Cherry Mobile Blaze Review (Ming Ren A2)

Choosing a phone that will suit your needs and budget is not easy. Believe me, I’ve switched to a lot of phones. Reading reviews before you buy a unit will help you choose your phone. And so, I want to make this review as honest as possible.

Last January 19, 2013, I ordered Cherry Mobile Blaze in Lazada, I initially planned to buy Cherry Mobile Titan because of the battery but according to Lazada’s description of CM Blaze, it is upgradable to Jelly Bean (and yes it is upgradable and CM has released yesterday the update) and it has 8 Megapixel camera so I bought Blaze instead. My order arrive January 21, 2013 and sold the phone as well last January 31, 2013. You will find out why I sold the phone without waiting for the update when you read further into the review. This will be quite a late review but it’s not a month ago so my experience with the phone is still fresh.

Appearance:

In terms of appearance I can give Cherry Mobile Blaze 5 out 5 stars. Yep. I was very much contented with the looks and the design of my previous Cherry Mobile Blaze. (Note: My CM Blaze’s color is white.) The phone has a sleek design that looks like 95% percent Samsung Galaxy S3. Why 95 percent only? The only difference with S3 is the placing of LED flash, speaker, volume, power/lock key and USB Port. Overall, it looks like Samsung Galaxy S3 indeed. Why? Because Cherry Mobile rebranded Blaze from the known Samsung Galaxy S3 clone in China, the Ming Ren A2. This is may be a pro and a con of Blaze depending on the person’s taste. It may be a pro for some because some of the S3 cases would fit with Blaze. Take note, some only. Flip cases that hold S3 in the four corners would usually fit, but jelly cases and etc wont. Blaze is a bit thicker than S3 and note the placing of volume, power button, etc is different. If I’m not mistaken some Blaze users do use S3 flip cases for their phone. So if you are the type that cares for the look of their phone and wants a variety of cases to choose from then Blaze is the phone for you.

Display:

As for the display, I can give it 5 out 5 stars. I included the fact that it has a pretty much good display for a phone that’s 4.7 inches in size and priced at 6.5k. I loved watching in my CM Blaze probably because of the display. CM Blaze has FWVGA screen at 6.5k. A pretty good deal if you ask me.

Camera:

It says Cherry Mobile Blaze has 8 Megapixel. But I think it just refers to the picture size, but in terms of quality of the picture, its not good at all. CM Flare’s camera is better. (I used CM Flare as well.) In fact, I was more satisfied with CM Flare’s camera than Blaze. To me, Blaze seems like 3 MP only in terms of quality of the picture. I was really frustrated with the camera and so is other Blaze users. (I’ve read it in CM Blaze’s Facebook groups.) So if you are in to a phone with a good camera, this phone is not for you. I use my phone to take pictures during events so I really had to change my phone since I need a phone that has a good picture quality. You wouldn’t want to see bad quality pictures in this blog, right?So my verdict would be 3 out of 5 stars. In dark areas, sometimes Blaze produces a weird color of picture, a bit yellowish. Sample pictures will be posted below.

Battery:

Okay, this is another con of CM Blaze. It’s battery capacity 1,500 mAh. So if you are a super user like me, then again, this phone is not for you. My phone is connected to the plug for like 23 hours a day. Yeah, it’s kinda exaggerated, but if I’m not mistaken, it is almost connected 23 hours. Because, I can only use my Blaze for one hour straight use. For some phones if you use it straight it would last for at least 3 hours, but not for this phone. I even doubted if it is really 1,500 mAh. If you ask me, it seems like it’s only 1000 mAh. Flare’s battery lasts longer than Blaze if you are using it. But in terms of battery management, compared to Flare, Blaze is better. Flare eats battery even in idle time, you have to do a lot of tweaks and download battery management apps to get a good battery management with Flare. Compared to Blaze, it does not eat much battery in idle time. But then again, if you use your phone a lot, Blaze is not for you. I’m really frustrated with Blaze’s battery, I have to be honest, I’ll give it 2 out of 5 stars in terms of battery.

Performance:

I’ve used it for more than a week. I’ve used Blaze to play some games, online games and watched a lot on the phone. I multitask with my phone a lot, and I gotta say, Blaze was able to keep up with me. In terms of multitasking and performance, I admire Blaze. Yep. I do. Another fact, Blaze has apps in the Google Playstore that’s only available to Blaze but not to my CM Flare or MyPhone A919. (Example: Heroes of Call and Order. I had to download it outside Google Playstore just to get the app.) 5 out 5 stars for that!

Overall:

Overall, Blaze got a score of 4 out 5. If you are not a super user and just uses the phone for calls and texts, Blaze is not bad. If you are not into a phone with a pretty good camera, then Blaze is not for you. I can say that in Blaze it all depends in the user. A quick note, just yesterday, Cherry Mobile Blaze released an update to upgrade Blaze to Jelly Bean. The Blaze that I had reviewed is only running on ICS. If it would be running on Jelly Bean, the performance would be different. Cherry Mobile is not bad for a phone that’s worth 6499, especially now that you can upgrade it to Jelly Bean.

Disclaimer: I have not received any form of compensation from Cherry Mobile in this post.