Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 Initial Review: Exclusive Debut on Unbox!

Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 Initial Review: Exclusive Debut on Unbox!

Ladies and gents, meet the Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0!
Ladies and gents, meet the Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0!

Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 debuts on the Unbox Podcast!!!

The Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 is OFFICIAL. We actually did a live unboxing and reveal on the Unbox Video Podcast (we will upload it soon on YouTube). The device is pretty impressive considering it has very competitive specifications and a beautiful big 5.7-inch HD IPS display with 720×1280 resolution. While we don’t have the official pricing yet we expect Cherry Mobile to price this below Php10,000 (maybe Php9,999). Read on for our unboxing as well as our initial review.

UPDATE: We’ve confirmed with Cherry Mobile that the SRP of the Blaze 2.0 is Php9,499.

Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 Spec Sheet

  • 1.2GHz Quad-core Processor
  • PowerVR SGX 544 GPU
  • 1GB RAM
  • 4GB Internal Storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD Card
  • 5.7-inch HD-IPS Display, 720×1280 resolution
  • 12.0-megapixels rear-facing camera with auto-focus and flash
  • 3.0-megapixels front-facing camera
  • 3G, WiFi, WiFi Hotspot, GPS/aGPS, Bluetooth, FM Radio
  • Dual SIM, Dual Standby
  • Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean
  • 2,500mAh Battery

Unboxing: Typical Cherry Mobile Packaging

Hello there sezzy.
Hello there sezzy.

The Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 comes in your usual Cherry Mobile colorful box. It has the product photo and name at the front with the huge quad-core branding on top. At the back we find the specifications and all other small details. Opening it was also standard fare. We removed the tape and pulled out the inner compartment. We were immediately greeted by the huge Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 wrapped in plastic.

5.7-inches of awesomeness
5.7-inches of awesomeness

We’ll get to the phone in detail later. Other than the phablet we also found the usual peripherals: charger, USB to microUSB cable, earphones (branded Cherry Mobile), warranty card, and the manual. What we found amusing was the design of their wall charger. It looked like the old Apple wall charger from the earlier iPhones and iPads.

Lumelevel sa Apple
Lumelevel sa Apple

There were no other freebies but that’s okay since Cherry Mobile is really cutting costs so that they can sell this at the lower possible price.

Hardware Check: A Slim and Light Phablet

The Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 rocks a 5.7-inch display making it bigger than the Galaxy Note 2. However it somehow gives an illusion that it’s actually smaller than it is because of the form factor. It measures just 9.9mm thick, making it one of the more slimmer phablets in the market today. It’s heavier than the Omega HD 2.0 but not by much as well.

Just 9.9mm thick
Just 9.9mm thick

The good news is Cherry Mobile finally picked a phone without a pure glossy plastic chassis. The Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 has a smooth black matte finish at the back. It’s cool to the touch and a joy to hold. The Blaze 2.0 branding is at the center, the 12MP BSI camera with LED flash at the top, and the speaker grill and Cherry Mobile branding at the bottom.

Another improvement is the color of the band. Usually Cherry Mobile goes for the silver or chrome color. With the Blaze 2.0 they went for a Dark Blue hue making it more sleek, elegant, and professional. Resting on the band are the usual ports and buttons: micro USB port at the bottom, volume rocker and power lock at the right, and the headphone jack on top.

What the back looks like
What the back looks like

At the front we have the 5.7 glass display. The receiver grill is at the top together with the 3MP camera. At the bottom we have a physical home button… which we found really weird since the display already has an on-screen button for home (feature of Android Jelly Bean 4.2). This is kinda redundant actually but hey like what a viewer said during the podcast… two is better than one, lol.

Weird.
Weird.

Over-all the Blaze 2.0 is still hefty and quite big. The thing with phablets is that they tend to polarize customers. Some will love ’em while some will hate ’em. To those who love phablets though we can say that this one is designed well and that the internals show a lot of potential.

Speaking of internals…

Software Check: Android Jelly Bean 4.2.1 FTW

The Cherry Mobile Blaze 2.0 packs Android 4.2.1 out of the box. Our initial few hours with it showed promise as we barely encountered any lags or delays thanks to the quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, and Project Butter of Android Jelly Bean. The internals were more than enough to handle basic core functions.

We did a quick Antutu benchmark test and it scored over 12,900, which is good for MediaTek powered quad-core devices.

Not bad.
Not bad.

In the next few days we’ll load this phone up with graphics intensive games and other kinds of applications.

Full Review Coming Soon!

Full review coming soon!
Full review coming soon!

We’ll be battering this phone with our usual tests for the full review. This includes the battery rundown and the photo quality of the camera. Expect the full review sometime next week as we really want to take our time in burning in this device so that we really get the real world user experience out of it. 🙂

PS: We’ll embed the Unbox Podcast Episode featuring this device on this post as soon as it’s available.

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