Cherry Mobile Flare S5 Power Initial Review: Supercharged Flare

Cherry Mobile Flare S5 Power Initial Review: Supercharged Flare

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Along with all the other things Cherry Mobile launched today, the local brand also took the wraps off of their Flare S5 Power. Just like its other brothers, the Flare S5 Power was also designed by the local brand in-house, and as such follows the same design language of their other phones. The big difference here is that the Flare S5 Power has a massive 6050mAh battery inside of its chunky body. That’s a lot of juice. Just as always before we begin, let’s take a look at the specs of the phone:

Cherry Mobile Flare S5 Power specs:

  • 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 octa-core processor
  • 3GB of RAM
  • 5.5-inch full HD LTPS display, 1920 x 1080 resolution
  • 16GB of storage, expandable via microSD
  • 13-megapixel rear camera with BSI, LED flash
  • 5-megapixel front camera
  • Dual SIM
  • 3G, LTE (700MHz capable)
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, Fingerprint scanner
  • 6050mAh battery
  • Android Marshmallow 6.0
  • Php 7,999

Initial impressions: A little chunky, but has loads and loads of battery

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The Flare S5 Power follows the same design language as the S5 Plus, with a few differences. The upswept S7-ish curves near the top and bottom are non-existent, replaced with the more linear lines of the metal frame. Cherry Mobile also removed the 2.5D glass that’s present on the Flare S5 Plus, settling instead for a more traditional flat glass setup.

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The frame of the phone is still metal, though the phone gains a third button on the right side of the phone aside from the power and volume rocker. There’s now a physical camera shutter that functions as the quick-launch button for the camera app if you’re on the home screen. The microSD/SIM tray is located on the left side of the phone, while the 3.5mm jack and IR blaster is located on the bottom. The USB charging port is on the bottom.

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The Flare S5 Power still has the same plastic gloss back that’s on the S5 Plus, though it’s no longer removable. The rear of the phone also houses the fingerprint scanner, as well as the 13-megapixel rear camera module and LED flash. At the bottom sits the speaker grille for the device.

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Overall the Flare S5 Power is considerably chunkier than the other phones launched today in Cherry Mobile’s event to accommodate the massive 6050mAh battery inside the device. It’s substantially heavier too, probably to account for the power pack inside the device. The phone uses a single battery pack made by Sony, and has quick-charging capability, offered by the charger that’s bundled in the phone when you buy it.

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Inside the phone sits the same MT6753 octa-core processor made by MediaTek that powers the S5 Plus, paired with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. There’s more than enough processing power inside the phone to power through most tasks, though more resource-heavy Android apps will probably slow it down. Just like the other members of the Flare S5, the Flare S5 Plus can take advantage of the new 700MHz band that both telcos acquired from San Miguel, which theoretically means better performance all around. Because of the size of the power pack inside the phone, we’re guessing that the Flare S5 Power can go on and on without needing a trip to the charger. With the size of the battery, you can expect 3 days of continuous use, easy.

That’s pretty much it for this hands-on. Cherry Mobile is pricing the Flare S5 Power at Php 7,999, which isn’t a bad price considering the specs of the device. We’ll still have to see if the phone can hack it in real world performance, though, so stand by for our full review till then.

 

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