Last year, I made a lot of purchases, specially mobile phones. Cherry Mobile's Mars was one of the many purchases I've made yet I sold the unit just this month. It's not because that I'm not satisfied with it's features. Actually, its one of the best low end phones I had. I just need a fast money to pay for a seminar that I intended to go. I actually had doubts in disposing the phone since I like it, but it wasn't practical for me anymore to have mobile phones that I actually can't use much because I have other ones too.Before buying a mobile phone, I actually spend time searching the internet about it's features and of course, the quality of the unit. The last mobile phone I wanted was Mars, so I searched the internet about the brand, but I wasn't able to find a decent site nor review about their phones. Since I wanted that phone so much during that time, I still ended purchasing the unit.
I would be direct in any way I can about the Cherry Mobile's packaging and quality of their units.
The packaging of the mobile phone is fancy or rather, catchy... just by looking at it though, it is still obviously a China made phone. The quality of the box is good, considering that it is quite thick yet in a handy size.
The most catchy part of the phone is the type of charger it has. The charger is handy since the connector from the unit to the charger can be separated. The connector can also serve as a mobile phone accessory, where it can be "hanged" on the mobile itself through the hole of the mobile's accessory holder. Mars can also be charged through a computer aside from the usual mobile phone charging since it is in a USB format.
Now the battery life is longer than I expected. I can compare it to the Nokia low end phones, depending on how you use your phone. If you use Mars in a minimal way, like for text messaging only, it lasts up to 2 days or more. If you use it on the other hand for calls and texts, it last for 1 and a half day.
Since this is a very handy and small phone, the display is also rather small. I think it displays about 2-3 lines (5 or more words depending on the letters of each word) of texts which is squeezed through it's small screen, so if you receive a long text message, you just have to scroll it down/up to read the message. The phone's display is also colored, yet just like any other low end phones. I haven't tried it in receiving and viewing images but I think it isn't capable of receiving large images because of it's display.
The speaker and ear piece of the mobile is quite loud than expect.
Other features:
Organizer (Calendar, Alarm Clock...)
FM Radio
MP3 player
Loud speaker
Headset included
Micro SD slot (capable up to 2GB)
Can also be used as a flashed disk if you have the Micro SD.
Doesn't have a camera.
Doesn't have games/games application.
I guess that is all I can say about it's features. And oh... I can't say whether the phone is durable when it comes to dropping it, since I haven't dropped mine. However, you have to be careful of it's keypads. I lost a key from one of its keypad since I pulled it forcefully out of my bag... but you can still use the key. You just have to buy another set of keypad so it'd look presentable like new.
I also had a problem with their service center here in the Philippines. Since I am concerned with my phone's look, I asked their customer representative at their branch in a mall, about my keypad concern. The customer representative doesn't seem to care about their customers... giving me answers that I couldn't say "helpful". She told me that they still doesn't have any idea about the unit's parts and services since they are still making arrangements with the main service center in Manila. It appears to me that they couldn't do anything about my concern. She just asked me to come again another time. I really got disappointed with their customer service and still find other ways about my concern.
Since the phone packaging has a contact information on the brand's branch in manila, I e-mailed them instead about my concern. I asked whether I could buy another set of keypad and how much would it cost me... yet I didn't receive any reply, and it's almost a month since I contacted them. I guess that is the disappointing part, their customer and services care.
I think if they would improve their customer care and services, their mobile phone would surely "click" here in the Philippines, considering the Filipinos are so into mobile phones specially in an affordable price.
If you have other concerns about the Cherry Mobile Mars, feel free to leave a comment. I would like to help you with your concerns, as long as I know the answers to your questions.






