Cherry Mobile Cubix 2 Quick Impressions, The Budget Phablet That Nearly Nailed It!

Cherry Mobile's Cubix is the company's smartphone line to cater the online market that aims to beat most of the competition when it comes to price to specs ratio. They're quite successful with that with the Cubix Cube that packs 2 GB of RAM and octa core processor which was unheard for the price before. Moving forward Cherry Mobile and Lazada aims to continue that success by releasing the Cubix 2.

Cubix 2 quick impressions
micro USB port, power button and volume rocker visible at the side

Yesterday, Lazada Philippines together with Cherry Mobile held an unboxing event where-in we were able to get a chance to play around with the Cubix 2 shortly. Here's our quick report.

Cherry Mobile Cubix 2 Specs

Display: 5.7 Inch IPS FHD OGS 1920 x 1080 w/ Gorilla Glass protection, 10 point multi touch at 342 ppi

CPU: 1.7 GHz MT6592 octa core processor

GPU: Mali 450

RAM: 2 GB

ROM: 16 GB non-expandable

Back Camera: 13 MP f/2.2 BSI AF Panasonic sensor

Selfie Camera: 8 MP f/2.8 BSI Sony sensor

Battery: 3,500 mAh

OS: Android 4.4 Kitkat

Connectivity: WiFi, 3G, HSPA+, NFC, Dual SIM (nano), Dual Standby, OTG

Dimensions: 156 x 79 x 8 mm

Weight: 170 g

Price: 4,999 Pesos

Build Quality / Design

The beautiful yet finger print magnet glass back of the Cubix 2

At the back, visible is the small "Cubix" logo at the center, the 13 MP rear camera with a single LED flash, NFC for wireless charging purposes and what appears to be two speakers at the back for your musical enjoyment.

The Cubix 2 is a slim sexy phone :)

Visible here is the rounded top of the phone, the removable 3.5 mm jack cover and what appears to be a microphone

At the side of the phone, it shows how thin this phone looks and how good are the viewing angles are. On the left side you see a small rounded metal that looks like a button, but it's not, that's actually a 3.5 mm jack cover to prevent dust from entering that hole. While the idea may sound great, it may not be that convenient as it's easy to misplace. Aside from that placing your 3.5 mm port on the left side might be a bad idea especially if you're using an earphone with a straight jack as it may damage your the jack of your earphone in the long run for being awkwardly placed.

On the right side you'll see 3 major parts, the micro USB port, power button and the volume rocker which I find practical as they're easy to locate considering that the Cubix 2 is a large device.

What you can see below is another microphone for calls

Let me get my facts straight, Cherry Mobile did a much better job in terms of build quality and design against the first version of the Cubix. It isn't flimsy anymore, made out of sturdier and more premium materials (combination of plastic, metal and glass), definitely looks a lot better and sexier in general.

Specs and features analysis

It scored over 31K at Antutu :)

Power - Given that this device is using a dated yet still powerful MT6592 octa core processor clocked at 1.7 GHz paired with 2 GB of RAM, you'll hardly experience hiccups with this device. It scored more than 31,000 via Antutu benchmark which indicates that it's faster than most of the budget octa cores that's using slightly lower clocked version of MT6592.

Display - What impressed me the most with this phone is the screen panel they used, it's IPS OGS and full HD. The result, you get sharp details, great viewing angles and fantastic color reproduction that's hard to beat in this price point. Aside from that it also has 10 point multi touch support that's great for gaming, some sort of Gorilla Glass protection to prevent scratches and has a brighter than average screen on max setting.

Battery Guesstimate - Considering that this phone is using a near stock Android UI and large 3,500 mAh of battery. It might last with you for more than 8 hours of casual usage even if the MT6592 SoC and FHD panels are normally power hungry.

Camera - Based on what I can remember, the 13 MP f/2.2 Panasonic sensor produced good results that can sure please most people on a budget. The 5 MP f/2.8 selfie camera is decent with good lighting, but considering it's low aperture it might struggle in low light.

What they missed - Considering that Cherry Mobile already has 6 devices with LTE connectivity under 5,000 Pesos, I kinda expected this phone to have one too. The 16 GB internal storage might be big for the price, but it isn't expandable via micro SD card slot. Fortunately, Cubix did not forget to include an OTG support for additional storage.

Note: Unfortunately, we weren't really able to fully test the phone due to lack of time. Hope to fully review / test this phone soon to give our more accurate insights.

Pro's - Much improved build quality, big and beautiful full hd 10 point multi touch screen, OTG capability, NFC, old yet still fast processor, decent camera

Con's - Prone to fingerprints, ROM not expandable, no LTE connectivity, still on Kitkat

As of the moment

The Cherry Mobile Cubix 2 might phablet that's hard to beat under 5,000 Pesos even with some flaws. It's gorgeously built and packs some features unheard in this price range before. But, if you don't need a bigger handset, you may want to take a closer look at Flare 4 and Flare S4.

The Cherry Mobile Cubix 2 will be available exclusively at Lazada Philippines this November 6, 2015.

To check Lazada's listing: Click Here!