Cherry Mobile’s first foray with MediaTek’s powerful but affordable Helio X20 chip didn’t turn out that well. The M1 had a myriad of problems which mostly resulted from un-optimized software in it. Add the fact that it didn’t feel anything remotely close to a phone that’s supposed to retail for more than 10K, and you’ll see why it had trouble moving in stores. Today we’ll be unboxing Cherry Mobile’s second Helio X20-equipped device in the form of the Cosmos 3 that makes up for the issues of the M1 and then some. Before we begin, let’s check out the specs:
Cherry Mobile Cosmos 3
- MediaTek Helio X20 deca-core processor
- Mali-T880MP4 graphics processor
- 3GB RAM
- 5.7-inch FHD IPS display, 1920 x 1080 resolution
- 32GB internal storage, expandable up to 128GB via microSD
- 13-megapixel rear camera, BSI AF, LED flash
- 8-megapixel front camera
- Dual SIM
- 4G LTE, 700MHz ready
- WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS
- USB Type-C
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow
- 3500mAh battery
Read:
Cherry Mobile Cosmos 3 initial review
Packaging and contents:
We’ve been noticing a pattern with Cherry Mobile’s latest releases in terms of packaging. Any phone that goes over the 5K mark gets a dark, black box, while more affordable releases get colorful boxes. The Cosmos 3 is no exception to this – the phone ships in a black box with a carton sleeve that just has the name of the phone written in front.
Take that sleeve out and you’ll see a clearer picture of the phone within. Inside the box, you get the usual accessories, which include a USB charger, a Type-C cable as well as a pair of headphones. There’s also a SIM ejector in the package and documentation for first time users.
Initial Impressions: Metal body, fast processor
Like we said when we first encountered the phone back in November, the Cosmos 3 felt like a phone that belonged in its price category, unlike the higher-priced X20-equipped M1. The Cosmos 3 has a metal body, giving it a premium feel that’s pretty much par for the course in its price bracket. While the back is primarily made out of metal, there’s two strips of slightly off-hue plastic on the top and bottom which hides the antenna bands of the device.
The sides of the phone curves slightly, with a the frame exhibiting a little bit of chamfer. The phone is a little chunkier than other phones that we’ve played with in the price bracket, but not by much. The small gaps on the body that we noticed with the engineering, pre-production version is gone – build quality is pretty top notch without any obvious flaws in assembly and construction.
Going around the phone, you’ll see the power button and volume rocker on the right, microSD/SIM slot on the left, while the 3.5mm jack and the IR blaster is located on the top of the phone. The device uses a USB Type-C connector for faster data transfer, which is flanked by two speaker grilles.
Moving to the front, you’ll see the 5.7-inch full HD IPS display. The bezels aren’t that big, and the large screen looks pleasant enough for most tasks like gaming. Viewing angles are generous, colors are good all around, basically we have no issues at all with the display on the Cosmos 3.
There’s a fingerprint scanner on the rear of the phone, sitting right below the 13-megapixel rear camera. The fingerprint scanner is pretty fast, unlocking the phone in less than a second.
Moving onto the hardware, the Cosmos 3 has a Helio X20 deca-core processor under the hood, paired with a Mali-T880MP4 graphics processor and 3GB of RAM, topped off with 32GB of internal, expandable storage. Aside from that, the phone is also 700MHz ready, so it’ll be able to take advantage of the new spectrums from both telcos which theoretically should result in faster LTE speeds wherever you go.
The retail variant of the Cosmos 3 looks to be well optimized out of the box. Navigating through the phone feels smooth, and apps work without any issues at all. Gaming is acceptable, with NBA 2K17 working smoothly on medium settings.
That’s pretty much it for this unboxing. Hopefully the Cosmos 3 works better than the M1 with prolonged use. The Cosmos 3 is already on sale in Cherry Mobile stores for Php 9,999, making it a far better deal than the similarly-equipped M1.
