Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE Review

Cherry Mobile launched a brand new smartphone under the sub-Php5k price category. The latest Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE was made for those who want to stay connected, with a couple of other features geared for modern uses.

Here in our Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE review, we shall see how this economical device holds up in real-world usage. Let’s start!

Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE Specs

Android 8.0 Oreo Go Edition
Dual SIM, Dual Standby
6.2-inch HD+ TrueView IPS display, 1520 x 720 pixel resolution, ~271ppi
1.5GHz MediaTek MT6739WW quad-core processor
1GB RAM
IMG PowerVR GE8100 GPU
8GB internal storage, microSD up to 32GB
5-megapixel front camera
13-megapixel rear camera, LED flash
HSPA+, 4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS
Dimensions: 158.7 x 76.5 x 8.15 mm
Weight: 139g
2,800mAh non-removable battery

Design and Build Quality

The Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE is dressed pretty well. It’s built around a metal chassis, with a glass-like plastic surface on the back that provides a shiny, premium look. However, it sure is prone to fingerprint marks and tons of smudges.

Thanks to its light materials, the Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE only weighs 139g, making it one of the lightest smartphones that we’ve ever reviewed so far. It doesn’t feel cheap for the price.

On the front, we have a 6.2-inch HD+ display, with a relatively sizable notch on the top for the selfie camera. The chin bezel is also noticeably large. Cherry Mobile calls it as the “TrueView screen”, which basically points out its tall 19:9 aspect ratio.

All the physical buttons are placed on the left side. The lock/power switch and the volume controls are a bit mushy but definitely does the job. I just wish that they are placed a little lower so they are easily reachable.

Switching on the other side, we have the SIM tray. This hybrid system can only either house two nano SIMs, or sacrifice the other one for a microSD card for storage expansion.

On the top, there’s the microUSB port and the 3.5mm headphone jack. Having the ports on the bottom would make the Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE more ergonomic to use when it’s plugged in. Instead, we’re only seeing a poor-sounding loudspeaker and a microphone down here.

Display

The Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE has a 6.2-inch HD+ IPS TrueView display, with a 1520 x 720 pixel resolution, ~271ppi, and a tall aspect ratio of 19:9.

Its screen real-estate is large enough to make multitasking easy, watching videos immersive, and make games comfortable to play. However, it surely doesn’t provide the best color quality. Also, the HD+ lacks sharpness, especially for the price.

Performance and User Interface

Underpowered Android Go smartphones were built for the budget market. But in this era, sub-Php5k smartphones have become really powerful that using an optimized version of Android almost doesn’t make any sense.

Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE Benchmarks

But in the case of Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE, using Android Go was necessary as it comes with really underwhelming hardware. This device is only equipped with a 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6739WW quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and only 8GB of expandable storage.

It goes without saying that performance is really disappointing. Just by browsing the interface, you can already feel how sluggish everything are.

This also poses problems for mobile gamers. The standard PUBG Mobile version doesn’t support this device, so you have to settle with the Lite version. But even so, expect poor graphics quality and frame rates from this thing.

Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE also had a hard time running Mobile Legends. The game was playable, but we’ve definitely seen other competing devices handle this game a lot better.

Software

As stated earlier, the Cherry Mobile Y7 LTE runs on Android 9 Oreo Go Edition. This means that is has a really clean, flat, and straightforward interface.

The lock screen is pretty neat, with large tabs showing your notifications. The home screen is also clean, where you can swipe up to immediately see the app drawer.

The Notifications tab looks simple, too. With a tiny strip on the top for the quick toggles (WiFi, Bluetooth, Data, etc) which you can expand to see more to access additional shortcuts.

I also liked how streamlined the settings menu is. They are grouped neatly together, with a search tab on the top for quicker access to numerous adjustments.

The camera app provides a nostalgic feeling as it’s identical to the stock camera app of older versions of Android. It also uses Google’s own keyboard, which is really intuitive to use and comes with tons of features for a more comfortable typing experience.

Security

Since the device runs on Android Go platform, expect the Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE to be always updated with security patches and privacy protection.

However, the device lacks any kind of biometric security measures. The missing fingerprint scanner is just unacceptable for the price. What’s worse, it also lacks face unlock, which could have easily made up for the missing fingerprint sensor as it only uses the already existing 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

With that said, you’re only limited to lock pattern, PIN, and password options when unlocking the handset. We’re hoping that Cherry Mobile will provide face unlock in a future software update.

Camera

The Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE has a pretty decent 13-megapixel primary camera on the back. It can produce images with warm colors, acceptable contrast, and passable dynamic range. The sharpness is a bit mediocre, but the low-light performance is surprisingly good.

Moreover, the 5-megapixel front-facing camera provides expectable quality. The sharpness is fine, colors are decent, but the contrast is a bit on the downside.

The phone also has a Face Beauty mode, which does a decent job of making your skin looking fair. Although it makes the overall image look soft.

Battery

The Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE is powered by a 2,800mAh battery — a capacity that we never thought we’d see on a sub-Php5k smartphone in 2019.

With that, the result of our battery tests was unsurprisingly low. PCMark’s battery loop test only got 4 hours and 56 minutes of screen-on time from this handset before it reached 20%.

In the real world, you might want to always carry a power bank with you as this device might run out of battery before you even got home.

Connectivity

Probably the only highlight feature of the Cherry Mobile Y7 LTE is, as the name suggests, is its 4G LTE. During our testing, it was able to provide consistent download and upload speeds via the mobile network.

I also didn’t notice any connectivity issues with its WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.2. The phone easily connected to my home and work WiFi networks, while Bluetooth works flawlessly on my wireless headphones.

Verdict

The Cherry Mobile Flare Y7 LTE is just one of the many devices under the company’s arsenal. With that, if you really want to own a Cherry Mobile device for this price, I suggest you take a look at their other offerings.

The device’s poor specs to price ratio are just unacceptable. For this price, you should already be getting a smartphone that has a reliable processor for work and play, an all-day battery life, or at least a fingerprint scanner.

With all that said, the Flare Y7 LTE is just a hard device to recommend. So, as I stated earlier, just look for something else. Perhaps the upcoming Cherry Mobile Flare X3?

Cherry Mobile Y7 LTE pricing and availability in the Philippines

The Cherry Mobile Y7 LTE is now available at tons of Cherry Mobile stores and kiosks nationwide for a price of Php4,299.

Pros

Sleek, lightweight build
Decent cameras
Clean Android Go operating system
4G LTE connectivity

Cons

Underwhelming processing and battery performance for the price
No fingerprint scanner