Ok I guess I should move on to the Cherry Moble Breeze 2. Since I was very happy with the performance my Fusion Bolt gave me, I decided to buy another Cherry Mobile product. At first, I just wanted another Fusion Bolt but when I got to the Cherry Mobile page I saw a lot of new stuff, most particularly the Aura which was powered by ANdroid KitKat, the latest of the Android series. I searched high and low for a review of the Aura and just found a lot of blogs promoting the product and there weren't any real reviews of it.
Released in May, I was really hoping there'd be more blogs about the Aura. Now alongside the Aura, Cherry Mobile also released the Breeze 2. For some reason I kept ignoring it, just for the fact that the name "Aura" seemed more appealing than Breeze.
The price for the Aura seemed just right, barely breaking the 2000 peso mark. (And they did have a price drop which brought it down to below 2000!) I was sold on the idea of getting an Aura.
THe next step was calling some stores in my area and I was quite disappointed that they couldn't give me an answer if they had it in stock or not. (Maybe they were just trying to sell me their old stock, who knows right?)
Feeling down, I had to accept the fact that I may not be able to get an Aura any time soon.
That was until I had a chance to go to SM for a family dinner. I excused myself and just thought I'd pass by a Cherry Mobile store and see if they had it in stock. Lo and behold they had an AUra!
Although my initial excitement of owning one took over me, there was something aboutt he shape of the Aura that turned me off. First, It seemed taller and thinner than my Fusion Bolt, and I kinda got attached to my BOlt's size and shape already. Next, it was thicker probably by just a millimeter or so. The touch response was absolutely amazing though. Take note, we're talking about a 2000 peso gadget here. If it works well, it is amazing! Still, there was that issue about appearance.
I then asked about the Breeze 2, which was at the same price range and basically had the same specs. And they had it in stock too!
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| Fusion Breeze 2 Box front |
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| Fusion Breeze 2 back view of box with specs |
I wasn't as excited about the Breeze 2 as I was with the Aura but I gave it a try and basically had the same experience. Too bad they didn't have the accessories I need like the protective case and most definitely the screen protector. But since, it was almost the same dimension as my Fusion Bolt, I decided to go with the Breeze 2.
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| Fusion Breeze 2 and Fusion Bolt comparo |
I then rejoined the family dinner and tried as hard as I could to keep my mind off my recent purchase. After dinner was done, I raced all the way home ignoring all speed limits and like a kid during christmas tore through the packaging and opened it up.
It connected immediately to my Wi-fi and started updating itself. It comes pre packaged with Google CHrome and Opera Mini so those are 2 browsers you won't have to worry about. Now I'm not much for games except for the occasional Candy Crush and Plants vs Zombies but I opted not to load those into my tablet for fear it'd eat up my time again.
I instead loaded it with the usual programs I had in my old FUsion Bolt. Namely Komiks, and an eBook reader. As you can see, the reason why my Fusion Bolt and I got along splendidly well was because I didn't demand too much from it. It basically served me as a reading companion and occasional gaming platform. The Breeze 2 will most probably serve me more as a reading companion for those long periods of waiting for my clients.
The basic specs that the Breeze 2 has are:
4.4 KitKat OS
Dual COre 1.5 GHz (For the tech savvy out there, is this almost the same as QuadCore?)
ROM 4GB
RAM 512MB (This was almost a deal breaker for me because my Fusion Bolt came equipped with 1GB RAM)
7" TFT Capacitive 5 point touch screen
Front VGA and rear 2MP camera (Hah! As if I'd be using that!)
MIracast ready (Whatever that is)
and up to 32GB sd card
I'm pretty much a creature of habit so change is often hard for me to accept. Here are some niggles I had with my new Breeze 2.
It's definitely not what I've been used to. My Fusion Bolt has a rounded body form whereas the Breeze 2 is squarish. Removing the SD card from time to time to update it with new reading materials require me to shut down my new tablet for it to refresh. Icons are larger (especially on my KOmiks CBR app) which makes the thumbnails occupy a lot more space than what I had on my Fusion Bolt. I kinda end up misclicking it. My ebook reader also looks different than what I've been used to. I set my brightness level to the lowest setting but it seems like there's a slightly reflective film on my tab's screen that makes it a bit too bright. These are minor issues that haven't stopped me from enjoying it though.
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| Smudgy... |
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| Komiks (my comic book reader) |
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| Ebook reader |
Battery life is awesome. Turning it on and off is quick. And Cherry Mobile sure has upped it's ante when it comes to product presentation. I won't go and compare it to Apple and Samsung tablets out there but for the budget conscious, this tablet (or these tablets) will do the job at the price that won't break the bank
All in all, I'm very happy with the Breeze 2 and maybe, just maybe I'll buy the Aura too just for the heck of it!
