Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X Review: Is this the Full HD Phone We’ve Been Waiting For?

Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X Review: Is this the Full HD Phone We’ve Been Waiting For?

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Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X Full Review

If there was some sort of hierarchy based on price, the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X should be considered Cherry Mobile’s newest flagship device at Php12,399. Fortunately the Omega HD 2X not only has the price of a flagship, but it also has the lineage and the specifications of one. The first generation Cherry Mobile Omega was one of the first local branded HD phones to hit the market at a reasonable price. This was followed up by the highly successful Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2.0. Today we have the latest generation, the Omega HD 2X and it’s back up with pretty monstrous specifications.

Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X Spec Sheet

  • 1.5GHz Turbo MediaTek Processor
  • 2GB RAM
  • 32GB Internal Storage
  • 5.7-inch Full HD IPS OGS Display
  • Asahi Dragon Trail Scratch Resistant Glass
  • 18.0-megapixel primary camera
  • 8.0-megapixel secondary camera
  • HSPA+, 3G, WiFi, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth, GPS/aGPS, FM Radio
  • Dual SIM, Dual Standby
  • Android Jelly Bean 4.2
  • 2,500mAh Battery
  • SRP: Php12,399

We’ve had a demo unit courtesy of Cherry Mobile for the last two weeks now. If you haven’t read our unboxing and initial hands-on impressions post, click here. For today we’d like to share with you guys our full review of this new powerhouse from Cherry Mobile!

A Refined, Smooth, and Slick… Phablet

Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X

Measuring 5.7-inches, the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X is a phablet through and through. As with any other phablet it’s a polarizing product. Not everyone appreciates big phones and the Omega HD 2X is no exception to this rule. At 5.7-inches it’s clearly in the phablet space. Fortunately the manufacturers were able to cushion the “effects” of a phablet by keeping it as thin as possible. Thanks to a really thin bezel and a slim form factor, the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X feels and looks much thinner and lighter than what it actually is.

The ports, buttons, and controls were situated in their usual places along the sides. The removable back plate has a rubbery matte finish, similar to the material used for the budget-friendly smartphone, the Cherry Mobile Flare S. While it looks cool, we hate how it accumulates smudges and finger prints like crazy.

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Perhaps the biggest selling point of the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X is the 5.7-inch Full HD IPS OGS display. Once we turned the device on we were amazed at the over-all quality of the display! Colors were bright, vibrant, and sharp. The icons seemed like they were just floating and hovering thanks to the OGS technology. Viewing angles were also superb thanks to IPS. In short, it’s one of the nicest looking 5.7-inch displays we’ve seen on a local branded smartphone.

The quality of the display makes the Omega HD 2X a superb mobile media player! It’s awesome for watching HD videos either from YouTube or stuff that you’ve downloaded and stored in the device.

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Over-all the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X has a great build for a phablet. Despite the big screen they’ve managed to make it more useable by keeping it as slim as possible and making the edges curved. However some people may find the back plate a little too plain for a flagship especially when other local brands have started to ship products with aluminum/metal backs and sides.

Jam-packed with Power… But is it Enough for Full HD?

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The Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X is powered by the 1.5GHz turbo quad-core chipset of MediaTek coupled with 2GB of RAM. We’ve seen previous devices with the same processor but with just 1GB RAM and these handsets were sluggish because they couldn’t fully support Full HD resolution. The big question today is if the additional 1GB RAM will be able to solve that problem. After testing for weeks we’ve come to the conclusion that it fixes it up to 80%. There is still noticeable lag but only when you’re doing RAM hungry tasks like multi-tasking and super demanding graphics apps like Dead Trigger 2. In short, there’s a big improvement versus Full HD devices with just 1GB RAM but it’s not completely resolved.

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When it comes to gaming, the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X can handle most of the games in the Google Play store, after all it did score well over 15,000 on the Antutu Benchmark Test. Unfortunately not all games play out super smoothly. Best example would be Dead Trigger 2. It sometimes get stuck in between loading stages. We had to wait 10 minutes just to switch from stage to stage. For more casual titles though like Candy Crush and Plants vs Zombies 2, you won’t have any major problems whatsoever.

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Performance-wise, the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X gave us the best Full HD mobile experience. However it is still far from perfect as evidenced with the issues we pointed out earlier. Sad to say this but MediaTek just isn’t ready yet for Full HD with their quad-core chipsets. Maybe when they get do a mass roll-out of their octa-core chipsets we’ll finally be able to nail that buttery smooth user experience that we’ve bben looking for.

Camera

We’re happy to report that the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X has one of the most capable optics in Cherry Mobile’s line-up of smartphones! While there is some washout with some of the photos, it is still manageable. The camera takes detail quite well though there is a tendency for the photos to get blurred quickly if you have shaky hands (more than the usual).

Anyway, check out the sample shots below:

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Just a little more and I think they would have nailed the perfect color balance.

Battery Life: Wow

What caught us by surprise though was the battery life. Initially we thought the 2,500mAh wouldn’t be enough given the Full HD display. However we consistently got well over 8 hours of use daily despite having 3G and Sync turned on. This was with mid-heavy usage including watching one movie spread throughout the day.

Verdict: Just a Little More!

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The Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X is probably the best local branded Full HD smartphone right now because it gives a respectable Android experience despite the Full HD display. However it also makes the case for octa-core powered local branded smartphones. It looks like the MediaTek turbo quad-core chipset isn’t enough to give a flawless Full HD experience. Hopefully the octa-core chipsets will herald the true Full HD era for local brands.

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