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

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.

https://www.yugatech.com

21 Comments

Marf says:

11 years ago

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

11 years ago

How much????
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wew says:

11 years ago

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

11 years ago

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.
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Joshua says:

11 years ago

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

11 years ago

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

11 years ago

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.
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brianaudio says:

11 years ago

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.
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FrozenEyes says:

11 years ago

Where did they release this?
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jihrey p says:

11 years ago

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

11 years ago

Am i reading it correctly..?
It supports Mhl connectivity?
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Abubot says:

11 years ago

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

11 years ago

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.
Jigs says:

11 years ago

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

abuzalzal says:

11 years ago

* 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”
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Abe Olandres says:

11 years ago

Edited to add more cons and included your suggestion. :)

Barry says:

11 years ago

Lugi yata si StarMobile. Binara e! Sobrang mahal daw!
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Janet Napoles says:

11 years ago

Magkano ba yan? Bibili ako ng sampu. Ganda ng color huh… Bagay sa anak ko.
Jigs says:

11 years ago

syempre, mga kampon ng cm, nagsisibarahan. di kasi daw afford kaya ganyan

HAHA