Cherry Mobile Ace - Firefox Phone Quick Review

I've already been through several Cherry Mobile devices, and those includes the following in chronological order:
Phones: Q6i (dead), D11TV(dead), T20i(having defects), Life 1, Flare 1, Omega HD 2.0, Cosmos One and the last one Ace.
Tablets: Fusion Bolt and Alpha Play

Well as you will notice, the first 3 phones already had issues. That were all CM's feature phones (non-android/ non-smartphones).
All the smartphones are still working and are still being used.

As a Cherry Mobile user for several years, I can say that all of their smartphones are of good quality, while the non-smartphone / feature phones are all crap (too prone to damage). I've been an Alcatel fan before (813D and 918N), until CM's Flare came into my life :-)

Also, you will notice that the phones were arranged to the time that I have purchased/ used the device -- and Ace was last on the list. What happened?

Before proceeding with Ace's review, let's first see the device's specifications:

• 1GHz single-core processor spreadtrum SC6821 chipset
• 3.5-inch HVGA (320×480) LCD touchscreen display
• 256MB ROM (8MB remaining storage)
• 128MB RAM
• Expandable (up to 16GB microSD)
• 2-megapixel rear camera fixed focus 4mm (1600×1200)
• 1,100mAh
• Firefox OS v1.3T

128 MB RAM? Single Core? Ewww.

We'll that's the Firefox's advantage. This OS can run smoothly even with those very minimal hardware specifications. I can't imagine myself using this phone having the Android operating system. It will be surely too sloooooow..

Well, I was just curious about this phone, having Firefox OS which happened to be the first (and only smartphone) in the Philippine market having that operating system, So at the time Cherry Mobile announced that they will be conducting a 3-day sale on some of its phones (including Ace), I immediately grab one. It's regularly priced at P1,499 and was slashed down to P999. It was the cheapest smartphone in the world at this price tag.

The Experience with the Phone.
Navigating the phone's UI for the first time, I really thought it was just a basic phone, but navigating through the options, you will realize that it's really a smart phone.

Here's a review of the Cherry Mobile Ace courtesy of Randolph Novino of Pinoy Screencast:

And my own version of the hand-on preview using the actual phone I used in this review:

Well, everything's very much basic.
When I let the phone be borrowed by one of my officemates and ask him for his impressions, he said "It's like a phone 3 years back", which I agree. The feel is almost like the Nokia's Symbian OS back in 2010's

Here are some of the screenshots of the phone's UI:

Lockscreen

Home Screen

Camera - Indoor shot. Useless camera right?., well don't expect a sub-1k phone to have a good camera :-)

Gallery

Notification Window and some quick controls

Messaging

Music Player - Songs List

Settings

It can play Youtube videos - but only through Wifi as it has no 3G.

Mozilla Firefox Browser

 What I Like About This Phone.

• Price. At P999.00, this is a real steal.
• Long battery life. As the ad stated, this phone is able to provide you up to 200 hours (around 8 days) of standby time.
• Smartphone look and feel.
• Able to import your google calendar and contacts to the phone.
• Easy setting-up and access of email accounts.

What I don't like.

• It's always vibrating. I already turned off the vibration mode in the settings panel, but I guess it's just for the sound and notifications. Frequent vibration means shorther battery life isn't it?
• Too basic. There's almost nothing in this phone you have to be excited with. All downloaded games has to be played online (as it's written in HTML 5). So it's just basically for texting, calls, emails, music player fm radio listening, and alarms. 
• Nothing more. Well, it's designed to be like this :-)
• No other buttons aside from the home button.
• Lacking of some basic options on music player (equalizer etc.), FM radio (no stations list, no options to save stations, just always manual search).
• No 3G... but it has wifi-hot hot-spot. Sharing internet connection on 2G network? oh no..
• Not usable camera. The camera obviously has fixed focus considering the price tag. It's 2 megapixels but has very blurry images.

The verdict.

I bought this phone thinking it will be a good substitute for my back-up phone (Samsung Chat 335), and it failed. Why?

-Ace is still a touch screen phone. I'm still hesitant to display this phone on street since it still looks like a smartphone and is still prone to snatching.

-Samsung Chat's camera, also 2 megapixels is A LOT BETTER than that of Ace's.

Anyone interested with this phone?

It's on sale. I just bought it last December 13, 2014 and just used it for this review.

All accessories are still in. Earphones, charger, USB cable, box and the receipt which still includes the 7 day replacement and 15 month service warranty from Cherry Mobile.

In cae you're interested buying my unit, below is the link of the ad:

OLX - My Firefox Phone is on sale!!

Note: This phone is only sale at P999 from December 13 - 15, it will be back to P1,499 after the promo period.