We go hands-on with the Omega HD3!

Cherry Mobile is a company that doesn’t slow down. Even after Christmas, the local outfit is still pumping out new products like crazy. Case in point, the new Omega HD3 – a budget 5-inch smartphone packing a quad-core processor, IPS display and 1GB of RAM under 3K.

Cherry Mobile Omega HD3 specs

• 1.3GHz Spreadtrum SC7731 quad-core processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 5-inch HD display, 1280 x 720 resolution
• 8GB of storage, expandable via microSD
• 8-megapixel rear camera
• 2-megapixel front camera
• Dual SIM
• 3G
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
• 2000mAh battery
• Android 5.1 Lollipop

Initial impressions: good blend of specs and design, though the Spreadtrum processor is worrying

While we all want flagship level specs with budget price tags, the reality is that there’s always going to be compromises the lower you go down the price totem pole. The challenge for Cherry Mobile and other local brands is to provide the best price-to-spec ratio for those budget devices, as well as try to differentiate their products via different designs.

The Omega HD3 is no exception. The new device sports really good specs for the price, previously unheard of for the category. Usually when you talk about about a phone that’s under 3K, you already expect a phone that has less than 512MB of RAM, a TN display rather than an IPS one and glossy, toy-like plastic.

We were pleasantly surprised then to find that the HD3 used a very nice looking faux metal and leather body. It’s not at all cheap looking, and while the phone is a bit on the light side it’s still looks way better than most phones offered in the same price range.

The phone sports a grey plastic frame, as well as a faux leather removable back. The phone has a lot of curves in its body, which makes it a relatively easy phone to use one-handed. Both the volume rocker and the power button is located on the right side of the device, while the bottom has the device’s speaker grille. The top of the phone has the 3.5mm jack and the USB port.

Internally sports the 1.3GHz Spreadtrum SC7731 quad-core processor, along with the a Mali-400 MP GPU and 1GB of RAM. We weren’t able to run AnTuTu on the device so we can’t comment on the overall processing capabilities of the SoC. During our short time with it, the Omega HD3 was fast and snappy, though we can’t use that as the actual gauge of performance since we’ll need more time with it. Other specs include 8GB of storage, an 8-megapixel rear/2-megapixel front camera combo, and a 2,000mAh battery.

The Cherry Mobile Omega HD3 is priced at Php 2,999.