Hankering for a Phablet: MyPhone A919

I've been visiting the MyPhone kiosk often lately because I've been interested in getting the A878. I recently learned that they'll be releasing the A898 soon for 500 pesos more than its 3G-less counterpart so I decided to hold back on buying one. However, my curiosity was piqued by a flyer for this promo which states that people who purchase several phone models have a chance of winning an A919, a model they didn't even have specs for, at least at the time.

I spotted this on PINOY Phones on facebook and thought I'd share it.

Now, where this photo was taken, I can't be sure, but if this is to be believed, it would seem that the A919 is MyPhone's weapon of choice to attract the 5.0 inch market.

According to the specs, the A919, like its two 4.3 inch brothers, will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It will probably have roughly the same amount of storage space (4GB, with around 2.56GB user usable) and Ram (512 MB) and run on 1GHZ Dual Core Processor. Like the A898, it will have 3G and a front cam, but instead of a 5MP main camera, the A919 will be sporting a 8MP auto focus cam with LED flash. The slightly larger 5.0 inch IPS-WVGA Capacitive touch screen will eat up more juice, and to compensate, the A919 will be packing a 2000mAh Lypolymer battery. It will reportedly be available for  Php 7,999.

Like the Cherry Mobile W500 Titan I wrote about in a previous post, the A919 is more of a phablet than just a phone. However, aside from the price, what the Titan has going for itself is a higher batt capacity rating, with 2350mAh, 350mAh more than the A919. The A919 will have an a higher MP count for the rear camera though, so if that is what matters to you, you might still opt for it over the Titan.

If anyone's been able to hold either, or both, please let me know about comparative build quality.

When this will be officially released is anyone's guess. As it is, the A898 has yet to make it to any MyPhone store. But if this doesn't get released soon, MyPhone's going to have a lot of ground to cover specially since the W500 Titan is already available for sale in selected Cherry Mobile stores.

A919 Duo specs at a glance:
• Dual Sim / Dual Standby
• 5" IPS-WVGA Capacitive Touchscreen (480 x 800 pixels)
• 5-Point Multi-Touchscreen
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 4GB ROM / 512MB RAM / 1GHz Dual Core Processor
• 2000mAh Lypolymer Battery
• G-Sensor / Proximity Sensor / Accelerometer
• Triband GSM
• 3G / WiFi Hotspot / GPS
• HSDPA 7.2Mbps / TV-Out
• Dual Camera: 8MP Auto Focus Camera with Dual LED Flash (Main) / VGA Camera (Front)
• 720p HD Video Recording
• Bluetooth 3.0
• JAVA / EDGE / WAP / GPRS / SMS / MMS
• MP3 / Multimedia Player / FM Radio
• Pinoy Phone Apps.
• 3.5mm Headset Jack / 2.0 Micro USB
• Micro SD up to 32GB / 2.56GB Internal Memory
• SRP Php 7,999

Hankering for a Phablet: Cherry Mobile W500 Titan

Ok, let's see. Where do I start with this post? I want to ask the world, what makes a phone a phone, and a tablet a tablet and what makes a phablet, well, neither of the previous two and at the same time both of them?

Well, personally I guess a phone ceases to be a phone when you hold it up to your head when answering a call and it blocks half your face, but is not quite a tablet when it can still ride somewhat comfortably in your pocket. That's what the Samsung Note was. Something else the Note was also was expensive. If you're looking something with a reasonably large screen to watch videos on, but don't want to spend the money for a Note, then you can check out the Cherry Mobile W500 Titan.

Launched at roughly the same time as the CM Flare, the Titan also shares many of the same specs, like 3g connectivity, a dual-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, 5MP digital cam with LED flash and a VGA front facing camera for video chat. Two major differences would be a larger display, 5 inches to be exact, and battery capacity, at a whopping 2350 mAh. The picture above shows a pen, though you can bet that you won't get any S-Pen functionality. While it can't compete with the Samsung Note II, or the first Note either, it's a phablet you can afford at Php 6,499 (it's even cheaper than the A878!).


If you really need a cheap phablet, I'd give it a go. But since I'm not inclined to get one, I'll leave it up to the future owners.

Cherry Mobile W500 Titan Specs:
MediaTek MT6577 1GHz dual-core processor
PowerVR SGX531 GPU
5.0″ capacitive touch panel (800 x 480)
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
HSPA+ 21Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot
Bluetooth 2.1
GPS w/ aGPS support
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
5-megapixel rear camera with flash
VGA front-facing camera
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
2350mAh battery
SRP: Php 6,499.00

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