We pit these two new phones against each other!

If you haven’t heard, Android One is now officially on our shores, and Google has partnered with two local brands to bring their vision of pure Android to the Philippines: Cherry Mobile and MyPhone. Both local brands have their own interpretation of the Android One experience in the form of the One and Uno, respectively. Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at both devices to see how both stack up to one another.

Cherry Mobile One specs

• 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek 6582 processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 4.5-inch TFT capacitive display, Asahi Glass, FWVGA display
• 8GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
• 5-megapixel rear camera with BSI
• 2-megapixel front camera
• Dual-SIM
• 3G
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
• Android 5.1 Lollipop
• 1780mAh battery

MyPhone Uno Specs

• 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek 6582 processo
• 1GB RAM
• 4.5-inch FWVGA display
• 4GB storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
• 5-megapixel rear camera
• 2-megapixel front camera
• Dual-SIM
• 3G
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
• Android Lollipop 5.1
• 1700mAh battery

As you see on the spec sheet, both devices are almost identical to each other in terms of specs. Key differences are storage (8GB for the One vs. 4GB on the Uno) as well as battery capacity (1780mAh on the One versus 1700mAh for the Uno). Obviously the phones are quite different when it comes to overall form factor, with the One having a more traditional, rectangular design versus the Uno’s curvier body.

Both devices obviously sport Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, and while Google has not shared the official changelog of the new Android version, we’ve been told by a rep of a local brand (he doesn’t want to be named as of the moment) that the new version deals with bug fixes in the code – no mute, optimization of the WiFi connection (no more disconnects) and other software optimizations. There’s no new features as of the moment, which is probably why Google isn’t in a rush to publish a changelog of the new Android update.

Anyway, both devices were fast and lag free when it came to navigation as well as opening and closing apps. The display quality of the screens were roughly the same as well. If you’re noticing that there isn’t a big difference in terms of overall performance and hardware quality, that’s because both devices use the same hardware in their construction. It’s the way the initiative works, and right now there’s only a small subset of hardware that’s been certified by Google to use in Android One handsets.

Probably the most important defining feature of both devices will be price – Cherry Mobile’s One smartphone will be sold at Php 3,999, while MyPhone has not announced pricing for the Uno as of yet, just saying that it’ll be under 5K. Because their device has slightly lower specs than the One, we’re assuming that it’ll be cheaper, but nothing is set in stone until MyPhone announces their pricing.

What’s more important at this stage is what the Android One initiative means for phones in the pipeline. We’ve been told by Caesar Sengupta, VP Product Management, Google that they are hard at work certifying more hardware components to be used in Android One devices, which include processors made by Qualcomm as currently only MediaTek SoCs are used in Android One as of writing.