Pocket Wi-Fi solutions have become so common in the past few years that they are now challenging the convenience than getting a local sim. Heck its a lot more cheaper than using your telecom’s roaming at Php500 per day. In my case, I went to Taiwan last February 1st until February 5th to spend the Chinese New Year in another country.
Let me share you my experience in using the Cherry Roam.
First, you need to download the Cherry Roam app in your phone prior to flying, this will be your host for your account and a way to register your account for any subscription you should need for the trip.
In my case, I was able to choose among the following packages for my Taiwan Trip
- Asia Unlimited Day Pass – Php350
- 3 Days 1GB – Php350
- 7 Days 3GB – Php1050
While my rates were fairly okay, you can check out the rates in more than 20+ countries in this link.
One choosing a package, its time to sync your Cherry Roam to your device by scanning the QR code on the device. Once scanned, you need to reboot your Cherry Roam to connect to the internet.
The Cherry Roam G3 is our pocket wi-fi device, its capable of cloud sim technology to connect to any country where the service is available. It has a big 5350mAh battery that can even charge other devices with a 5V 1A output.
Rates vs Local
In our experience, you will encounter a vending machine for various local sims and you can gett a 3GB sim in Taiwan already that costs 900 TWD or Php1,620. So we just subscribed to unlimited day pass (Php350) from Feb 1st to Feb 5th as I have two phones and uses a laptop from time to time.
Total Cost: Php350 x 5 = Php1,750
Using the Cherry Roam, I was able to use it in three devices and even utilize the unlimited data feature. It’s technically 1GB in 4G speeds and will throttle down to 256kbps once you reach your cap, in my experience with two phones and heavy chats, I was able to fill up my 1GB from 8AM to 3PM already. So, it was a nice feature for the unlimited data to kick in even though it’s not that fast, I was still able to reply to messages and even do some voice calls since 3G speeds in Taiwan isn’t so bad.
The Cherry Roam has a 4″ display with even an ambient light sensor and speakerphone. We even joked that you can call in the phone, but it turns out its just a feature for the speaker itself. Don’t let it fool you as its powered by Android OS, so the interface is fairly easy to understand.
The Cherry Roam is easy to charge overnight, it will last you more than a day of tethering in my experience. So it’s a perfect companion to just put it on your bag after charging and off you go. The only gripe we had with the unit is that it tends to disconnect when it’s not used for some time. So, in the morning after waking up, I had to re-connect and scan the QR code to connect to the internet.
Unfortunately, you can’t use the Cherry Roam to connect to the device unless you enable the Php2.00/ per MB charging of the Cherry Roam. Of course, you want to save every peso of your account, we hope Cherry can make it free when connecting to the device.
In our trip to Taiwan, it was fairly great using the Cherry Roam. Even signal at far areas are great especially in the lantern village and mining village in the outskirt of Taiwan. The data counter might be annoying, but at least its there to remind you of your current usage.
Just take note that the unlimited data subscription expires every 15:59 of the day. So make sure to time your subscription properly to avoid wasting your subscription. What I do is that I subscribe every afternoon to make the most of the 24-hour validity. It’s kinda weird, but you will see this upon subscription in the app.
Advantages
- Battery Life is outstanding
- Easy to understand interface
- Usage counter is clear and easy to track
Disadvantages
- A few instances of getting disconnected when not in use
- We wish that accessing the Cherry Roam App is free to pair the device in times that it might get disconnected.
- Unlimited day pass expires in less than 24 hours as it doesn’t carry to the next day.
Overall we love the Cherry Roam, it saved us the hassle of buying a sim card and taking care of 3GB of data where we got unlimited data for almost the same price and with 3 devices. We highly suggest for you to check out the Cherry Roam when going overseas, its available for Rent or even purchase of Php6,990.
Rental is Php50 per day with your chosen data package. Plus there will be a deposit of Php2,000 which you can get back after renting the device. You can have it delivered or picked up at the airport, whichever is more convenient for you.
For more information about Cherry Roam, check out this website to rent or purchase.
