12:13 PM
Lrence
I admire Cherry Mobile for their continuous effort to offer and serve cheap but quality products to our plates, and they’re on it again with their latest offering the Fusion Bolt, just to give you a glimpse on the specs it is a quad-core tablet with 1gig ram and on board is android’s latest iteration “jellybean” if that wasn’t enough, then hear this because the best is yet to come, amazingly! CM gave it a staggering price of just only 3,999 pesos, sounds impossible but CM stands their ground and strongly pushing their campaign for the fusion bolt as a true and legit quad-core device.
The fusion bolt is cheap in deed, however the idea of it producing quad-core processing results may seem far fetched, and if you truly believe that a 3,999 peso device can live up to its claims, well I guess this review will knock some of your senses back.
The Fusion Bolt is powered by Jellybean and on board is Project Butter, for all I know project butter is some kind of OS optimization software that makes the UI run faster on any device regardless of hardware specifications, the fusion bolt, being a jellybean device makes use of it, sadly you’ll still experience slight lags and occasional hiccups, bear in mind that the fusion bolt is a 3,999 peso tablet, so I advice not to expect too much on its quad-core processing abilities, as to all cheap device we should always learn to accept the issues that goes with it, or otherwise settle for the more expensive ones.
The fusion bolt may be sub par in comparison to other quad-core device like the Nexus 7, however, at 3,999 pesos, it definitely has all the advantages of a stable device, it’s so obvious that the price is the fusion bolt’s greatest ally.
At first glance you’ll be impress by its well built design, slightly resembling the Nexus7, the back is tattered with what seemed to be a snake skin covering, which personally I consider useful and ergonomically designed, for one, it wards off fingerprints and smudges, and it’s comfortable to hold even on long period, at the right side you’ll see all the basic ports of a traditional tablet including the HDMI out, an extra feature in which as far as my test concerns, works well on flat screen TVs, at the top right you’ll see the power button and the volume rocker which somehow I find it awkwardly placed, the buttons are deeply planted making it harder for users to touch-locate and press, though it does not appeal to me as a major setback. All in all the fusion bolt is a handsome and solid beast, except for the warped indentations on the sides of the screen.
One thing that stands out on the Fusion Bolt is the 5 point touch 7” inch HD super IPS capacitive touch screen (1280 x 800) resolution, its High Definition for the masses a sure value for money, the screen is so sharp and crisp that even the smallest text can be read with ease, since it uses IPS technology the screen remains sharp even when viewed on different angles, who says cheap products can’t offer high-end features, oh! And did I mention that it can also play HD videos up to 2160p with great results.
Internet browsing may be the primary reason for owning a tablet, nowadays internet users demands faster connectivity on their device in which only a quad-core tablet promises to offer, fortunately, the fusion bolt guarantees fast browsing speed, it may not be as fast as other quad-core brands but for its price I can definitely say that it is still a fast tablet. The fusion bolt is powered by a 1Ghz quad-core processor ATM7029 (Actions Semiconductor) with a Vivante GC1000+ GPU, top up with a 1gig DDR3 memory, the chipset may be the reason why the fusion bolt can’t spar with other quad-core brands, but given the reason as an entry-level device, Ainol actually did a good job, no other quad-core brand can compete in this price range. The 1 gig DDR3 RAM, however will provide users adequate memory for multitasking, and yes! It is still priced at 3,999 pesos.
Benchmark result using Quadrant Standard: The fusion bolt got a fair score of 2,766 which earned its place on the top 3 position, as a quad-core device it should have bag in more scores but nevertheless, it's a fair catch and to see the fusion bolt beat the living daylight on some expensive well known brands is heart warming.
The fusion bolt is equipped with two cameras, one at the back and the other on front, the primary camera is a 2megapixel shooter (back), don’t expect good results from it though, in fact even the fusion bolt’s vivid screen can’t fix the bad photos taken from its camera, nor made it look an inch better. The front VGA camera is used primarily for online features, like skype and other video calling services, you’ll be surprised that skype works well on the fusion bolt, another neat feature that you can fancy on this 3,999 peso tablet, of course it all depends on your preferences, mine just happens to fit the fusion bolt’s skype overall performance.
Battery life: The Fusion bolt manages to squeeze-in 3 to 4 hours of non-stop use, with 2 to 3 days of stand-by time on a 60% brightness level, a bit short for a device advertised of having a 4,000Mah battery capacity, perhaps the Fusion bolt’s high definition screen has taken its toll on battery performance, it’s an acceptable trade off in my opinion.
