Local smartphone brand Cherry Mobile today announced three new devices with Android Oreo (Go edition) for the best Android experience possible on a cheap handset. The Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Plus, Flare P3, and Flare P3 Lite are all priced under P5,000 or about $95, and come with quad-core MediaTek processors, taller displays, and fingerprint readers.
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Cherry Mobile’s promo material for the Anne Curtis-endorsed Flare P3 Plus, Flare P3, and Flare P3 Lite
In case you haven’t been keeping tabs with all the happenings in the industry, the Go edition of Android is a stripped-down version of the stock software found in Pixel and Android One devices. It’s optimized to work better on lesser hardware, while taking up less space on the phone (half the storage required by Android Nougat) and needing less RAM to run.
SEE ALSO: What Android Go is, and why you should care
It’s a big deal for companies like Cherry Mobile, which makes its living selling phones and tablets at dirt-cheap prices. It’s an even bigger deal when companies like Xiaomi, Honor, and OPPO, with their affordable yet high-specced devices, are approaching your door with a battering ram.
So what are we looking at here? Let’s detail each phone in quick order.
A look at the back of the Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Plus, Flare P3, and Flare P3 Lite
Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Plus
Among the three, the Flare P3 Plus offers the largest, most pixel-dense screen and the sharpest cameras, in addition to a longer battery life out of each charge. The 6-inch, 18:9 LCD is high resolution for a better viewing experience.
At the back, there’s a 13-megapixel camera with backside illumination, something most smartphone cameras have these days, whereas the front carries an 8-megapixel camera for selfies. The Flare P3 Plus also has the highest battery capacity at 3,000mAh.
The phone is priced at P4,499 ($86) and available in black, blue, gold, red, and purple colors.
Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Plus specs:
- Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted)
- 6-inch LCD display, 1,440 x 720 resolution (18:9)
- Quad-core MediaTek 6580 processor
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB expandable storage
- 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
- 8-megapixel front camera
- 3,000mAh battery
- 3G
- Android 8.0 Oreo (Go edition)
Cherry Mobile Flare P3
The Flare P3 retains the taller screen ratio, MediaTek-based internals, and 13-megapixel, backside-illuminated rear camera of the Plus variant, but everything else has been downsized to make the price more palatable for the mass market. Between the Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Plus and regular Flare P3, the former is much easier to recommend if your budget can stretch to it.
The Cherry Mobile Flare P3 will sell for P3,799 ($72) in the same colors as the Flare P3 Plus at authorized stores and kiosks nationwide.
Cherry Mobile Flare P3 specs:
- Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted)
- 5.5-inch LCD display (18:9)
- Quad-core MediaTek 6580 processor
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB expandable storage
- 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
- 5-megapixel front camera
- 2,400mAh battery
- 3G
- Android 8.0 Oreo (Go edition)
Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Lite
Finally, there’s the Lite version, which waters down everything except on the display and processor side of things, where you’ll still get the same 18:9 ratio and MediaTek 6580 chipset under the hood that fuels the other two. The 2,000mAh battery doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence — but we’re talking about a compact Android Oreo (Go edition) phone here, so who knows?
Rightfully the cheapest of the three, the Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Lite should run you P2,999 ($57) at local retail. The color options available are identical to what the Flare P3 Plus and Flare P3 have to offer.
Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Lite specs:
- Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted)
- 5-inch LCD display (18:9)
- Quad-core MediaTek 6580 processor
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB expandable storage
- 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
- 5-megapixel front camera
- 2,000mAh battery
- 3G
- Android 8.0 Oreo (Go edition)
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