Starmobile Engage Aura Unboxing, First Impressions

Starmobile just ventured into selling a laptop. It’s not their first Windows-powered device though as they have a convertible before but this one is a full-blown notebook that you’ll flip out, place on a desk (or lap), and work with it. Here’s our unboxing and hands-on of the Starmobile Engage Aura.

It’s hard to miss the package of the Engage Aura. It’s a large rectangular white box with modest prints over it. Even with just the exterior, one would already know how big this Starmobile device is.

Upon lifting the box open, you’ll already see the notebook neatly wrapped in protective plastic and foam edges. The long separated box on the left contains the power brick and cord to be used for charging the notebook.

The charger is fairly small and compact just like most netbook chargers we had before. It has a rated power of 12V=3A and uses a small cylindrical connector to transfer power to the device. We kinda hoped for a micro-USB charger though but the large battery inside needs more oomph.

Going to the notebook itself. The Engage Aura is a 14-inch laptop with a design akin to a MacBook Air although instead of cold aluminum, this one is made entirely of polycarbonate or plastic. The display is a glossy TN panel with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and a 16:9 ratio like most budget notebooks currently in the market.

There’s not much to expect from the panel and it has limited viewing angles. We’re glad though that Starmobile went with 14 inches rather than a cramped 10-inch slate.

A quick tour of the device: to the left are the full-size USB 2.0 port and a 3.5mm headphone jack while on the right are the microSD card reader, Mini-HDMI, and full-size USB 3.0 ports, and the DC-in with a blue LED indicator.

The 2-megapixel webcam is placed where it should be although there’s no dedicated LED indicator to know if it’s active or not.

We have more LED lights just above the keyboard, three to be exact. One for power, another for caps lock, and another one for the trackpad status.

Speaking of the keyboard, I’m currently typing this article on it and suffice to say, it’s pretty easy to adjust since it’s well-spaced but has a shallow travel. Perhaps my main gripe about it is the placement of the power key. You can mistake it as the ‘delete’ key and put your laptop to sleep.

The trackpad is large but its texture is just too plasticky for my liking. Good thing though it uses Windows Precision driver and can detect up to three fingers swipes.

The bottom of the laptop is clean with four rubber feet and stereo speakers. You can also access the components through here as it only uses tiny screws.

The Engage Aura is powered by an Intel Atom-x5 “Cherry Trail” Z8350 quad-core processor paired with 2GB DDR3 RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. It’ll not win over gamers and power users but it’ll do as a budget laptop for browsing, typing, and watching videos.

The Engage Aura is basically similar to other affordable convertibles but in a laptop form which is more convenient for typing jobs. It runs a full-blown Windows 10 too so you can run desktop applications, not mobile.

Starmobile Engage Aura specs:
14-inch TN display @ 1366 x 768 pixels, 16:9 ratio
1.9GHz Intel Atom-x5 Z8350 quad-core processor
Intel HD Graphics Gen8
2GB DDR3L
32GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD, up to 64GB
2-megapixel webcam
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0 LE
1x 3.5mm headphone jack
1x Mini HDMI
1x USB 2.0
1x USB 3.0
9,000mAh Li-ion battery
Windows 10
351 x 233 x 20 mm
1.39 kg

This one is available in Lazada PH for just Php7,990USD 136INR 11,542EUR 130CNY 992 (listing here) although the Gold color unit we have is a limited edition only available at Starmobile kiosks and stores for Php9,990USD 170INR 14,432EUR 162CNY 1,240. We’ll be taking the notebook for a full spin so do get back to us in a couple of days for the full review.