fbpx

Starmobile Octa first impressions, benchmark

We got a good time to play around with the new Starmobile Octa smartphone earlier today during the official launch. The device is the local company’s latest flagship handset along with the Diamond X1.

Right out of the box, the Starmobile Octa has that distinctive look that is somewhat similar to the HTC One. Even when you hold it up close, that solid aluminum frame, black bezel on all glass panel and heft gives it the likeness of the One.

What betrays it is the polycarbonate back panel with metallic matte finish and the absence of the speaker grills at the top and bottom corner.

The front panel is mostly all glass and the OGS display that is permanently bonded into the metal frame. Will a full HD 1080p resolution, the Octa comes with a vivid 440ppi pixel density, among the highest in any locally branded smartphone.

The cut of the glass that is surrounded by the aluminum frame showed some minuscule imperfection especially along the rounded corners.

The Octa has a unibody design so that 2300mAh battery is not user-replaceable. There are two slots for the micro-SIM on the left side which can easily pop out via the usual pin holes beside them. There’s no additional micro-SD card slot so the 32GB internal storage will have to do.

There are three soft buttons at the bottom corner of the front glass panel which is distinctly represented by dotted LED lights but it seems redundant since Jellybean also has the standard virtual menu on the screen itself.

The UI is simple yet responsive and very smooth. You can look at this quick hands-on video we took of the device:

We took a quick benchmark and got an Antutu score of 27,968 which is already pretty high in the charts but did not really beat some of the Snapdragon 801 quad-core chips we’re seen before (the quad-core Z2 scored 31,659).

The Octa is a beast in terms of specs. It also has a pretty solid and good-looking design. Starmobile also added a lot of new stuff like NFC and the capability to charge wirelessly (comes bundled with a wireless charger).

Starmobile Octa specs:
5.0-inch OGS display @ 1920×1080 pixels, 440ppi
Asahi Glass scratch resistant display
Mediatek MT6592 1.7GHz octa-core processor
Mali 450MP4 650Mhz quad-core
2GB RAM
32GB internal storage
HSPA+ up to 21Mbps
dual-SIM 3G micro-SIM
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
NFC
MHL
FM Radio tuner
GPS with aGPS support
18MP AF with BSI sensor, dual LED flash
8MP FF with BSI and LED flash
Li-Ion 2,300mAh
Android 4.2.2 Jellybean

Perhaps, it’s only and biggest concern among buyers is that the price tag which hovers around the range of a lot of capable global brands. This is probably a litmus test for Starmobile if indeed they can dish it out with the big brands and only time and people’s pockets will tell.

What we liked about it:
* Octa-core processor
* Powerful graphics
* Good, solid design
* Large RAM
* Huge internal storage
* 1080p display resolution
* NFC and MHL
* Bundled wireless charger

What we did not like:
* No LTE
* Low battery capacity
* Expensive for its class
* No expandable memory

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 985 other subscribers
Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

21 Responses

  1. Avatar for Marf Marf says:

    anybody bought this phone? any actual reviews? thanks! which is the best affordable phone as of date? thanks!

  2. Avatar for huh huh says:

    How much????

  3. Avatar for wew wew says:

    o ayan tahimik na mga haters ng yugatech ah nilagay na nila ung gusto nyung ilagay nila

  4. Avatar for buzal buzal says:

    masyado lang mahal yun ang pinaka cons niya pero sa pros ok nadin.

    dapat sinama niyo po ibang benchmarks,kung ilang touchpoint ba,and loudness and crisp of sound.

  5. Avatar for Joshua Joshua says:

    I love how honest the author is. Thank you for this first impression.

  6. Avatar for Name: Name: says:

    mawala parin yan sa t100 at t200 taas na ng battery mura na dami pa freebies

  7. Avatar for Mog Mog says:

    Eight Cortex A7 cores will never outperform four Krait cores at a similar clock speed, and power consumption will be worse to boot. It’s not a very efficient design at all.

  8. Avatar for brianaudio brianaudio says:

    Who needs that kind of camera? Chop down some megapixel and add a beefier battery and oh, stick a quality chipset, that chipset eats battery like a V12 engine.

  9. Avatar for FrozenEyes FrozenEyes says:

    Where did they release this?

  10. Avatar for jihrey p jihrey p says:

    Too much… somehow pretty cool to have that stuff na rin.

  11. Avatar for Julius Julius says:

    Am i reading it correctly..?
    It supports Mhl connectivity?

    • Avatar for Jigs Jigs says:

      Yeap, you read that right. Curious to see how it’s gonna look like on a large screen

    • Avatar for julius julius says:

      Cool.. Now thats a first.Same here.:)
      Not all people have the luxury to buy a Smart tv for wireless connectivity paired with their gadgets.

    • Avatar for Abubot Abubot says:

      The screen will just resize to match the optimal resolution for the larger screen. Max supported is 4K video and 7.1 audio.

  12. Avatar for abuzalzal abuzalzal says:

    * Most expensive of all SM handsets”

    subtle Con pa rin ito Abe, malamya ang tirada mo, parang may pumipigil

    what we want to hear is

    ”Too expensive for what it is”

  13. Avatar for Barry Barry says:

    Lugi yata si StarMobile. Binara e! Sobrang mahal daw!

  14. Avatar for ramos ramos says:

    Padulas in the house!

Leave a Reply
JOIN OUR TELEGRAM DISCUSSION

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *