(UPDATE: We just received a text from Cherry Mobile indicating the correct price of the Flare S3 Octa. It should retail for P4,499, as originally intended. The company has since taken down its erroneous Facebook post.)
Cherry Mobile today announced on its Facebook page that its latest octa-core device, the imaginatively named Flare S3 Octa, is already available nationwide for P4,999 P4,499. What the local tech company failed to communicate to us is that the 5-inch Android KitKat phone has already been listed on Lazada Philippines for P500 less than its suggested retail price — with free shipping to boot.
As for the hardware itself, the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa attempts to up the ante in the bargain-basement segment, sporting a gold trim and a fake-leather back cover, with stitching around the edges (think Samsung Galaxy Note 3).
That’s likely a good thing for potential Cherry Mobile owners, as this model looks decidedly better than what we’ve come to expect from local brands. Inside, you’ll find a MediaTek MT6592m processor clocked at 1.4GHz and paired with Mali-450 graphics and 1GB of RAM.
Specs of the Cherry Mobile Flare S3 Octa (Price in the Philippines: P4,999 P4,499):
* Dual SIM
* 1.4GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592m processor
* Mali-450 GPU
* 1GB RAM
* 8GB internal storage
* microSD card slot
* 5-inch IPS display (540 x 960 resolution)
* 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
* 5-megapixel front camera
* 1,800mAh removable battery
* Android KitKat
RAMON LOPEZ’S TAKE: A case of miscommunication, perhaps? While online retailers typically sell their goods at lower prices, in large part because they don’t incur costs from operating physical stores (there’s a lot to consider when running a retail outlet besides wages, believe me), I don’t think Cherry Mobile is deliberately trying to mislead or deceive anyone. Certainly not its offline customers. Certainly not while majority of its distribution network is comprised of offline resellers that have yet to get their feet wet on the e-commerce market.
If you’ve decided on this particular Cherry Mobile, getting it from Lazada Philippines nets you
a decent discount plusfree shipping and one year of warranty coverage.
However, online shopping does have its perks, and scoring goods at cheaper-than-retail prices is one of them. My advice: If you’ve decided on this particular Cherry Mobile, getting it from Lazada Philippines nets you a decent discount plus free shipping and one year of warranty coverage — a rarity among Lazada-sold consumer electronics, unfortunately.
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