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.