When you think quad-core you think gaming, the fusion bolt is no exemption, fortunately, it can handle graphic intensive games but only a few of it, some might work and some might not, or some will just simply run sluggish on the fusion bolt, I think it’s the weak GPU who’s to blame (Vivante GC1000+ GPU). Arnova tablets use these types of GPUs and they are known the world over as a bad gaming tablet, if it not for its quadcore processor the fusion bolt would have suffer the same fate, but don’t get me wrong the fusion bolt is a capable gaming device, just to show off a bit, here are the list of games I currently have on my fusion bolt; NBA 2K13, Dead Trigger, Anomaly Korea, Deadspace HD, Virtua Tennis. These games all run smooth on the fusion bolt.
NBA 2K13 an all time favorite comes to mobile, back then it was only playable on high-end tablets but now you'll be surprised to see that most Cherry Mobile device can handle this game, the fusion bolt is by far the cheapest tablet that can handle NBA 2K13 the way expensive tablets do so.
Anomaly Korea is a real time strategy game with PC like graphics, the game looks great on the fusion bolt's high definition screen details are excellent and there are hardly no visible frame drops during game play, a must have for fusion bolt owners.
Bottom line: The Fusion bolt is the only quad-core tablet under 4k that does its job well (in relation to its price), it may not go head to head with the Nexus 7, but given the price, it is definitely a good tablet to hang around.
PROS: Affordable quad-core tablet, fast browsing speed, vivid High Definition IPS screen
CONS: Occasional hiccups, Sluggish keyboard
FUSION BOLT SPECIFICATION:
OS: Android 4.1 Jellybean
PROCESSOR: 1Ghz quad-core ATM7029 (Actions Semiconductor)
GPU: Vivante GC1000+
DISPLAY: 7"HD IPS, 5 point touch panel, 1280 x 800 resolution.
RAM: 1GB DDR3
MEMORY: 8GB internal expandable micro SD 32GB
CAMERA: VGA front, 2MP back
PORTS: 3.5 mm audio jack, micro USB 2.0, HDMI
BATTERY: 4000mAH
Posted in: Tablet Review
5 comments:
I found a solution for the fusion bolt's sluggish keyboard, funny! it's already there right under our noses - just activate the touchpal app and that's pretty much it!
I try to charge the fusion bolt by cherry mobile simultaneously typing or browsing,,,its seems to have a problem on its responsiveness
That's the problem with cheap devices that uses capacitive display, electricity coming from the charger seem to interfere with accurate touch response, that is why Cherry mobile strongly suggest not to use the device while charging, try to use chargers with lower ampere.
Hi, I hope this blog is still active. I just want to know how your Fusion Bolt's faring after a couple of months? I'm planning on buying one on Monday hoping it'd make a great poor-man's Nintendo DS/Multimedia Player.
I can play DS roms extracted from my nephew's game cartridges with 100% speed most of the time on my mom's 1 GHz, 512 RAM Android phone so I'm thinking it would perform better on this device.
One thing I'd like to know that isn't included in this great review is its longevity. I've read a lot of positive reviews about it that I thought people who find it bad were just plain stupid and just can't handle it with care. But then I read somewhere that despite all the love the owner gave it when it comes to using it, it just stopped working one day (won't turn on).
My second option is from Cd-R King which is a lot cheaper but just a dual-core one with a typical touchscreen. Since this is just a rebranded China Tablet, do you think there's a difference with Cherry Mobile products from Cd-R King's durability wise?
yes! there are a lot of differences between the two both in terms of durability and performance, Cherry mobile's products came from OEM's like Konka and Ainol which in case you didn't know are two well known electronic brands in China, CDR-King on the other hand, not much is known about their suppliers, so I think CM's tabs are better and far superior than that of CDR-king's....... If you are planning to get one yourself, go for the fusion bolt (3,999 Php) or if you got some extra cash to shell-out, I suggest you go for the Acer iconia B1 (5,999 Php), which is a far superior tab than the two brands mentioned and if compared, it's definitely a no contest.... and by the way my Fusion Bolt is still doing well as if the first time a bought it.
P.S.
Sorry for the late reply, been busy this past few weeks, I'll be posting a review on the Acer iconia B1 pls. do watch out for it THANKS.
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