Fresh after launching the Cherry Mobile Candy TV and the W100 budget smartphones, it looks like the popular local mobile company is on a roll. Just the other day, they launched two new tablets to their Android lineup: the CherryPad Tornado and Superion Plus. Make no mistake, as these aren’t your Chinese knockoffs that you might see a lot in various stalls at 168, Greenhills and the like. Judging by the specs, you can expect the overall experience to be quite good, and the good thing is you won’t have to pay nearly as much.

CherryPad Tornado

Take the CherryPad Tornado for instance. First of all, it has a 7 inch capacitive touchscreen that registers the barest of touches. This isn’t like the resistive screens that a lot of Chinese tablet knockoffs used in the past that required you to apply a bit of pressure for your touch to be registered. Steve Jobs may have famously argued that 10 inches was the right size for readability and usability, however, 7 inches is still plenty big enough, and you certainly won’t get as tired as quickly from holding it. You also get a 1Ghz CPU coupled with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box for a smoother and richer user experience. Sure, it’s not 4.1 Jelly Bean, but hardly any of the tablets that are already out there come with Jelly Bean anyway. There’s 8Gb of internal storage, which is great if you want to use your Tornado as a portable media player. What’s even better is that it’s also expandable up to 32Gb via MicroSD. Take that, Nexus 7! Finally, you get a front-facing camera for voice calls. It’s pretty basic though, as it only sports VGA resolution. Still, at only Php4,999, you’re getting quite the deal for this WiFi -only tab.

Some of you might recognize the CherryPad Tornado as a rebranded Ainol Novo Tornado. This shouldn’t come as a surprise seeing as Cherry Mobile has partnered with the Ainol before to release the CherryPad Paladin and Advance. Ainol is a trusted ODM (official device manufacturer) that has made a name for itself by offering an affordable line of affordable tablets with specs that rivaled those of more expensive and recognized brands.

Superion Plus

If surfing wherever you go is more important to you, then the Superion Plus should catch your attention as it is capable of 3G data at a price of only Php6,899. Holy crap! A tablet that’s capable of mobile surfing for less than Php7k? Yes, it’s exactly that, however the successor to the original Superion cuts a lot of corners to stay as affordable as it is.

First of all, it only sports an 800Mhz CPU, which should still be usable, but won’t be as smooth as the 1Ghz CPU on the CherryPad Tornado. Another gripe is it only runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and not Android 4.0. While Gingerbread is quite stable and did away with the force close issues that were common on Froyo 2.2, keep in mind that it was optimized to be used on phones, not tablets. Also, you only get 512Mb of internal storage. No, not RAM. Internal storage. To be fair, it is expandable up to 32Gb via MicroSD, and those MicroSD cards are getting cheaper everyday, however, 512Mb of internal storage is really disappointing on a tablet. The Superion Plus does redeem itself by providing a dual camera setup: 2mp rear-facing camera and VGA front-facing camera. It may not be ideal for gaming, but for your basic apps and mobile surfing, the Superion Plus should be a great option to consider.

A Solid Android Tablet Lineup

The CherryPad Tornado and Superion Plus join the CherryPad Paladin, CherryPad Advance in Cherry Mobile’s affordable tablet lineup. There’s also the 10.1 inch Nvidia Tegra2-powered Supreme to consider, which just so happens to be going on sale at the moment for just Php9,999. So what do you think? Will you be getting yourself a CherryPad Tornado or Superion Plus?

Source: Cherry Mobile Facebook Page