Cherry Mobile Android One G1 Review

Recently, Cherry Mobile has introduced their newest Android one smartphone, the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One smartphone. And no folks, this isn’t the Cherry Mobile G1 Smartwatch, this is an Android smartphone. Compared to Gher Android smartphones, this smartphone is part of the Android One program which means that the software and the hardware of this smartphone is certified by Google and it will get the latest Android updates for up to two years

Hardware and Design

Compared to the previous Android One smartphone of Cherry Mobile, this one got a bigger screen and an updated hardware. The looks is really different from the predecessor but the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One smartphone is pleasing to the eye. It packs a no-nonsense and simple design which is really a plus for me because this smartphone looks good and it is also comfortable to use.

Just like other Android One smartphones, the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One doesn’t have a capacitive buttons. Instead, this smartphone opt for an on-screen buttons which takes a little bit of your display but minimizes the bezels on your smartphone. If you’ve seen an Android One smartphone or a Nexus device before, you would also notice its round earpiece which is a trademark of Android One and Nexus devices.

The sides sports a plastic chrome and black accents and for some reason, a lot of people have mistakenly thought that the sides of this smartphone is made up of metal. At the back, you’ll see the removable back cover which has a rubber matte texture with a solid feeling. Opening it would also reveal the Dual Micro Sim card slot along with the microSD card slot. Luckily for you guys, the Cherry Mobile G1 does have a removable 2500mAh battery.

One of the advantages of having this smartphone over the previous Android One smartphone of Cherry Mobile is the LTE connectivity. Thanks to Google for ditching the aging MT6582 processor in favour of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One smartphone now packs dual LTE. And for people who loves to play music on their smartphone, you won’t be disappointed with the crisp and clear quality of the speaker that is located below the smartphone.

The smartphone’s storage has been bumped up to 16GB along with 2GB of RAM to give you a more satisfying and more awesome experience on the smartphone. The storage is also expandable thanks to the MicroSD card slot.

Battery Life

The smartphone got a 2500mAh battery which was able to last a day of use. I was actually surprised that this smartphone was able to last up to a day of average use because most local branded smartphones won’t last up to more than a day.

Display

Normally, I wouldn’t get excited with the display of the smartphone if I know that it only packs an HD resolution or the price of the smartphone is pretty cheap. Well, the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One changed that because the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One’s 5-inch HD display is pretty great.

Yes, it might be only HD but the colors were really damn good for its price range and the brightness of the smartphone was really awesome. Sunlight legibility was great too and for a 5-inch HD display, the smartphone’s display is crisp too. Yes, I love the display of the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One smartphone.

Software and Performance

This is probably the biggest strength of this smartphone. I have to be honest with you guys, I love stock Android. I love Nexus devices and I like the feel of Android One smartphones because they’re smooth and I experience zero lags and it is probably the closest thing to the speeds of  iOS and Windows Phone.

Just like other Android one devices, the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One only features Google applications but there are two added application that are preinstalled on the device which are eWarranty for the warranty of the smartphone and ES File Explorer, the built-in file manager for the smartphone.

As of this moment, there’s no Android Marshmallow update for this smartphone but there’s no need to be disappointed with that because the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One smartphone is comfortable to use. It’s fast, fluid and the experience is really different compared to other smartphones that has preinstalled UI on them.

If you’re a newbie Android user, you wouldn’t hate it because it’s still user-friendly and if you’re worried about the updates, well guys, Google has promised that this smartphone would have updates for up to two years. So probably, we might see this smartphone running on Android N soon.

This smartphone packs a Snapdragon 410 processor along with 2GB of RAM. When you base it on the white paper, this smartphone is categorized as a midrange smartphone. Most of you also probably haven’t tried using Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor before. Well, this processor performs good for a mid-range smartphone. It has performed as expected and when it comes to games, most games would probably run on this smartphone without lags however don’t expect the highest settings on all games.

Actually, I’ve used this smartphone for playing different games such as Clash of Clans, Asphalt 8, UFC and Stellacept Online. The three latter games that I’ve mentioned requires a pretty good hardware to run smoothly and yes, the Cherry Mobile G1 Android One smartphone didn’t disappoint. Yes, sometimes you’ll experience the drop in framerates but no to the point of the game not being playable. I’m very satisfied with its performance. At Antutu, I got a score of 22074 which is just expected on a smartphone with this specifications.

Camera

The Cherry Mobile One G1 one packs an 13-Megapixel Rear camera with Dual-LED flash which is an upgrade from its predecessors

Most of the shots that I got were sharp at well-lit conditions and got the right colors however I noticed that the shots sometimes are overexposed. At lowlight conditions, there are less noise than I expected. It was able to capture brighter photos too.

Verdict

The Cherry Mobile One G1 is a big upgrade from its Android one predecessor. It has a bigger and brighter 5-inch display which is now a norm in smartphones. The Snapdragon 410 processor inside it might not be the best when it comes to performance but it performs well for basic tasks and I didn’t experienced lags on the smartphone. Oh and there’s LTE too. This is a really good smartphone if you want to experience a lag-free and silky smooth Android experience.

The Cherry Mobile One G1 is now available for P5,999