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Introduction
The legacy of Cherry Mobile’s Flare series catches the spotlight as being one of the most successful in the country. One of the reasons is the budget-friendly price tag that helps us Filipino to be more practical in choosing smartphones with good quality. Now, with the announcement of Cherry Mobile Flare S6 Selfie, the anticipation is fairly high as Christmas Day is fast approaching, hence, the word “Selfie” shoots to the point for being trending this season of jolly. Selfies with our family, friends, and relatives are really worth taking.
The price of P7,999 can be an attractive price to many of us, so we dig in the features of the new Cherry Mobile Flare S6 Selfie. Here’s our review.
Key specs:
- 5.2-inch FHD IPS LCD display, 1920 X 1080 resolution, 424 ppi
- Android 7.0 “Nougat”, Cherry OS
- To be upgraded in Android 8.0 “Oreo”
- Dual-SIM, dual standby
- 1.5Ghz 64-bit MediaTek MT6750T octa-core processor
- Mali-T860 GPU
- 16GB internal storage
- Expandable microSD slot up to 128GB
- 3GB RAM
- 16-megapixel rear camera, f/2.0 aperture with Samsung S5K3P3 sensor, auto-focus, and LED flash
- 16-megapixel front camera, f/2.0 aperture with Samsung S5K3P3 sensor and LED flash
- 1080p at 30fps of video recording
- Hi-Fi ES9118C DAC audio chipset
- Fingerprint scanner
- 4G LTE (Category 6)
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
- Bluetooth v4.1
- GPS, GLONASS
- FM Radio
- USB-OTG capable
- USB Type-C connector
- 153.6 x 74.6 x 8.5 mm
- 160 grams
- 2,600 mAh non-removable battery
Display & build
The Flare S6 Selfie builds in a compact 5.2-inch IPS panel with Full HD screen, 2.5D arc glass and metal body. It performs well in direct sunlight due to the high maximum brightness. Viewing angles are good and has got nice colors. Bezels are quite huge.
Software & UI
The Cherry Mobile Flare S6 Selfie runs on an Android v7.0 “Nougat”, skinned to its owned Cherry OS 2.0. The looks are absolutely great from the previous models. The company confirmed that it’ll be upgraded to Android 8.0 “Oreo”, together with the Flare S6 and Flare S6 Plus.
There are pre-installed applications, mostly helps in optimizing the performance of the phone, while some are to protect privacy and help to boost the battery life. Here are them:
- 360 Security
- App Cleaner
- Avatar Master
- CLONE
- Chums Live PRO
- Freezer
- Health Guard
- Info Center
- Movie Club
- Private System
- Quick Touch
- Super AppLock
- Super Share
- Theme
- Uber
Performance & Audio
As befits to be a mid-range smartphone, the Flare S6 Selfie comes with the MediaTek MT6750T under the hood. The clock speed caps are set at 1.5Ghz for the quad-core Cortex-A53 and 1.0Ghz on the other four cores, with 64-bit architecture. For the graphics, the Mali-T860 should not have any problems with casual and moderate games.
| Antutu: | 41,382 |
| Geekbench: | |
| Single-core | 616 |
| Multi-core | 2,348 |
| Renderscript | 1,670 |
| Vellamo: | |
| Multi-core | 2,133 |
| Metal | 1,016 |
| Chrome | 2,231 |
| Ice Storm Extreme: | 6,452 |
| Sling Shot Extreme: | 373 |
Only one speaker on the bottom are available and is not loud enough to be honest. Better to use a pair of earphones as it has Hi-Fi audio chipset for immersive audio experience.
Camera
The Cherry Mobile Flare S6 Selfie’s rear and front cameras uses Samsung’s 16-megapixel S5K3P3 sensor and ISOCELL technology that increases light sensitivity in poor lighting conditions. It shoots with a maximum resolution of 5312 x 2988 pixels. There’s an LED flash to assist in low-light images.
In some photos, we’re actually quite surprised with the output of the Flare S6 Selfie’s both rear and front camera. The details are very nice, especially for the price segment and even though some of the images are quite noisy, we appreciate its image processing, which doesn’t create over-sharpening without having too many details and noise reduction. However, at some point, overexposure is quite noticeable, especially in low-lighting conditions. The HDR mode is present. It is more conservative and does well to light up the shadows.
The center of attention of the Flare S6 Selfie is, of course, the front camera. The 16-megapixel lens with the same Samsung S5K3P3 sensor and has an LED flash. There’s a beautify feature here for image enhancement, which can be set from level 1 to 6. It includes whitening and smoothens your skin, cheeks thinning and eye enhancement. “FaceCute” mode is another feature on the front camera, which adds stickers to the images.
Rear camera
Front camera
Connectivity
The Flare S6 Selfie is well-equipped with connectivity options. Both two sim card slots are supported by GSM/EDGE with 850/900/1800/1900 bands and HSPA+ 900/2100 bands. LTE connectivity gets a multitude of bands, B1/B3/B7/B28A/B28B/B41. Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n is on board as well, together with Bluetooth 4.1, GPS receiver and FM Radio for listening music without using the data connection.
Battery Life
The selfie-focused handset has a 2,600 mAh non-removable battery. The PC Mark application keeps on crashing while we’re using it. In a real-life situation, we can get a whole day on a single charge out of the Flare S6 Selfie, having quite time in surfing the net, watching videos, streaming music applications like Spotify and playing some casual games like Temple Run 2 and Plants vs. Zombies 2. Just bring a powerbank if you’re having a long-long travel time.
Charging the device is not that drawn-out, thanks to 1.5A charger as it refills the percentage of the battery in 90 minutes.
Verdict
The Cherry Mobile Flare S6 Selfie is a moderately-priced smartphone that lets you capture 16-megapixel high resolution. It is designed for selfie lovers who doesn’t spend too much money. At a price of P7,999, the phone is not a premium device, but delivers a reliable performance with decent software in an inexpensive cost. Keep in mind that every smartphone have flaws, but being a capable device that makes people happy is a good thing to experience.
Pros
- Cherry OS is great
- Android 8.0 “Oreo” update
- Full HD resolution
- 4G LTE connectivity
- 3GB RAM
- Impressive rear and selfie camera photos
- Clean audio quality (Hi-Fi)
- USB Type-C port
- FM Radio
- Fingerprint scanner
Cons
- Weak speaker
- Average battery life
