If you can’t get a Flare, try the BURST. That’s exactly what i am doing. I have subscribed to Sun Cellular’s Regular Plan 350, at first, with the intention of getting the Flare unit free of charge. But as always the Flare is rare to catch nowdays. So, i opted the Burst device, also from local brand marketer-Cherry Mobile.
The Burst has almost the same specs as i’d told you earlier here in my blog. The only differences are illustrated in the table below.
BURST FLARE
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8225 Qualcomm Snapdragon
1GHz dual-core 1.2GHz dual-core
Battery 1500mah
Since i haven’t tried the Flare, i will base my comparison with some existing reviews of the Flare by other reviewers. Also, i’ll make a differentiation with the much bigger unit- the Cherry Mobile Titan that i had reviewed here.
CONSTRUCTION
The Burst is about the same size as the Flare but its back cover is made of a glossy plastic unlike the matte finish of the Flare. It has only one variant, with black body and a white back cover.
The front is covered with plastic all over. On its top are the front camera, the proximity sensor, and the earpiece. Below are the usual capacitive Menu, Home, and Back buttons.
The Burst has a clean design with its sides nothing but the Volume rocker on the left side and the Power/Sleep button on the right.
The microphone is discreetly found just below the Back button on the front. The USB port is at the bottom while the 3.5mm earphone jack is at the top.
Since it’s mostly made of plastic, the Burst is very light but comfortable in your hands because of the convex design of its back cover. Unlike the Flare, the Burst is more curve on its corners.
DISPLAY TOUCH PANEL
The Burst has the same screen resolution as the Flare and the Titan. However, like the Flare, the Burst has a denser screen than the 5-inch display of the Titan. It has 240dpi. In short, its display is better than the Titan. However, the display is not as bright as the Titan.
The touch panel of the Burst is only two-point touch. However the screen is responsive of the tap, swipe, drag, and pinch.
CAMERA PERFORMANCE
The Burst has also a 5MP rear camera which is now the minimum for smartphones, capable of at most 2592 x 1944 images. Though, its front camera still sports the inferior 0.3MP VGA camera capable of only 640 x 480 resolution.
The picture size can be set at QCIF, QVGA, CIF, VGA, WVGA, SVGA, 1MP, HD720, WXGA, 1.3MP, 2MP, 3MPand 5MP. Check same samples below with settings at optimum to reflect the best images that this phone is capable of.
VIDEO PERFORMANCE
AUDIO PERFORMANCE
The Burst is louder than the Titan because of the convex back cover that serves as its sound box. Though, the sound quality still lacks the deep bass. The treble sounds better than the Titan. The earphone sounds like an average earpiece without the bass. The sound experiences are the same whether it’s playing via the music player or the FM radio.
One thing good with the Burst is a good earpiece sound during calls. It’s much better and clearer than the Titan.
BROWSING & NAVIGATION
The Burst has a different and improved UI than the Titan. Notifications pop up on the screen like the image below. This makes the user interactions immediate.
Since the unit i have is locked to Sun and only the SIM 1 is a 3G slot, so i am left with the measly Sun Cellular signal. I had to wait for several minutes of buffering before i could watch a video stream from YouTube.
UNDER THE HOOD
One thing good with the Burst is the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 1GHz Dual-core processor on it just like the Flare. It’s seldom for a China-made phone to sport a Snapdragon. The generic China phones and even the Lenovo are opting the cheaper MediaTek chips. This phone is a little slower than the Titan. It boots at more than 10 seconds unlike the Titan which can be turned in just about 8 seconds.
The benchmark tests (screenshots below) using the AnTuTu Benchmark scores the Burst at 5757, the Quadrant Standard is at 2745, and the NenaMark2 Test is 27.9fps which is par with the Titan.
Tethering of the Burst is fine when i made the draft of this post on the iPad mini connected via the former’s hotspot. But again uploading is dependent of the Sun’s data speed which is on the average-sluggish in several areas in Metro Manila.
REVIEW NOTES FOR BURST:
- only sim 1 is 3G
- booting takes a while, more than 10 seconds unlike the Titan
- initial use takes only about 3 hours using 3G
- display is somewhat crisp at 400 x 800 pixels on a 4-inch screen
- brigthness of the screen is enough but not IPS
- the sound in the music player sounds good. It’s loud but lacks the deep bass.
- earphone is just average.
- SPECIFICATIONS:
– Android 4.0.4 ICS
– Snapdragon QRD MSM8225 SKU5 1GHz Dual Core processor
– 4.0 inch WVGA capacitive touch panel 400 x 800 pixels
– 4G ROM 512MB RAM
– Expandable storage via microSD up to 32GB
– GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800 UMTS 2100
– WiiFi b/g/n
– bluetooth 3.0
– 3.5mm stereo audio jack
– standard micro usb 2.0
– 5MP rear camera, VGA front camera
CPU hardware- QRD MSM825 SKU5
CPU MODEL- Dual-core ARMv7 processor
Screen resolution- 480 x 800
Screen density- 240dpi
GPU vendor- QuAlcomm
GPU renderer- Adreno 203
GPU Version- OpenGL ES 2.0
Memory size- 1715.8 available, 1909.1MB total
Camera- 5MP 2592 x 1944
Front camera- 0.3MP 640 x 480
AnTuTu Benchmark score- 5757
Quadrant Standard is 2745
NenaMark2 Test is 27.9fps