We unbox Cherry Mobile’s Pulse!

Cherry Mobile is a company that’s on a roll. Aside from releasing the Flare 3, dubbed by the company as the quad-core ng bayan, the company also released the Pulse, the most affordable octa-core smartphone in the country. Today the company delivered our review unit, and today we’ll be unboxing it for you guys!

Cherry Mobile Pulse specs

• 1.7GHz MediaTek MTK 6592 processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 5-inch HD IPS display, Dragontrail Scratch Resistant glass protection, 1280 x 720 resolution
• 8GB of storage, expandable via microSD up to 64GB
• 13-megapixel camera with LED flash
• 5-megapixel front camera
• Dual-SIM
• 3G, HSPA+
• WIFi, Bluetooth, GPS
• 2000mAh
• Android 4.4 KitKat with double tap to wake feature
• Php 6,499 

Packaging and contents 

Cherry Mobile’s pulse come in a very nice box, with a die-cut carton sleeve that goes over the actual box. The carton sleeve has the photo of the Pulse in front, with a quick rundown of the relevant specs on the back.

Aside from the usual goodies that Cherry Mobile throws in every box that ships with their smartphone (which includes a USB cable, charger and headphones), they’ve also included a screen protector in the package.

Initial Impressions: Powerful budget octa-core smartphone with a unique design

When we first saw the design of the Pulse, we were a bit taken aback by its unique design. The back of the Pulse actually tapers down at the bottom of the smartphone, which gives the illusion of a wedge-like design that’s accentuated by the sloping sides.

As prices for octa-core smartphones drop, potential users are wary of the tradeoffs as far overall build quality is concerned. We’re happy to report that the Pulse has no such issues anywhere. It’s very well built, with no obvious seams or gaps anywhere on the device. While the Pulse has a removable plastic shell, it doesn’t seem that way when you first see it, as the shell fits so snugly with the device.

The volume rocker of the Pulse is located on the left side, while the power button is located on the right. Because of the unique sloping design of the Pulse, its 3.5mm jack and USB port are both located on the top.

When the display is off, only the home key is visible, though the two other Android navigation keys light up when you unlock the phone. The home button also acts as the notification light.

The 5-inch HD display of the Pulse is nice and bright, with good contrast overall. We were surprised to learn that the display has Dragon Trail glass protection on it. This, along with the included screen protector, should ensure that the Pulse’s display won’t get scratched during daily use.

As far as performance goes, the Pulse delivers synthetic benchmark scores that’s a bit lower than other octa-core smartphones we’ve reviewed in the past running the same clockspeed. Its AnTuTu score of 25406 is a bit low, especially when you compare it with other similarly specc’d octa-core smartphones out in the market today, like Cherry Mobile’s own Magnum S, which scored 27252 points.

We’ll be poking around the Pulse to find out what’s causing the lower score and will report any issues that we find in the full review.