Phone smart

Both Cherry Mobile and MyPhone now offer low cost 5-inch dual SIM Android phones. Internally, both phones are similar. Both are powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor on a MediaTek  MT6577 chipset with a PowerVR SGX531 graphics chip. Both comes with 4 GB of internal storage which is expandable via a MicroSD card.  In terms of software, both phones are powered by Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The 5-inch Cherry Mobile offering is the Titan, which is priced at Php6,499. Having gone to five Cherry Mobile outlets, and unable being to find a unit for sale on stock, it appears to be selling really well. I did not have too many problems finding a 5-inch MyPhone A919 selling at a higher price of Php7,999 it is not too surprising if it will be a slower seller.

From a buyers perspective, the question is whether the MyPhone A919 has better hardware to justify the Php1,500 price premium.

1. Display - The MyPhone A919 has a 480 x 854 resolution IPS display, which has a higher resolution than the 480 x 800 display of the of Cherry Mobile Titan. The IPS display of the MyPhone A919 should also mean better image quality, but I have not been able to compare them side-by-side.

2. Camera - The MyPhone A919 has a 8MP camera, higher than the 5 MP unit Cherry Mobile Titan. Higher megapixels do not translate to higher image quality and so far none of the entry level phones I have seen produce great images. 

3. TV-Out and USB on-the-go support. The MyPhone A919 supports 

Battery - The Cherry Mobile Titan only has one specification which exceeds the MyPhone A919. The Titan has a 2350 mAh battery, as against the 2000 mAh battery of the A919. That should mean 16% longer battery life.

The larger battery and lower price would make me pick the Cherry Mobile Titan, well when I finally am able to find one. 

As for the MyPhone A919, holding it in hand, I just could not get myself to buy it. From pictures, the Cherry Mobile Titan looks like a rather generic Android phone design. But this is something I can respected. In the end, looking at available handsets, the Cherry Mobile Titan looks like a Cherry Mobile Titan.

In hand, the  MyPhone A919 looks like a Samsung Galaxy S III wannabe. I am fine with a entry level phone. I just dont one looking like it was designed to copy something else.

Cherry Mobile has announced that it will be releasing thee new phones this December 2012. You have two new Android phones running on Ice Cream Sandwich with 4.5-inch and 4.7-inch displays and a 5.3-inch Android monster phone running on Jelly Bean. Most of the interest has focused on the JellyBean powered monster.

This 5.3-inch phone is rumored to be a rebranded Zopo ZP900 upgraded with Android 4.1 JellyBean. There are two variants of the ZP900 for sale abroad, one with 512 MB of RAM and a 5 MP camera and the others with 1 GB of RAM and an 8 MP camera. Given that the local version will be running JellyBean, we expect the 1 GB model.

The other specifications are typical of entry level phones with a dual core processor on a MediaTek chipset, 4 GB of internal storage, MicroSD card slow, WiFi, HSPA, GPS and Bluetooth. The battery is a decent sized 2300 mAh unit. The display is what everyone is interested in. It should be a 5.3-inch IPS display with a qHD (540 x 960) screen resolution. 

Now the phone looks suspiciously familiar. Yup it looks like a Samsung Galaxy S III/Note II. Down to having a physical button. Here is to hoping the Cherry Mobile version has all capacitative buttons, or even better yet, on screen buttons.

The Zopo ZP900 with 1 GB of RAM and an 8MP camera sells for US$239 abroad. So you can expect local pricing to be in about the 10K range.

Than again, it might not be the Zopo ZP900.