Cherry Mobile Flare X Lite Unboxing and Initial Review: Full HD with a Tiny Battery?

Cherry Mobile Flare X Lite Unboxing and Initial Review: Full HD with a Tiny Battery?

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You may have seen leaks of the Cherry Mobile Flare X Lite circulating local tech sites with its specs listed and its price a peso shy of Php 5,000. Well, the wait is over. The phone has finally landed at Unbox HQ and it’s time to see what’s inside the box and get an initial read on the budget device by the local brand. Before we begin, let’s take a look at the specs for the Cherry Mobile Flare X Lite.

Cherry Mobile Flare X Lite Specs

  • 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 Octa-Core Processor
  • Mali-T720 GPU
  • 3GB of RAM
  • 5-Inch Full HD Display; Resolution 1080×1920
  • 16GB of Expandable Storage
  • 16-Megapixel Rear Camera
  • 8-Megapixel Front Camera
  • 3G, LTE
  • Dual SIM
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
  • 2000mAh Non-Removable Battery
  • Android 6.0 Marshmallow
  • Php 4,999.00

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Packaging and Contents

The box of the the Flare X Lite is covered by a black sleeve that gives a quick look at the specs at the back and serves as a teaser of sorts when you peel it back to reveal the plain white box the phone actually comes in; a nice contrast to an otherwise bland bit of packaging.

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Open up the box and you have the Flare X Lite itself wrapped in protective CPE bag with the rest of its accessories, which include: a USB wall charger, Micro USB cable, earphones, and documentation, accessed by lifting up the bit of cardboard holding up the phone. Simple and straight to the point, so let’s move along.

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Initial Impression: Very Vanilla and that Tiny Battery!

To be completely honest, nothing quite stands out with the Cherry Mobile Flare X Lite in terms of its design. We’re not saying that it’s badly put together or that the design is flawed in any way, but it does follow a cookie cutter mold that just makes it plain looking. The word vanilla definitely popped into our heads as we removed the unit from its protective baggie; especially in the white colored review unit we received.

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The phone is made of plastic with chrome accents around the seams of its frame and it feels rather solid in the hand. It has a removable back that exposes the SIM card slots and the Micro SD slot. Unlike most phones we’ve handled from the local brand, they’ve decided to make the 2000mAh battery of the Flare X Lite non-removable; a curious choice especially for one with such a small capacity.

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Taking a tour around the device and its all pretty standard as well. You’ve got your volume rocker and the power button on the right side with the Micro USB port and 3.5mm jack up on top. The rest of the sides of the Flare X Lite are bare save for the tiny hole at the bottom for the unit’s microphone.

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Behind the device is a bit of branding in the middle to give notice that smartphone in your hand is indeed part of the Flare series by Cherry Mobile. You’ve got the 16-megapixel camera on the upper left-hand corner with the LED flash beside it and on the lower left-hand side, you have the phone’s speaker grille.

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Heading on over to the front and you’ve got the 5-Inch Full HD display with capacitive keys on the phone’s chin plus the front camera up on top and, of course, the earpiece for taking phone calls. When the Flare X Lite’s specs were leaked, we were surprised to see a Full HD display listed on it; we’ve definitely seen other brands stick to 720p to make sure that its processing package didn’t have to work harder to push more pixels. This certainly a bold move on the part of Cherry Mobile. Let’s see if it pays off as we take the phone around town for its full review.

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Speaking of its processing package, you’ve got a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 SoC paired with a Mali-T720 GPU, 3GB of RAM, and 16GB of expandable storage; a popular choice for budget smartphone offerings. Despite of its Full HD display, the Flare X Lite doesn’t seem to falter navigating through the phone’s UI which runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and it even managed to net a respectable score on our initial benchmarks.

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The Cherry Mobile Flare X Lite has been priced at Php 4999 and at that price point it certainly has some appeal with its pretty sound spec sheet. The big question marks for us here are the choice to go Full HD and the tiny battery size that provides juice to the device. Does it all work out to make a decent performer? Or will these choices come back to bite them in the behind? Check back in a few days for the full review of the Cherry Mobile Flare X Lite.

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