We unbox the Cherry Mobile Alpha Luxe!
A few hours ago Cherry Mobile officially unveiled two Windows Phone powered smartphones, a first for the local brand. We’ve already gone into detail about the Alpha Style, and now we’ll be unboxing the Alpha Luxe. The Luxe is the more expensive of the two devices, but make no mistake – it’s still pretty affordable, coming with better specs compared to its Windows Phone competitor, the entry level Lumia 530.
Cherry Mobile Alpha Luxe specs
- 1.2GHz quad-core processor
- 1GB of RAM
- 5-inch IPS HD display, Dragontrail Glass
- 8GB of storage, expandable via microSD
- 8-megapixel rear camera
- 2-megapixel front camera
- WiFi, Bluetooth
- Dual-SIM
- Windows Phone 8.1
- 2000mAh battery
- Php 4,999
Packaging and contents:
Since the Alpha Luxe is part of a new product line, Cherry Mobile saw fit to overhaul their packaging for it. The device ships in a white box that has a glossy photo of the device printed on the front, as well as a quick recap of the specs on the back.
Opening the box, you’ll discover that the accessories are standard Cherry Mobile – charger, USB cable, headphones and manual.
Initial Impressions: an Omega Icon clothed in Windows Phone 8.1
When we first saw the Alpha Luxe, we had an immediate case of déjà vu. We knew we’ve seen it before, we just couldn’t place it. A Cherry Mobile rep confirmed exactly what we’ve been thinking – the Alpha Luxe is basically just a modified Omega Icon, running Windows Phone 8.1. That’s not a bad thing – we really liked the Omega Icon, and it was overall a good phone, so we were happy to see that Cherry Mobile more or less used the same hardware on the Alpha Luxe.
Of course, the Alpha Luxe isn’t completely identical to the Omega Icon. The faux leather back is gone, replaced by a glossy, dark grey back that has a small circle pattern on it.
Aside from that (and the removal of the front facing LED flash) the layout of the Alpha Luxe follows the Omega Icon – volume rocker on the left, power button on the right, 3.5mm jack and USB port on the top of the device. The Android capacitive keys on the bottom are naturally gone, replaced by their Windows Phone equivalent.
Navigating through the Alpha Luxe is fast and fluid, no doubt thanks to the very efficient Windows Phone OS and the 1.2GHz quad-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and Adreno 302 GPU on the device. We’ve seen Windows Phone run extremely well on phones with crappier hardware, which is a testament to how well the OS is optimized.
Looking at the competition, you’re definitely getting a lot of bang for your buck. Microsoft’s own Lumia 530 is priced at Php 4990, sports a display that’s only 4-inches big, has 512MB of RAM and a paltry 1,430 battery. Is the Alpha Luxe a better deal? You’ll find out soon enough after our review.