CHERRY Mobile has a new phone on the market — and it isn’t the dual-screen Taiji, which could unceremoniously launch this month or the next. The flavor of the week (or the next few weeks?) is the Cherry Mobile Cosmos Three (click for complete specs), a phone we played around with alongside the Defender and Taiji in mid-November. It’s currently rolling out to stores nationwide with a P9,999 price tag.

And before you get excited, no, the Three doesn’t come with a trifecta of cameras, or screens, as the naming convention only indicates succession and nothing else. Nonetheless, it’s big, it looks good — well built, even — and it packs the processing power of the Cherry Mobile M1. Which bears noting because the M1 is a sub-P15,000 flagship that could have been one of the biggest hits of 2016 — if only it looked better and shared the same polish and attention to detail as the Cosmos Three.

The Cherry Mobile Cosmos Three is big, it looks good — well built, even — and it packs the processing power of the Cherry Mobile M1.

Where the M1 sports a dull and boring (and matte-black) plastic exterior, the Cherry Mobile Cosmos Three touts a sturdily constructed metal casing that gives the phone a reassuring weight and feel in the hand. And as with the former, it has a reversible USB-C connector at the bottom, which should eventually replace the microUSB port we all know and love. The fingerprint sensor sits on the back and does a quick job of unlocking the handset.

The bezels around the 5.7-inch LCD display are relatively narrow, though it probably helps to have onscreen navigation buttons, as opposed to capacitive ones. The size isn’t too pocket-friendly, but it shouldn’t be much of a challenge to carry around and keep on your person. Try to wear more relaxed clothing, is what we’re trying to say. As for the screen itself, it’s pretty much your modern, full-resolution affair — bright, with good color reproduction and wide viewing angles.

We didn’t get to spend more than a few minutes taking pictures, but judging from the brief time we got with the handset, the Cosmos Three comes across as a decent shooter. But where it does its best work is under the hood; the deca-core processor inside this Cherry Mobile is fast and powerful and provides a zippy experience around Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

On a related and equally exciting note, the internal modem supports the 700MHz LTE band, meaning you could get insane data speeds, where coverage is available. We obviously didn’t test the battery life, but the 3,500mAh battery should last a full day unplugged.

If you fancy a sub-P10,000 phone that punches well above its weight — and why wouldn’t you — do yourself a favor and add the Cherry Mobile Cosmos Three to your shortlist. You won’t regret it.

Video you may want to watch: Cherry Mobile Flare 5 preview

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