Tech Review - Cherry Mobile P9 “Cutie”

This tech review was inspired by the movie, “Taken 2”. In the first “Taken”, Jedi Master Liam Neeson takes the role of a retired CIA agent whose daughter was “taken”. Using the Force, Master Qui-Gon Jinn rescues his daughter and beats up a battalion of Separatist droids with his bare hands. (Okay, so I had too much Star Wars.) In the sequel, it is now the turn of Neeson and his wife, X-(Wo)Man Famke Jensen (a.k.a. Jean Grey/the Phoenix) to be “taken”, again by Separatist droids/the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants under the command of Magneto. (Okay, I had too much X-Men, too.)

You have been forewarned. (Courtesy of 9Gag).

While Bryan Mills was held captive (I can’t go through all the cool details, like how he memorized the way to the bad guys’ liar even if he was blindfolded—this is not a movie review, after all), he pulled out a cell phone from his sock and was able to call his daughter. (Again, I could only mention in passing how his father instructed Kim how to help him triangulate his location). Now, I couldn’t care less for Kim’s iPhone—I don’t need one and I can’t afford one. What caught my attention was how big Bryan’s cell phone was—or rather, how small it was.

A USB flash disk, the CM P9 Cutie, a SIM card, an SD card, and a micro SD card.

This inspired me to buy the smallest phone I could find; and that is Cherry Mobile’s P9, nicknamed the “Cutie”. The phone is so small, people who see it couldn’t believe it is an actual phone. (Someone once remarked that it just looks like a USB flash disk!) 

Specifications:

1″ Colored LCD Display
Single SIM
Dual Band GSM
Multimedia Player
MMS / WAP / GPRS
FM Radio
3.5mm Headset Jack
Bluetooth
Calendar
Calculator
Alarm
SIM Toolkit
Cherry Shop
Micro SD up to 8GB
 

For such a little gadget, the P9 has features that can hold its own beside regular-sized units. It has the standard call and text features, as well as a phonebook. Texting on this phone is not at all difficult. The one-inch screen can only display two lines of text, but the diminutive keypad feels a little hollow underneath. It also has an MP3 player (I use this unit as my on-the-go music player—the phone uses a standard 3.5 mm audio jack), an FM radio, a calculator, a file manager (the external memory is expandable up to 8 gigs—pretty impressive for its size)—and even has a video player (but the video is so tiny, it’s difficult to watch) and a GPRS browser. Yes, this tiny phone can surf on the Internet! (However, there is no “full screen function”, which means the display on the one-inch screen is smaller—about two lines of text.) The phone can also be connected to a computer using a mini 5-pin USB cable.

The battery is rated at 3.7 V and a capacity 350 mAh. In my experience, it can last for a whole day when used for texting and for listening to music.

Look at the size of that battery!

The miniature phone lacks certain features present in other full-sized “local” phones. It has only one SIM card slot (seriously, why would one use two SIM cards on such a small phone?). It does not have analog television (again, you might develop eyestrain trying to watch your favorite programs on a display as small as your thumbnail) nor a camera (now that’s the stuff espionage gizmos are made of).

At Php 1,299.00, it is more expensive than other small regular-sized units (CD-R King has dual-SIM handsets that sell at around Php 600--see one here.); I imagine because of the miniaturization. But it’s a cool unit to have to amaze your friends, or to use as an alternative phone for unsafe areas. Or you can hide it in your sock so that you can call for help in case you get “TAKEN”.