Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z2 Initial Review: Blazingly Fast, Amazingly Designed Smartphone

Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z2 Initial Review: Blazingly Fast, Amazingly Designed Smartphone

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This smartphone can give foreign brands a run for their money

Yesterday we witnessed the launch of Cherry Mobile’s first ever octa-core device, the Cosmos Z2. We did an initial post about the device which included the specs, and today we’ll be doing a follow-up post and a short review of sorts since we managed to score a bit of quality time with it after the event was over. Before we go any further, let’s check on its specs again:

Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z2 spec sheet

  • 1.7GHz MediaTek Octa-core processor
  • Mali 450MP CPU
  • 2GB RAM
  • 5-inch IPS OGS, full HD display, Dragon Trail ,1920 x 1080 resolution
  • Dual SIM
  • 16GB storage, expandable via microSD up to 64GB
  • 18-megapixel BSI camera with autofocus
  • 8-megapixel front camera
  • OTG ready
  • WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi direct
  • 2000mAh battery
  • Android Jelly Bean 4.2, gets KitKat upgrade in March
  • Priced at Php 12,999

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An amazing design that you’d expect from an international brand

We can’t get over how handsome the Cosmos Z2 is in person. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: photos does not do it justice. The overall build quality and design of the Cosmos Z2 is excellent. We initially assumed that the Cosmos Z2 had a unibody construction when we saw the back of the device. Turns out it actually had a removable back – the tight tolerances of the phone just made it look like it didn’t. Also, kudos to Cherry Mobile for going with a matte black back – it made the device feel less plasticky (although it had a plastic body) while at the same time making it easier to hold.

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The Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z2 has a 5-inch, full HD display that’s protected by Dragon Trail glass. The display of the Cosmos Z2 is very sharp and vibrant, with very good color reproduction.

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Strong performance from the octa-core processor

As expected, the Cosmos Z2 scored high in our AnTuTu benchmark, gaining 25742 points. The Cosmos Z2 was buttery smooth when we used it, though we did detect a tiny bit of lag while using the device. We encountered the same issue with the THL T100, and we’re positive it’s because of the full HD display present in the Cosmos Z2 and the THL T100. Then again, we’re not really sure if the demo devices that was present during the launch were retail or engineering units, so we’ll just have to find out for ourselves if the small lag issues persist in the retail units that Cherry Mobile will start selling today. Even if the issue is present for the small (and we do mean small) lag issue, we found that it could be solved  by installing a different launcher.

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Battery life concerns

One thing that we weren’t able to test was battery life. According to many of the comments on our Facebook account and on the initial article, the 2000mAh battery is a big issue for a lot of prospective buyers. While we’re not able to actually comment on the battery life since we didn’t have the device with us long enough, Cherry Mobile did post a video on their Facebook account (that’s obviously from MediaTek) that claims that their octa-core MT6592 processor in the Cherry Mobile Cosmos Z2 is more power efficient than their competitor’s quad-core solution, while at the same time delivering better performance. While the competitor in the video was not named, it was obviously Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600, judging from the Samsung Galaxy S4 that was used for the comparison.

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That’s about it for now, we’re trying our hardest to secure a review unit from Cherry Mobile so we can really put the Cosmos Z2 through its paces.

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