Cherry Mobile Fusion Wave Now Official

It’s not just smartphones that Cherry Mobile has announced in its “Junetastic” press release. The Philippine-based company has also unveiled the new Cherry Mobile Fusion Wave tablet with a suggested retail price of just Php7,499.

Only a couple of specs have been officially revealed so far, but they nonetheless give us a good idea of what Fusion Wave is capable of. For starters, a 1.4 GHz Samsung Exynos quad-core processor powers the device, while taking care of graphics is a powerful Mali-400 MP GPU. With these together, the Fusion Wave is capable of reaching excellent scores in the Antutu Benchmark, even besting popular Android devices such as the HTC One X and LG Optimus 4X HD. Furthermore, the tablet comes with an HDMI port, USB OTG port, Bluetooth, and a Wi-Fi b/g/n antenna. It also has a decent battery with a 5100 mAh capacity.

Despite the impressive internal components mentioned above, the Cherry Mobile Fusion Wave does come with drawbacks. For instance, the tablet was speculated to be a 10.1 incher but turned out to be an 8-inch slate. In the world of apps and media with ever-increasing data, Fusion Wave can only accommodate up to 8GB of content in its internal storage and will require you to expand externally—up to 32GB via the microSD slot—as you consume more content.

At 2MP resolution and with no LED flash, the rear and front cameras are nothing to brag about (but tablets shouldn’t be your main choice for taking pictures anyway). Even more disappointing is the outdated Android ICS 4.0, which means you won’t be enjoying the smooth and buttery performance touted in Jelly Bean devices. Users who are often on the road may find the lack of a SIM card slot to be disappointing. Luckily, they can still have an active Internet connection in locations without Wi-Fi by inserting a 3G external modem to the tablet. There’s no doubt that these are indeed the sacrifices that had to be made to reach the Php7,499 price.

From the specs and price alone, the Cherry Mobile Fusion Wave is quite an attractive alternative to the more popular Google Nexus 7. Compared to the latter, the Fusion Wave comes with better performance and screen estate, albeit with an expected lower pixel density. If the tablet’s price is still too expensive for your budget, you can opt for the cheaper Fusion Wind with MF1. With a suggested retail price of only Php5,999, this tablet comes with a more recent Android OS (Jelly Bean 4.1) but also a less powerful dual-core processor, smaller internal storage capacity, inferior front shooter, and smaller battery capacity.

No exact date has been released as to when the Fusion Wave will hit retail stores.