Well, here’s something interesting. Cherry Mobile recently posted a new ad on their Facebook page. It appears that they will be holding a 3 day sale at Trinoma from November 12 to 14 on their former flagship phone, the dual core Magnum 2X. The phone’s current SRP has already been dropped from Php19,999, when it was first introduced, down to Php14,999, and now it’s officially selling for Php8,999. However during the 3 day sale, you can get the Cherry Mobile Magnum 2X for as low as Php4,949! (No, that’s not a typo. It really is Php4,949 and not Php4,999.) Entry level Android smartphones from other manufacturers are already trembling in fear!

There are some weird mechanics to the promo though. You can only get the Cherry Mobile Magnum 2X at that price during the first hour, from 10am-11am. Then the price increases by 5% of the original price (Php8,999) every two hours thereafter. So the discount scheme should look like this:

• 10am – 11am, get 45% off (Php4,949)
• 11am – 1pm, get 40% off (Php5,399)
• 1pm – 3pm, get 35% off (Php5,849)
• 3pm – 5pm, get 30% off (Php6,299)
• 5pm – 7pm, get 25% off (Php6,749)
• 7pm – 9pm, get 20% off (Php7,199)

Pretty weird, right? We’ll have to assume that these rules will apply on each of the 3 days that the Cherry Mobile Magnum 2X goes on sale since there’s nothing on the promo graphic to indicate otherwise. If that’s the case, I can imagine that on the first two days, people will stop buying after the first hour, with people having to make do with the higher prices on the third day if they get to Trinoma after 11am. Assuming they still have stocks of course.

It’s likely that Cherry Mobile is clearing old stocks of the Magnum 2X to make way for the incoming Cherry Mobile Flare, which is due on the 2nd or 3rd week of November. While the Flare is a little better when it comes to the specs, the Magnum 2X has a much more solid build. I’m talking about Gorilla Glass solid for the screen. Not bad, if you can score it for just Php4,949. It still has a smaller 3.8″ WVGA screen though compared to the Flare’s 4″ IPS display, and the OS is stuck on Gingerbread, not ICS. Of course, if I were to choose from any of the entry level phones from more popular and internationally recognized manufacturers, I’d still take the Cherry Mobile Magnum anytime.

Cherry Mobile Magnum 2X Specifications

• 3.8″ Gorilla Glass capacitive touchscreen at WVGA resolution (480×800)
• 1GHz dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU
• 5mp autofocus rear-facing camera, VGA front-facing camera
• 8Gb internal storage, expandable up to 32Gb via MicroSD
• WiFi/3G/GPRS/EDGE
• Bluetooth
• Micro USB port