Sunday, November 29, 2020

Cherry Mobile Aqua S9 Max Hands-on

Cherry Mobile recently unveiled a new smartphone with a 6.53-inch FHD+ display, a Helio G90T chipset, quad-rear cameras, and a 5,130mAh, the Cherry Mobile Aqua S9 Max. It looks like a solid daily driver for under PHP 10K. Check our initial thoughts below.

One of the first things we noticed about the Cherry Mobile Aqua S9 Max is its premium design. It sports the Jade Green color with a metallic frame and 3D curved back panel that shimmers depending on the angle and light.

The front houses the 6.53-inch Full HD+ TrueView display. Placed above it is the teardrop notch for the 32MP selfie camera. Placed just above it in the bezel is the earpiece.

On the right, we have the power/lock and volume buttons. The former has a rough texture, while the latter is smooth. Both are firm yet clicky.

We have the triple card tray for the dual-nano SIM cards and a microSD card on the left.

Up top, we have the secondary microphone.

Down at the bottom is the 3.5mm headphone jack, USB-C port, and loudspeaker.

At the back, we can see the quad-cameras consisting of a 48MP Sony IMX582 main, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP depth, and 2MP macro. Also found here are the fingerprint scanner and the LED flash. Check out some initial samples below:

In the hands, the Cherry Mobile Aqua S9 Max feels relatively light despite the large battery. The curvature in the frame and the back panel makes it comfortable to grip. However, the tall frame will require two-handed navigation, especially for those with small hands. Cherry didn’t include a jelly case, but it has a tempered glass included in the package.

Powering the Cherry Mobile Aqua S9 Max is a MediaTek Helio G90T chipset, with 4GB RAM, Mali-G76 GPU, and 128GB UFS 2.1. Software-wise, it runs on Android 10 with Cherry Mobile’s light custom skin that looks almost stock and old school. We ran AnTuTu v8 on it, and we get a score of 265,877. We’ll show more benchmark results in our full review.

The Cherry Mobile Aqua S9 Max is priced at PHP 9,999. Stay tuned for our full review.

Cherry Mobile Aqua S9 Max specs:
6.53-inch FHD+ TrueView Teardrop display
MediaTek Helio G90T 2.05 GHz processor
ARM Mali-G76 GPU
Liquid Cooling Technology
4GB RAM
128GB UFS 2.1 storage
microSD card (dedicated slot up to 256GB)
Quad rear cameras:
• 48MP Sony IMX582 F1.79 main
• 8MP F2.2 ultrawide
• 2MP F2.4 depth
• 2MP F2.4 macro
32MP front-facing camera
Dual Nano-SIM
4G w/ VoLTE support
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth
GPS
USB Type-C
Speakers
Smart PA (Hi-Fi) audio chip
Fingerprint sensor (rear-mounted)
Face Unlock
Android 10
5,130mAh w/ 18W fast charging
162.86 x 77.05 x 10.15 mm
Jade Green