We unbox the Cherry Mobile Ultra!

Yesterday, Cherry Mobile officially unveiled their latest LTE smartphone, the Ultra. The Ultra is the second LTE smartphone of the local brand, and comes in at a significantly lower price point than their initial LTE offering, the W900 LTE. While a good smartphone in its own right, the W900 LTE still had a pretty steep price at the time, especially considering the specs and the mere fact that there were LTE-equipped smartphones available for just a few hundred pesos more, negating the brand’s usually overwhelming price advantage. The Cherry Mobile Ultra aims to bring LTE connectivity to the masses, having a price point of just Php 8,999.

Cherry Mobile Ultra specs

• 1.2GHz MSM8226 quad-core processor
• Adreno 305
• 1GB RAM
• 5-inch HD IPS display, 720 x 1280 resolution
• 8GB storage, expandable via microSD up to 64GB
• 13-megapixel rear camera
• 5-megapixel front camera
• Single SIM
• 3G, LTE
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
• 2000mAh battery
• Android 4.3
• Php 8999

Packaging and contents

We were a bit underwhelmed when we saw the quality of the box of the Ultra. While it still looks pretty sturdy (able to protect the precious cargo inside) it lacked the visual flair that we’ve come to expect from the brand especially after the unboxing a couple of their Omega series of smartphones. The box of the Ultra has the photo of the smartphone outside, with the specifications listed behind the box.

Inside the box are the typical accessories you’ve come to expect from the brand, including a charger, headphones, USB cable and manual, as well as the actual device itself.

Initial impressions: handsome smartphone that delivers exactly what it promises

The overall design of the Ultra is a bit simplistic. That doesn’t mean it’s boring though – the front of the smartphone has a small plastic chin below the bezel, which kind of reminds us of the BlackBerry Z10 a bit. Even though the phone is made primarily out of plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap or plasticky.

The plastic surface of the phone has a subtle metallic sheen, and overall feels great in the hands. It has a bit of heft but it’s not totally heavy. The sides of the Ultra on the back are a bit curved, which allow you to get a better grip on the device.

Much like the W900 LTE that came before it, the Ultra uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoC to deliver LTE for cheap. It’s still uses a Snapdragon 400 SoC, in the form of a MSM8226 chip . We’re happy that Qualcomm has made good on its promise to deliver affordable, LTE capable SoCs that they made when we spoke to them a few months ago.

While the 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor may not impress with its clock speed compared to their rival MediaTek, the Qualcomm difference is felt with its synthetic benchmark score. Additionally, the SoC is able to deliver fast, consistent LTE in the brief time that we used it yesterday, which we will continually test as we go on.

As far as the user experience goes, the Ultra delivers some truly impressive performance especially considering its price. Navigating through the phone is silky smooth with nary a hint of lag, and overall the experience is very positive. It’s not really surprising, since Qualcomm takes pride in being involved in the process of conducting technical tests with the device to see if it meets their high standards, which allows brands like Cherry Mobile to use the Qualcomm logo on their boxes and on the device itself.

Much like the other Qualc0mm-powered smartphone we’ve unboxed lately, the Ultra is able to use the chipmaker’s BatteryGuru app, which should compensate for the relatively lackluster 2000mAh battery in the device. Will that be enough to ensure all day battery life with the Ultra? Only a full review will say for sure.