Cherry Mobile Omega XL Unboxing: 6-inch Smooth and Affordable Phablet

Cherry Mobile Omega XL: A Steal at Php7,999?

This is our very first gadget unboxing for 2014! Definitely a special moment that deserves a special device. Friends, meet the Cherry Mobile Omega XL, a 6.0-inch quad-core monster that retails for just Php7,999. It’s easy to overlook the Cherry Mobile Omega XL because most of the attention is on it’s bigger brother, the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2X. However at Php7,999 the Cherry Mobile Omega XL promises to be a very good deal, one that you cannot just overlook especially if you’re looking for a smartphone and your budget is less than Php8,000.

As usual we’ll kick things off with this unboxing post and follow through with a full review later on. Let’s take a look at the specs of this bad boy!

Cherry Mobile Omega XL Spec Sheet

1.3GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6582
Mali-400MP2 GPU
1GB RAM
4GB internal storage, expandable via microSD Card
6.0-inches IPS OGS qHD display, 960×540 pixels
Asahi DragonTrail Scratch Resistant Glass
13.0-megapixels primary camera with LED flash
8.0-megapixels secondary camera
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
WiFi, WiFi Hotspot, 3G, HSPA+, Bluetooth, GPS, aGPS
2,450mAh battery
Android 4.2 Jellybean
SRP: Php7,999

As you can see, it’s a very capable device. We actually don’t mind the qHD resolution since we’ve gotten wary already of Full HD smartphones with only 1GB of RAM. The only sore spec there for us is the 4GB internal storage. As we’ve kept on pointing out recently, we believe that the minimum these days should already be 8GB for internal.

Anyway, let’s move on to the unboxing!

>>> See Also: Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2x Review

Packaging and Unboxing

The Cherry Mobile Omega XL came in a rather big black carton box. The design was the usual style of Cherry Mobile, product shot up front and technical specifications at the back. To improve on the packaging, Cherry Mobile should consider putting a one-liner that sums up the advantages of their devices. Sure there are a lot of techies like yourself reading this post now but a big chunk of the market is probably still composed of non-techies who haven’t even heard of Unbox or maybe even Yugatech! With all the gadgets Cherry Mobile has released so far it wouldn’t hurt for them to clearly position and differentiate their offerings.

Moving on, we pulled the top of the box and we were immediately greeted by the plastic covered and screen protector plastered Cherry Mobile Omega XL. First impression upon seeing it for the first time? Sheer amazement at how huge and yet smooth, curved, and slim the device was.

We set aside the phone and dug deeper into the box. We found the 2,450mAh battery, micro USB to USB cable, wall charger, user manual, and earphones. By the way, there’s a screen protector pre-applied already on the Omega XL.

Over-all unboxing was a good experience. We hope though that Cherry Mobile considers our suggestion on how to brand the boxes of their products. Would be interesting to see how it will affect their sales.

Initial Impressions: Overwhelmingly Positive

We’ve been using the Cherry Mobile Omega XL for the last few days as our secondary phone because one of our daily drivers conked out on us (we’ll start using it as our primary phone today for review purposes). So far we have no complaints whatsoever about it. We’ve rarely felt lags or delays and most of the stuff we do come out very smoothly and fluid. Initially we were bothered with the qHD resolution (since our eyes were used to FHD) but eventually our eyes adjusted and it looked just fine.

In terms of build, the 6.0-inch display will be daunting for some and this will definitely polarize the product. However the manufacturers were able to do a good job in keeping it slim and ergonomic thus giving you an impression that it’s actually more compact and smaller than it really is. As a phablet though you’ll probably still need two hands to properly operate the device, hehe.

At the back we have a glossy white plastic removable back plate. The Omega logo is at the center while the Cherry Mobile logo is at the bottom. The 13.0-megapixel shooter is at the top and just below it is the LED flash. We’ll preempt the review a bit by saying that we’re really impressed with the quality of the photos the 13.0MP shooter takes. It reminds us a lot of the camera that we loved from the THL W11 Monkey King. We’ll share our test shots during the full review.

Along the sides where the usual buttons and ports: volume rocker, power lock, micro USB, and audio. A welcome addition though was a the dedicated camera shutter button which is perfect for mobile shutterbugs like us.

When it came to performance, the 1.3GHz quad-core processor combined with the 1GB RAM was more than enough to power the 6.0-inch qHD display. This is another case of when qHD is better than full HD because you don’t have major performance issues that cause sluggishness, stuttering, and lags.

As far as initial impressions go we’re very happy and satisfied with the Cherry Mobile Omega XL. Still can’t believe it’s just Php7,999.

Full Review Coming Soon

We’ll be using this for a full week and then we’ll share the final review with you guys. So far though it’s looking like it’s a steal for Php7,999. We have a strong feeling we’ll be giving this two thumbs up. We just have to stress test it some more to see if the 2,450mAh battery holds up to heavy usage.

The Cherry Mobile Omega XL is available for Php7,999.