We go hands-on with the world’s most affordable Windows Phone!

We’re going to be brutally frank: Microsoft has struggled to get people to like its Windows Phone OS. While different manufacturers have tried to make Windows Phone powered devices before, they never really took off like Google’s Android OS. The reasons are varied, but one of the biggest was price – Windows Phones are not the cheapest devices in the market, and even Nokia (now part of Microsoft) struggled to come out with a Windows Phone powered device that could go head-to-head with affordable Android devices in developing countries.

Enter Cherry Mobile and their Alpha Style, announced a mere hours ago during their WOW event. The Alpha Style holds the distinction of being the most affordable Windows Phone ever made, retailing at a mere Php 2,999.

Cherry Mobile Alpha Style specs

• 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor
• Adreno 302
• 512MB of RAM
• 4-inch IPS display
• 4GB of storage, expandable via microSD
• 5-megapixel rear camera
• VGA front camera
• WiFi, Bluetooth
• 1500mAh battery
• Windows Phone 8.1 OS
• Dual SIM

Initial impressions: solidly built Windows Phone

Since this is one of Cherry Mobile’s first Windows Phone powered smartphones, it would make sense that the brand would want a good showing. The Alpha Style certainly manages that, and while it’s priced at an affordable price range, it doesn’t feel cheap. Build quality is good, and it has a nice and solid feel to it, and doesn’t look too shabby either.

The design of the Alpha Style takes a few pages from the Asha 305’s book, as it has a layer of clear plastic trapping the black plastic underneath. The back casing actually engulfs the back and sides of the Alpha Style, which is again, similar to Asha 503. The power button is on the right side and the volume rocker is on the left. Both the USB and 3.5mm ports are located on top.

Under the hood lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 1.2GHz quad-core processor, paired with an Adreno 302 GPU. The Alpha Style only has 512MB of RAM, but that shouldn’t be an issue, for reasons that we’ll get into in a bit.

Obviously the Alpha Style is running Windows Phone 8.1. Now many of you may be complaining about the limited 512MB of RAM that’s in the Alpha Style, but you don’t need to worry too much. Our experience with Windows Phone is that it’s capable of running smoothly on pretty limited hardware, as the OS is very well optimized, unlike Android. A Cherry Mobile rep also told us that in their tests, the Alpha Style managed to run longer compared to an Android device with similar specs, unfortunately we were not able to check how much mAh the Alpha Style is running.

At just Php 2,999, the Alpha Style may be the device that gets people who are curious about Windows Phone to jump ship from Android or iOS. It’s affordable enough that you won’t regret your purchase if you don’t like the ecosystem. We’ll be asking Cherry Mobile to send us a review unit of the Alpha Style to see if it’s really up to snuff compared to other devices in the market.