Starmobile Diamond X1 first impressions, benchmarks

We’re able to get a hold of a commercial version of the Starmobile Diamond X1. Some units were already available in the market as early as January 31 (same day this unit was bought in SM Megamall Cyberzone).

The handset did not fail to impress the first time we saw it. While most of the buzz around it was about the octa-core processor, we reckon the design and build quality should be equally given attention.

The Diamond X1 does pretty well in the design department. It looked simple yet feels solid and comfortable to the hands.

Despite the large form factor (a 6-inch display), the Diamond X1 doesn’t feel like a huge phablet. This is probably due to the very slim profile that allows for a good, comfortable grip. At 7.5mm, it is probably among the thinnest in its size category (the Xperia Z ultra is 6.5mm while the Galaxy Mega is 8mm).

The white and gray tones make it look simple yet elegant, but it could pose some problems in the future in terms of smudges and fading. The silver trimming is a pretty common accent but were not complaining.

The back side is painted with a silver-metallic finish along with whiter paint jobs at the top and bottom to give the body an aluminum-alloy look, despite it being a thin sheet of polycarbonate material.

The large camera lens is flushed right close to the top right corner along with the tiny LED flash. The Yamaha speaker grill is right across it and there’ another one on the opposite end.

Up at the front is the 6-inch IPS LCD display with 720p resolution that’s decent enough even for its size. The display quality is good, images are crisp and clear and the only time you will notice the pixels is if you look a little closer to the screen.

The capacitive touch buttons are lined up at the bottom end (Menu, Home and Back) and you get haptic feedback for every tap of the screen.

Starmobile uses its own custom UI on top of Android 4.2 Jellybean. It looks simple, nothing fancy but really clean and well-done. The handset performs well, is very snappy and loads apps quite fast. Gaming is also equally good and so are the dual Yamaha speakers at the back.

Starmobile Diamond X1 specs:
6-inch IPS LCD display @ 1280×720 pixels, 245ppi
Scratch-resistant coating
MediaTek MT6592 1.7GHz Octa-core processor
Mali 450MP4 GPU
2GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 64GB via microSD card
3G/HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0
18MP BSI auto focus camera with LED Flash
8MP BSI front-facing camera
Dual-SIM, dual standby
GPS w/ aGPS support
FM Radio tuner
2 x Yamaha 1420 speakers, 1.2watts
Li-Ion 2,400mAh
Android 4.2.2 Jellybean

The final battery rating of the Diamond X1 is only 2,400mAh. This could be the only deal-breaker especially if you use mobile internet all the time. We’ll be testing the battery life with our standard bench in the full review.

We also took a bunch of benchmarks on the device and got these scores.

Benchmarks scores for Diamond X1:

Quadrant Standard: 16,069
Antutu Benchmark: 27,490
Nenamark 2: 60.2fps
Vellamo: 2,086 (HTML5), 653 (Metal)
SunSpider: 1,106.4ms

The Antutu score was pretty high, coming close to the Snapdragon 800 of Qualcomm. So is the Sunspider score (lower is better).

The Starmobile Diamond X1 got us very impressed in the first take. It is really good and very promising for a local brand. We will find out more on our full review in the coming weeks.