Starmobile Knight Spectra Review

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the Knight Spectra is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset with an Adreno 405 paired with 3GB of RAM. With that configuration, we should expect the device to perform pretty well in most tasks. In-app performance is good, also with graphic intensive games, but general performance is a bit slow. Even with 3GB of RAM, the Spectra can’t handle Facebook Messenger and text messaging at the time. Besides that, multitasking is relatively okay.

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Benchmark numbers are at par with most midrange devices sporting the same specs with a 1080p display. Check out for yourself:

Antutu Benchmark v5.7 — 36434
Quadrant Standard — 21926
Vellamo — 2242 (Chrome), 1781 (Browser), 1576 (Multicore), 1164 (Metal)
Nenamark 2 — 59.2fps
PCMark Work Performance — 3936

Performance-wise, it’s disappointing to see the Spectra under-perform when it comes to some basic tasks. Perhaps it is a software issue and a patch can sort this out in the future. We hope Starmobile will do its part in keeping their smartphones, especially their top-of-the-line Androids, in good shape.

Connectivity and Call Quality

For a smartphone that will cost you almost 15k bucks, you’d expect it have a complete suite of radios. Well, it has 4G LTE, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi 802.11. It’s missing NFC, yet the usage of NFC with smartphones in the country is somewhat limited at the moment.

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We’ve notice occasional signal drops during our everyday usage. Reception can be a little tricky at time but the Spectra seems to be slacking off in keeping those signal bars.

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Nevertheless, we get good speeds whenever we have a healthy LTE connection around Metro Manila. Call quality is good with clear voices on both ends but the earpiece is on the soft side in terms of volume.

Battery Life

With it’s generous 3500mAh battery, the Spectra can go the distance. Believe it or not, we were able to get almost 20 hours of video playback using a 1080p movie with 50% brightness, airplane mode and zero volume. That’s the AMOLED showing its efficiency. But with regular use, we were able to get a whole day of use with cellular data enabled. The PCMark battery test was able to squeeze out 7 hours and 37 mins.

Conclusion

With its polished build and vibrant display, it’s easy to appreciate the Starmobile Knight Spectra. Once you spend time with it, it begins to show a slowdown despite its capable internals. And, an asking price of Php14,990 is a bit steep among the local competition. If you’re in for the design of the Spectra, it’s still a good buy.

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Starmobile Knight Spectra specifications:
5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED (1920 × 1080 pixels) display, 401ppi
1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa-core 64-bit chipset
Adreno 405
3GB RAM
32GB internal storage
microSD card support
13MP + 2MP dual-lens rear camera w/ LED flash, f/2.0 aperture
8-megapixel front camera w/ flash
Dual SIM / Dual Stand-by
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS
DTV Support
3,500mAh battery
Android 5.1 Lollipop

What we liked about:

Good build
Vibrant AMOLED display
Great camera performance

What we didn’t:

Performance issues
Asking price is a bit steep
Occasional signal drops

What processor does the Starmobile Knight Spectra use?

The Starmobile Knight Spectra uses a Snapdragon 615 chipset.

What accessories are included in the box?

The box includes a screen protector, cleaning cloth, hard case, DTV cable antenna, adhesive stand, SIM eject tool, micro-USB cable, charger, and earphones with mic.

How does the earphone audio quality compare to the build?

The earphones have good audio quality with decent levels and bass, but the build feels cheap.

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18 Comments

c · 11 years ago

Cherry Mobile Flare S Play ka na lang at 1/3 of the price

ROMSKI · 11 years ago

The Asus Zenfone Selfie has almost the same specs. Except that the selfie has a more advance camera on both sides (13 Megapixel on both sides with dual tone flash and a laser autofocus) and Gorilla glass 4 for screen protection but only lacks in battery (3500mAh of Knight Spectra Vs 3000 of Selfie) and DTV support. In the price Asus Selfie Wins its price is only 11,900 which far more cheaper than the local Starmobile.

William C · 11 years ago

Since the Lenovo P1 is almost the same price, why would anyone buy Starmobile. Sure, it has an extra gigabyte of Ram but as the review indicate, it still have speed issues, so the UI is not optimized. And the Pc Mark battery test also seems to show that the unit is not optimized in terms of battery efficiency as well – Lenovo P1 get double the time for just 30% more battery.

At 12.5k, it might be reasonable, given Snapdragon devices are by and large more expensive that Mediatek ones, but at 15k, I rather look at the competition…

Ryco · 11 years ago

Occasional signal drops & Performance problem? So in short, EXPENSIVE GARBAGE PHONE

izrayel · 11 years ago

HAHAHAHA, sd615 tapos starmobile, at 15k? Sira!

archie · 11 years ago

Software updates lang ang katapat ng lag issues na yan. Hindi big deal ang facebook issues dahil alam naman ng marami na faulty ang facebook messenger apps.

Ronaldq · 11 years ago

Does Starmobile do weekly updates in their firmware like Asus do in their ZF2? If not then this is a big no to me for that price and their performance issues.

StarmobileSucks · 11 years ago

in short, another fail product from starmobile. Shame!

Basahin mo na lang comment ko sayo don sa fast five expensive local brand article. Try mo muna ang device bago magreklamo. Mas patapon naman ang cherry at myphone counterparts ng spectra.