We unbox the Magnum S!

We’ve already seen the Magnum S in the flesh a few days ago, and today we’ll be unboxing it! The Magnum S has the distinction of being the most affordable octa-core smartphone in the company’s lineup, bearing a price of just Php 9,999.

Cherry Mobile Magnum S specs

• 1.7GHz octa-core processor
• Mali-450MP GPU
• 1GB of RAM
• 5-inch HD IPS display with Gorilla Glass 3, 1280 x 720 resolution
• 16GB of storage
• 18-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
• 8-megapixel front camera with LED flash
• WiFi, Bluetooth, USB OTG
• Android 4.4 KitKat
• 2300mAh non-removable battery
• Php 9,999

Packaging and contents

The Magnum S comes in Cherry Mobile’s typical packaging for its higher end offerings. A carton sleeve bearing the phone’s likeness surrounds the actual box.

Once you open the packaging, you’ll see the phone itself, along with the typical accessories that comes with Cherry Mobile’s devices: charger, USB cable, headphones and a user manual.

Initial impressions: Looks and feels premium despite a plastic body

Like we said earlier when we first encountered the Magnum S for the first time, you’ll mistake the device as bearing an aluminum body. Once you hold it, you’ll notice that it’s too light to have a metal body – the device actually has a plastic shell that’s been treated with a metallic finish.

Unlike other phones that have a plastic shell and a metallic finish, the one on the Magnum S is well done, and will usually fool people into thinking you have a metal bodied smartphone.

The Magnum S has curved sides and corners that make it easier for you to grip the device. It’s obvious from the photos that the Magnum S bears a sealed body that unfortunately doesn’t allow for expandable storage or replaceable batteries.

Unlike Cherry Mobile’s other octa-core smartphones, the Magnum S has a HD display rather than a full HD one. Based on experience, octa-core smartphones generally exhibit lag (however minute) when paired with a full HD display. Octa-core smartphones with HD displays generally tend to do better. That, combined with the enhancements in Android KitKat, makes the user experience in the Magnum S exceptionally smooth.

As far as AnTuTu benchmarks are concerned, the Magnum S scored 27267 points, which is more or less on the same level as other, similarly specc’d devices.

Unfortunately, the 16GB of storage that the device comes with (which comes around to just 13.36GB) may just be too limiting to some people, especially since there’s no way to increase it.

That’s it for this unboxing. We’ll be using this particular smartphone in the next few weeks to evaluate its performance.