Cherry Mobile Flare, No Stocks

What phone should I buy?

   I’m no techie; I’m just a person who likes to have a nice phone with apps so I don’t get bored while commuting.  Of course, like every other consumer I just wanted to get the most out of my money. I wasn’t willing to spend more than 10,000 pesos for a phone since the specs aren’t that important to me.  I needed to buy the perfect phone to suit my needs.

     The answer to my question: Cherry Mobile Flare.

Cherry Mobile is a Filipino-based brand that makes phones and tablets. They are now into the market making android phones. One of their latest offering is the Flare for only 3,999 pesos. The specs are as follows:

Qualcomm MSM8625 Snapdragon S4 1.2GHz dual-core processor
Adreno 203 GPU
4.0″ IPS capacitive touch panel (800 x 480)
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
3G / HSDPA
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot
Bluetooth 2.1
GPS w/ aGPS support
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
5-megapixel rear camera with flash
VGA front-facing camera
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
1500mAh battery
152 grams

     I first saw this phone at school when my classmate was texting with it. I asked him what model it was since it looked like an HTC or Nexus phone. I was quite surprised that it was made by a local brand for a very affordable price. A week later, I was set to buy the Flare but there were no more stocks available (this was only 2 weeks after the Flare’s release)!

     I went mall-hopping in quite a few places but stocks were not to be found. I was about to give up when a salesman from one of the malls I visited sent me an SMS that said there were to be stocks delivered at a certain date.

     I grabbed the opportunity and even arrived at the mall a few hours early before the stocks came. When the stocks came, I was the very first one to get the Flare that day. Sweet victory! Good thing I came early; as soon as the stocks came, people flocked out of nowhere to buy the Flare. The salesman even said that the new stocks that arrived that day will be gone by tomorrow. Good thing I didn’t procrastinate!

     So far, I think the trouble of buying the Flare has been worth it. Check out my next article about the Flare review and unboxing!