Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Lite, P3, and P3 Plus with Android Oreo Go Edition, Previewed

On Tuesday - April 20, 2018 - at The Rabbit Hole Restaurant in TechZone Makati, our friends from Cherry Mobile and MediaTek gave me and my colleagues in the tech blogging scene a chance to play with three upcoming Flare smartphones that all have the Android Oreo Go Edition operating system.

The Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Lite, P3, and P3 Plus - shown respectively in these photos - all share the same fairly attractive design language, glossy plastic back plate, and the above-mentioned version of the Android operating system, which was made specifically to run on smartphones with modest internal hardware.

Aside from that, the P3 trio have the same 1.3 GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 and Mali 400 MP2 GPU based MediaTek MT6580 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of ROM that the user can easily beef up using the microSD card memory expansion slot.

These three, according to Mr. Lonson Alejandrino of Cherry Mobile, are slated for launch in Philippines within May 2018, which is already next month. As of writing, I believe Team CM is still deliberating on the official SRPs of these new devices -- so kindly stay tuned for an update regarding that.

For now, let's take a look at each of these handsets.

The smallest and - clearly - most affordable model of the bunch is the Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Lite.

This smartphone - which fits nicely in the pocket - sports a 5-inch TrueView display with 960 x 480 resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio, 8 MegaPixel camera at the back, 5 MegaPixel selfie shooter in front, 2,000 mAh battery pack, Fingerprint Scanner at the rear, Dual SIM Dual Standby Capability, and 3G HSPA+ support.

Update as of June 4, 2018: The official price of Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Lite is PHP 2,999.

Cherry Mobile Flare P3, which is the primary name-bearer of this new series, is positioned in the middle of the other two in terms of size and features.

CM Flare P3 is equipped with a 5.5-inch 1,280 x 640 pixels TrueView Display with 18:9 aspect ratio, 13 MegaPixel camera at the back with BSI sensor for improved low light performance, 5 MegaPixel selfie cam in front, USB On-The-Go, and a 2,400 mAh battery pack.

This also comes with Dual SIM Dual Standby capability and 3G HSPA+ mobile connection support.

Update as of June 4, 2018: The official price of Cherry Mobile Flare P3 is PHP 3,799.

And finally, we have the Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Plus, which is the largest and heaviest of the trio -- and the one that you'd most likely call a phablet.

It features a 6-inch HD+ TrueView display with tall 18:9 aspect ratio, 13 MegaPixel rear camera with BSI sensor, 5 MegaPixel front cam, 2,400 mAh Li-Ion battery pack, Dual SIM capability, 3G HSPA+ support, and USB On-The-Go.

Update as of June 4, 2018: The official price of Cherry Mobile Flare P3 Plus is PHP 4,499.

Since the entry-level internal hardware of these three new Android smartphones are practically just the same, I don't think they vary greatly in terms of price.

Frankly, I have a feeling that all of them will eventually have a price tag below Php 6,000, which is but fair considering their build and set of technical specifications. Here's to hoping that would be the case.

Update as of June 4, 2018: Cherry Mobile P3 Lite, P3, and P3 Plus are now available at all Cherry Mobile Concept Stores and Kiosks nationwide!

Having played with the trio, I'd say that they'd be great for mobile consumers who are upgrading to an Android smartphone for the first time - coming from their feature phones with alpha-numeric keyboard - or for those who are looking for a wallet-friendly yet reliable secondary handset.