Starmobile Quest Quick Review

The Starmobile Quest is one of the company’s affordable Android smartphone that packs a 4.5-inch qHD display, Snapdragon 200 quad-core CPU, 2,000mAh battery, 12 megapixel f2.0 camera, and Android 4.3 Jellybean. For a price tag of Php6,590USD 112INR 9,520EUR 107CNY 818, let’s find if it’s worth the money by reading our quick review below.

starmobile quest_5

Design and Construction

Being an entry-level offering, don’t expect the Quest to pack a premium body and eye-catching design. It’s body is made of plastic with a non-glossy finish. On the front is the 4.5-inch qHD IPS OGS display, earpiece, 5 megapixel front camera, and three capacitive buttons for navigation.

starmobile quest_3

On the left is the volume rocker while on the right is the power/lock button. Right on top is the headset jack and microUSB port while down at the bottom is the microphone. Flip it on its back and you’ll find the 12 megapixel camera, LED flash, the secondary microphone, and the speaker.

starmobile quest_2

Although it won’t be able to boast much in terms of build, its contours and curved edges are not something to be frowned upon. It fits well in the hands and feels light. In addition, it is solid and doesn’t exhibit any creakiness or rattling even though the back plate is removable.

OS and UI

Running the software department is Android 4.3 Jellybean. Starmobile maintained the stock look but came with a few pre-installed apps like WeChat, WhatsApp, VIRUS fighter PRO, Dr. Safety, Qualcomm Snapdragon Battery Guru, Starmobile Sync, and Starmobile App Store.

starmobile quest_ui

All in all it would give you a total usable storage of 1.58GB for apps and 800MB of USB storage out of the 4GB that comes with it. The good news is it has microSD card slot should you wish to expand.

Camera

The Quest boasts a 12 megapixel BSI rear camera with Sony sensor and f/2.2 aperture. It takes decent photos even indoors during a cloud day. However, don’t expect top notch quality compared to more expensive smartphones. Take a look at a few samples below.

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It is also equipped with a 5-megapixel front camera with Toshiba sensor so it packs more pixels than most smartphones. If you like taking selfies or frequently do video calls the Quest’s front camera will definitely suffice.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the Quest is a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core CPU, Adreno 302 GPU, and 1GB RAM. So far basic tasks run smoothly and most of our social media apps ran without any hiccups. Although there aren’t any lags, you’ll notice that it’s not as snappy compared to smartphones with much better specs. Take a look at the benchmark scores below:

AnTuTu – 16,340
Quadrant – 7,820
NenaMark2 – 42.7 fps

Battery Life

The Quest comes with a 2,000mAh battery which should be able to last a conservative user a whole day. We put it through our routine battery test and the result is 5.26 hours worth of playback which we find to be below average.

Conclusion

To conclude, the Starmobile Quest is a nice offering for those who need a capable smartphone with decent performance and dual-SIM capabilities at a low price. But with its price tag of Php6,590USD 112INR 9,520EUR 107CNY 818, it’s a losing battle against the better-equipped and slightly more affordable ASUS Zenfone 5 which starts at Php6,495USD 111INR 9,383EUR 105CNY 806.

starmobile quest_4

Starmobile Quest specs:
4.5-inch qHD IPS OGS display, 245ppi
1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core CPU
Adreno 302 GPU
1GB RAM
4GB internal storage
microSD card support
12 megapixel AF BSI (Sony sensor) f2.0 aperture rear camera
5 megapixel AF (Toshiba sensor) front camera
Dual SIM (micro)
HSPA+
WiFi
Bluetooth
GPS, A-GPS
FM Radio
2,000mAh battery
Android 4.3 Jellybean
137 x 66.3 x 9.8 mm

7 Comments

dirt says:

10 years ago

lol, what a piece of shit for 6.5k. another moron local company trying to push expensive shitty products.
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Rockafella says:

10 years ago

piece of crap. mag Zenfone 5 nalang
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evollove says:

10 years ago

Although there aren’t any lags, you’ll notice that it’s not as snappy compared to smartphones with much better specs

No shit, Sherlock.
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ordu says:

10 years ago

garapalan mag presyo ang starmobie, LOL. tapos bilis magbasak presyo kahit kakalabas pa lang ng produkto. no resale value! LOL!
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metre9dmt says:

10 years ago

why so much negativity with starmobile and local brands in general? You highlighted that the cost factor. I may say that the local brands is about one or two years behind the international brands in terms of quality but there getting there. With regards to the price, do remember local only sell their products in the philippines while international brands sell their products around the world, enabling them to spread the cost of their products.

What I like with local brands is they experiment with the components that us, local consumers, love. An example of which is the use of high megapixel front and back cameras with bsi and flash. so far, sony is just about to release a similar product but PhP 5-6,000 price difference with local brands.

Konting hinahon lamang sa mga comments, lalo na towards the author of the blog…
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RJ de Leon says:

10 years ago

Remember, the local brands you referred to are only rebranders of OEM products from China, Taiwan, India, etc. that sell those same handsets in other countries under different brands (e.g., Micromax, Karbonn, Spice, etc.)

kenneth says:

10 years ago

We use a Cloudfone Excite 502q priced at 5k, and we are quite happy with it . Compared it with Lenovo and O+ phones priced at 8k and 10k respectively, and our phone was just as good, even better than these branded phones. Recently tried an Oppo Neo 3 priced at 6k, and our phone was definitely better.
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