Cherry Mobile Cosmos S2 Review - The New Design Direction!

After observing the products of Cherry Mobile for several years, never have I been attracted to any of their smartphone offerings until I first saw this phone. I saw my business partner using it for several hours and the phone at first glance drew my attention and I immediately asked what phone was that? He laid the phone on the table and turned it on its back and showed me the phone's branding and my Jaw dropped when I saw the two words: Cherry Mobile.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos S2

Cherry Mobile Cosmos S2 Specs

Display: 5 Inch HD IPS AMOLED 1280 x 720 resolution and Gorilla Glass 3 protection at 294 PPI
CPU:  1.5 GHz Snapdragon 615
GPU: Adreno 405
RAM: 2 GB
ROM: 16 GB expandable via micro SD card slot up to 64 GB
Back Camera: 13 MP AF w/ BSI and LED Flash
Selfie Camera: 8 MP w/ BSI and beautification
Battery: 2,260 mAh w/ quick charge 2.0
OS: Android 5.0.2 Lollipop
Connectivity: WiFi, 3G, HSPA+, Dual LTE, Bluetooth, FM Radio, USB OTG, GPS, A-GPS, micro USB 2.0, dual SIM
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, proximity, gyroscope
Others: Super power battery saver
Dimensions: 146.5 x 74.9 x 10 mm
Price: 9,999 Pesos (Sale price of 4,999 Pesos)

Unboxing / Accessories

The box

The box itself is a total break away from the usual Cherry Mobile packaging. It was black box with minimal design. You will find the Cherry Mobile branding on top, and all the required regulatory information and technical specifications at the back.

Power Plug, USB cord, in-ear monitors, documentations, SIM card tray ejection tool, and the Cosmos S2

Once opened you find the phone itself, the USB cord, the in-ear monitors, the power plug (equipped with quick charge 2.0) and the documentation. This is all standard stuff.

Build Quality / Design

Antenna, speaker grills and micro USB port

Wow. If you are a fan of the design languages of the iPhone 4, the Galaxy S6 and the Xperia then you will love this phone. It is built with a steel frame with glass on top of the screen and glass at the back of the phone. It is thin but it feels sturdy in hand. The glass may make it feel slippery for most people.

Sim card tray

During my month with this phone, I have had dropped it several times and I am proud to say that the glass is as advertised really strong. The only gripe I had is that the steel frame isn't as resistant to scratches or drops.

Power button and volume rocker

The power button and the volume rocker are both on the left side of the phone which at times caused me to press the wrong button on several occasions. It will take a while to get used to it. It isn't really that big of a deal but worth noting.

Antennas, earphone jack, 13 MP camera and dual LED flash

Display Quality

Even in broad daylight, the screen is bright and vibrant with great viewing angles and with good color reproduction. At 294 PPI, reading texts and documents are pleasing but seeing as most flagships today are reaching nearly double the PPI, it may feel dated to some. I have no problem with this though.

Screen is bright and readable even with the sun shining brightly

Audio Quality

I would find myself covering the speakers at the bottom with my hands whenever I would watch videos on landscape. The speakers are clear but are average at best and it isn't even that loud. The volume is barely bearable when used to listen in a big room or a noisy one. I think this is one of the things they decide to trade things off to keep the price from skyrocketing.

The in-ear monitors that came with the device is a little better than the built-in speakers. It's not high-end audio quality and most people are okay with that. You will also notice that the build quality is on the more economical side of the scale.

Battery

The Phone's battery is amazing when the Wi-Fi and data services are turned off. It would last more than a day. However when they are on, the phone's battery would reach 50% at around noon time when I unplug it at 6AM. This is with the usual calls, texts, emails, social media and youtube. (I usually spend an hour or two on youtube.)

Advertised with quick charge 2.0, it does charge fast, I can get a full battery from two to two and a half hours of charging which is handy when you only have 15 to 30 minutes to top-off your battery.

Camera

100% crop on broad daylight

100% crop of lowlight

100% crop of selfie camera

Pictures taken with bright lighting is respectable with sharp images, and decent color reproduction. In fact, it is only when you really examine pixel per pixel at 100% view do you see noise on the day light shots. The phone's camera faulters in low light which is normal for most phones in this price range; however, Asus' Zenphone line have found ways to work around this via software and post processing. I hope Cherry can find their own.

Performance

Gameplay

The phone generally performs wonderfully. I have had little experience of stuttering or slow downs with general use of dialer, messaging, contacts, internet browsing and other productivity apps.

The phone also handles Dead Trigger 2 very well. I've had little to no frame rate drops when waves of zombies are running towards me. It does get hot though when you play for an extended period.

I did however experience a lot of stuttering and slowdown with keyboard apps. Both the google keyboard and swift key would close unpredictably. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Swift Key and it did fix the problem for now. I am not sure wether this will reoccur or not.

User Interface is near stock android with Cherry's own version of certain features. They are nice to know and are very reliable. If you love stock like me, then you will be fine with this phone.

Benchmarks

Antutu benchmark

Multitouch and geekbench

As you can see that the phone is not that powerful in terms of single core test but it blasts through the multi-core test. Antutu also shows us that it is nearly as powerful to the LG G3, one of last year's flagships which is respectable for this price range.

Pro's - Build quality is one of the best of its price range, quick charging 2.0 is a life saver, near stock android is simple and easy, you can disable bloatware!
Con's - Can get blazing hot when using power intensive apps for an extended period, battery capacity is underwhelming (Bigger Battery at the cost of some thickness would be nice)

Verdict

For its price point, it is one of the best phones to get. You can definitely do worse phones than this. Buy it if you are looking for an above average performing smartphone with killer looks.

Related: Cherry Mobile Cosmos S2 Now The Most Affordable AMOLED Snapdragon 615 Phone In PH At 4999 Pesos! Click Here!

GIZ Rating: 4 / 5 Stars