Site icon Technophile

Cherry RETURNS with the Aqua S11 Pro and Aqua GR! Starts at PHP 7,999.

TechnophilePH

Break it or make it. They have fewer chances to do so.

Guess which local smartphone brand is still kicking and carrying the Filipino brand image? That’s right, it’s Cherry! It’s no longer “Cherry Mobile” though as the brand has shifted its focus from smartphones alone to a wide array of IoT products ranging from smart door locks to robot vacuums.

The two phones, Cherry Aqua S11 Pro and Aqua GR were leaked last December and since then, we were waiting for a release, even asking their marketing team. Alas, after two months of radio silence, we finally got our response and real-life renders too! The “GR” does not stand for Gazoo Racing but it would be funny if it was.

The Aqua S11 Pro co/mes with everyone’s beloved chipset, MediaTek Helio G99! On the other hand, the brand’s flagship phone, pretty competitive at that hardware-wise, is the Aqua GR with a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset. Both the Aqua S11 Pro and Aqua GR feature a 120Hz OLED display. The S11 Pro, with all of its hardware, is quite a killer for PHP 7,999 (8/256), and also one of the most affordable MediaTek Helio G99 phones in the market.

EDIT: The Aqua S11 Pro does indeed have AMOLED and an in-display fingerprint inside, as we confirm with Cherry Philippines, it also does have 120Hz refresh rate.

Aside from that, the S11 Pro comes with a 64MP primary camera plus two 2MP sensors. Meanwhile, the Aqua GR has a 108MP “Super Pixel” primary camera. Both phones don a 16MP selfie camera. The Aqua S11 Pro has a 5000mAh battery with 33W fast charging. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

The Aqua GR, just like last year’s SV, features a curved display. Aside from that, this Cherry flagship comes with 66W fast charging (plus 4700mAh battery) and also 8GB RAM with 256GB storage. It’s amazing how the brand can manage to keep the same price tag as the SV and a few minor alterations here and there, such as the faster charging speed.

Both are available now on Cherry’s concept stores nationwide and in Lazada and Shopee. Although it appears to launch with stock Android, it is not. It uses some sort of software skin which we are yet to decipher. This skin is layered on top of Android 13.

It’s also nice to see Cherry is still trying to compete when brands like Transsion made it challenging for newcomers and local brands to compete against even in the ultra budget segment, where Cherry used to be the strongest. The arrival of Chinese brands, in particular, Xiaomi and realme, killed of what is left of the local smartphone industry. We haven’t heard anything from My|Phone. Starmobile has transitioned to an e-wallet, and Cloudfone got extinct.

Still, we would like to see how Cherry can compete in the age of phones getting software upgrades even in the ultra-budget range (even the realme note 50 gets two years of Android upgrades), more accessible service centers, and more features on their respective software skins. The brand is in a tough spot and they have one last chance to make it, or completely break it. The brand also went from releasing 7 smartphones in the same line, to five, to three, then now only two. The Flare S8 was truly their peak. However, we can’t thank Cherry enough for their efforts because they are the brand that kickstarted our journey since 2018. The first brand to invite us to an exclusive event and the first to welcome us in the smartphone world. TechnophilePH wasn’t even an entity back then.

Aqua S11 Pro:

AQUA GR SPECS:

Exit mobile version