We review the Omega Icon!

Cherry Mobile has been in a very bullish mood lately, releasing one smartphone after another with only a few weeks’ respite. But even with the company’s relentless releases, one smartphone caught our eye: the Omega Icon. The Icon is part of the company’s Omega lineup, and uses a rather stylish synthetic leather (or pleather, as the company calls it) back, a design utilized by Korean giant Samsung in their Galaxy Note series of devices. This makes the Icon standout from the crowd mid-range smartphones that are currently in the market, but does the Icon have the complete package, or is it just a pretty face?

Cherry Mobile Omega Icon

• 1.2GHz quad-core processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 5-inch HD IPS display, Dragon Trail glass protection, 1280 x 720 resolution
• 4GB internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
• 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
• 5-megapixel front camera with LED flash
• 3G, HSPA+
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
• 2000mAh battery
• Android 4.3
• Php 6,499

Stylish design for less

If there’s one thing we’ve noticed about Cherry Mobile and its recent offerings, is that each new device manages to raise the bar as far as looks are concerned. That rings double for the Omega Icon. We’re really liking the overall design of the Icon, and even though the headliner of the show is the faux leather back, the way the entire device is designed really makes us want it even more.

The sides of the Omega Icon is surrounded by a metal band that adds to the premium feel of the device. The physical keys – a volume rocker on the left and the power button on the right – are both treated to the same metal finish as the sides of the Icon.

The pleather back of the Icon is nicely done and has fake stitching on the sides, adding to the illusion of leather. It’s a bit stiff and hard, and does feel a bit plastic to the touch, unlike other faux leather backs but it still gives you sufficient grip when you’re holding the device in your hands. The back can easily be taken out, which reveals the battery and the SIM and microSD slots.

The Icon has a 13-megapixel camera on the back, as well as a 5-megapixel camera on the front. Both cameras have a LED flash, though you’ll soon find out that the Icon doesn’t do well under artificial lighting conditions, especially with the front facing camera.

The display is a 5-inch, HD IPS deal, and is protected by Asahi’s Dragon Trail glass solution. The display quality is quite good, and has excellent viewing angles, good color reproduction and overall sharpness. We did notice that the display showed signs of back light bleeding , especially when the brightness is cranked to the max and the background is dark.

Cherry Mobile opted to use stock Android 4.3 for the most part, though they’ve still installed their custom lock screen on the Icon – the same one that’s present in Cherry Mobile’s other smartphone offerings. We did come across some users complaining about Facebook videos not playing on the Icon, which can be easily resolved by making sure you’re using the latest version of the Facebook app.

Good performance out of the Qualcomm processor

The Icon is the new breed of Cherry Mobile smartphones that uses Qualcomm’s relatively new Snapdragon 200 chips meant for emerging markets. We did notice something odd: Cherry Mobile’s promotional page for the Icon lists the processor as the quad-core MSM8212, though CPU-Z and AnTuTu says that the processor is a dual-core 8610. Cherry Mobile has issued a statement that the Icon is indeed running the quad-core MSM8212 (AnTuTu and CPU-Z detects the phone as running four cores) and simply uses the same board as the 8610 thus the discrepancy. Aside from the new processor, the Icon is also rocking Adreno 302 graphics, which makes it capable of running most Android apps without any issues.

As far as benchmarks are concerned, the Icon scored a respectable 15518 points in AnTuTu. As we mentioned earlier, the Icon doesn’t have any issues running any kind of game in the Android market and even resource heavy ones like Asphalt 8: Airborne and Dead Trigger 2 ran on it without any issues. On the navigation front, the Icon also performed well, being relatively smooth, with little to no lag when going through the phone and its contents.

Mediocre camera

The Icon’s camera is a mixed bag. It’s capable of good performance when you’re using it outdoors or in well-lit environments, producing acceptable detail and color reproduction.

Unfortunately, it struggles under low-light environments, even with the flash on. Speaking of the flash, we noticed that the front facing camera produced photos with a weird green tinge when used in conjunction with the flash, especially in low-light environments.

All-day battery life

If there’s one thing we like about Qualcomm’s SoC’s, it’s that they’re relatively more power efficient than MediaTek’s other solutions. This holds true for the Icon, which managed to soldier on through an entire working day with moderate use with plenty of juice left over. We managed to clock in around 9 hours with moderate use during an especially busy day, which would be unheard of using a MediaTek SoC. Additionally, you’re will also be able to use Qualcomm’s excellent BatteryGuru application with the Icon, which should extend your battery life a bit further.

Verdict: falters slightly in the camera department, but still a great buy

We’re continually impressed with Cherry Mobile’s recent smartphone offerings, the Omega Icon is no exception. While it does falter in the camera department, it still manages to bring the goods as far as performance, battery life and overall design is concerned. At Php 6,499, it’s still a good deal, is probably one of the best looking smartphones you can buy for that price.