from COMMTIVA, and it's original name is Commtiva z71. Cherry Mobila Magnum 2x is also a rebrand they brought the rights from Aliyun and sold it here in the Philippines for a cheaper price. Cherry Mobile Paladin, it was also a rebrand from Ainol.


So you see, the difference with Cherry Mobile and other big companies such as Nokia, Motorola, HTC, is that these guys want to jack up the price of the merchandise and earn a lot from it they are willing to put more into the merchandise. So every time you pick up a 20,000 php smartphone, think what did these guys put into this phone that made it so expensive? Gorilla glass maybe? expensive back cover plating? An expensive ROM (highly built roms by top programmers)? A good looking overall change in appearance?That's what they call branding. They put their own signature into the phone to make it more Samsung-ish, or Nokia-ish or HTC-ish.

On the other hand, Cherry Mobile just wants people in the Philippines, who, including me, are very frugal to experience what it's like to have a top notch smart phone for an affordable price. They can't spend more on the phone's beautification because if they would do that then it wouldn't be a cheap phone anymore and then people would complain why it's so expensive. I am not promoting Cherry Mobile here, and I don't get paid for this. I just want people to give some rep to the company because they are doing us a big favor already.  Because I did that when I got my NOVA. So next time instead of saying Cherry Mobile sucks because their phone breaks so easily then take more care for your phone. To make your android experience even better try learning how to modify it. But with the phone's huge internal memory you can customize your UI even better without risking it's fluidity. Having an android phone is FUN!! So that's it, I hope you guys learned something from this post.

Monday, February 20, 2012

How to Root Samsung Galaxy Note

In this post I will be teaching you how to root you Samsung Galaxy Note. If you are new to rooting your android and have never done it before, I will warn you that this is a crucial stage, please charge your note to 100% before starting the process and prepare all the necessary requirements as you don't want be cramming and leaving important things behind causing you to brick your note.

And please if your phone is slow at loading, just relax don't panic, don't press anything if you think that your smartphone is not working properly, just let it do it's thing.

Photo by Slashgear
Requirements: 

Steps:

  1. You need to install your Samsung Keis on your computer, this is done in order for Odin to detect your device.
  2. Open Odin.
  3. Switch your device off and then press and hold volume up and volume down, this will put your device into download mode. 
  4. Plug in your USB cable from computer to your device.
  5. Once the Odin detects your phone and recognizes it then click PDA button and look for  netchip-cwm-update2.tar and then click on start and it will now be flashed to your phone and ready for reboot.
  6. After you have rebooted your phone press and hold the volume up button, the home button and the power button to enter the recover mode. This will be clockwork recovery mode for most android phones.
  7. Look for the one that says install zip from SD card and then choose su-2.3.6.1-ef-signed.zip and then click it. 
  8. After that is done it will show you other options in the recovery mode, gently choose the reboot system option
  9. Wait for it to reboot and then you're done, your note will now be rooted to Android 2.3.5 Enjoy!! 
If this will work for your please comment below or share it, like it, and tweet it!! I would appreciate it. 

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Market Enabler for Android review

It's a hassle when you can't download an app just because it's not released in your country or region. Also when you have upgraded your android phone to a different version and suddenly you can't find the apps in the market. This is the app that will help you with that problem.
Market Enabler let's you download apps that are restricted in your area, apps that are paid. But for me this app helped me when I was looking for the blogger for android app just to find out that I can't download it. Luckily I remember Market Enabler, and then BAM! after I have installed it it became easy for me to get apps that were recently disabled from the market. 

If you are interested in trying that app out, head to the app market or click this link https://market.android.com/details?id=ch.racic.android.marketenabler

Trust me it works! Share it if it works for you.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Motorola Atrix 3 leaked concept photo

Today I read in one of Android Guys tweet about the upcoming Motorola Atrix 3.  This phone is going to set today's smartphones to a higher level, from the usual 8mp and 5mp cameras they are going coming out with a phone that's built with a 10mp camera. All I can say is WOW!

At first glance you might mistake this phone as a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but when you look closer you will see the Motorola trademark. What's also going to big with this phone is the battery, it's gonna be bigger than the usual batteries of smartphones, imagine a 3,300mAH battery, you will have plenty of time playing high definition games with it's quad core Tegra 3 processor before you hit the plug. That's gonna be amazing!

Picture from PocketNow

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Android Jelly Beans (Android 5.0) is coming out this summer

While the title of this post makes us all android users very excited, we can't do anything but wait for the release of this new android OS. But come to think of it why are we all excited about this new OS when we can't even get our hands on Ice Cream Sandwich getting installed in our device.

A lot of talk are coming out that Google will be releasing the new OS possibly within this year, but for me having a new OS doesn't help much because performance of your android device would still largely depend on your device's hardware. 

That is why for me I just focus on looking for the better OS and kernel for my android, even if it is only Gingerbread, this is what I love about android, is the capability to let the users pick anything that suits their lifestyle.