We take a look at Cherry Mobile’s Explorer 2 Action Camera!

Action cameras are a dime a dozen nowadays, and while the gold standard is still GoPro, it’s difficult for a single brand to stand out. That’s probably why Cherry Mobile decided to think outside of the box with their newest offering: the Explorer 2. While it has the improvements you’d expect from a follow-up to their previous device, it also carries a noteworthy innovation that’s the first in the world: it runs Android Lollipop.

Android inside adds a new dimension in shooting

Before we get to the internals of the Explorer 2, let’s take a look at the externals first. The camera has gotten an upgrade in terms of looks, as it now sports a premium-looking metal plate on the front. As far as dimensions go, it’s a little wider than the first iteration, but the Explorer 2 can still sit in the palm of your hand without any problems, putting it on par with the offerings of other companies.

The front of the camera holds the 12-megapixel wide angle 170 degree lens, as well as the power button, LED indicator and mode change button. On the right of the camera sits the WiFi button, while on the left sits the microSD storage and the USB port. On shutter button is located on the top of the camera.

The 2-inch IPS display is located on the back. The 2-inch, 320 x 480 resolution display is touch-enabled, and allows you to navigate through the menus of the camera quickly and easily. That comes in handy when you realize that the Explorer 2 is powered by Android Lollipop.

That’s right – the Explorer 2 is capable of doing almost everything your Android phone can, which includes connecting to the internet, browsing, playing videos and even hopping on Facebook.

Many of you are probably scratching your head and asking, why? Well, it kind of makes sense – having Android Lollipop on board allows the camera to instantly share photos and videos through apps like Periscope, Facebook, Instagram and more – as long as it’s tethered to an internet connection via WiFi.

Not many action cameras can do that, and the ones that do are limited to whatever apps that the manufacturers allow. With Android on board the Explorer 2, as long as you can download and connect to it via WiFi, you can use whatever app you want to share your exploits with the camera. You can even update your Facebook via the touchscreen, but you’ll probably be driven insane by the tiny, tiny buttons that the small display gives you.

As for the hardware side of the Explorer 2, it runs MediaTek’s MT6580 quad-core processor at 1.3GHz, paired with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. Definitely not the fastest, but then again this isn’t really your typical Android device, now is it?

How about the actual image quality? It’s far better than the original. We’ve uploaded two videos taken earlier in SG, as well as photos taken in low-light – you judge for yourself if it’s better or not. The sensor is a 12-megapixel unit, though we’re not entirely sure of the make.

The Explorer 2 certainly looks promising as far as action cameras go. Running Android on the device gives it several really interesting use cases – just imagine using it as your dashcam and live-streaming it via Periscope, for example. It probably won’t fit in existing Action Cam cases though, since it’s a smidge larger, but mounts for the existing Action Cam will work with the device.

As far as pricing goes, your guess is as good as ours – Cherry Mobile has not revealed pricing for this particular camera as of yet, but expect it to be a little more expensive than the original.