We unbox Starmobile’s Knight Luxe!

Today we’ll be unboxing Starmobile’s newest phone, the Knight Luxe. The Knight Luxe was launched earlier this month, and now we have our unit to unbox and test. But before that, let’s take a look at the Knight Luxe’s specs:

Starmobile Knight Luxe specs

• 1.4GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592M processor
• 2GB RAM
• 5-inch HD AMOLED display, scratch resistant glass, 1280 x 720 resolution
• 16GB of storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
• 13-megapixel rear Samsung ISOCELL sensor
• 5-megapixel front camera
• Dual-SIM
• 3G, HSPA+
• WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, USB-OTG
• 2050mAh battery
• Android 4.4 KitKat

Packaging and contents:

We’ve been very pleased with the way Starmobile packages their products. Few local brands take the presentation of their phones seriously, and Starmobile has consistently come out with nice looking boxes that make their products feel like offerings of international brands. After you take the phone and all the accessories out of the box, you’ll see a quick troubleshooting guide on the bottom to help you figure out what ails your phone if something’s amiss.

Speaking of accessories and freebies, the Knight Luxe comes with a USB charger, long, flat USB cable, a pair of headphones, two screen protectors and a clear case to protect the product when you’re using it.

Initial Impressions: looks and feels great, though price might be an issue

When Starmobile showed us the Knight Luxe three weeks ago, we immediately asked them if the phone had LTE on board. “No LTE,” Elijah Mendoza, Starmobile’s product marketing manager told us pointedly. The Luxe is being aimed at people who value design over features. Simply put, it’s a phone for fashionistas.

And it’s not hard to see why: the Knight Luxe is a real looker. It sports an aluminum frame and is only 6.85mm thick. The aluminum frame of the phone has been chamfered at the edges to give it a visual punch when the lighting is just right.

While most aluminum framed phones use sealed backs, the Knight Luxe uses a detachable plastic back that gives users access to the dual SIM slots and microSD expansion slot. We’re impressed at how the cover fits so well to the back – when we first saw the Knight Luxe we assumed that it had a unibody construction. Ony a small cutout on the lower left side of the phone clues you in that you can remove the cover of the phone.

The volume rocker and power button of the Knight Luxe are located on the right, and the phone does away with physical Android navigation keys in favor of on-screen ones. Don’t be fooled though – while the Knight Luxe uses the same style navigation keys as Android 5.0 equipped phones do, it’s not yet on Lollipop and is still on KitKat.

The Knight Luxe also follows the recent trend of putting the speakers on the bottom of the phone, not the back, a design change that we wholeheartedly appreciate.

The Knight Luxe uses a 5-inch HD AMOLED display, much like its local rival, the Infinity 2. The AMOLED display is bright though it has the same oversaturation issues that other AMOLED displays have. Despite this, color reproduction is good, and the display is nice a crisp.

As far as processing power goes the Knight Luxe uses the same old 1.4GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592M processor that we’ve seen before, paired with 2GB of RAM. As such we weren’t surprised with the benchmark results at all – it’s typical of what you’d see on a phone such as this.

Starmobile is aware that the pricing of the Knight Luxe isn’t ideal, especially when put up against other bang for the buck devices that’s in the same price range. But the company isn’t targeting the same crowd with the Knight Luxe – it’s going after stylish techies that puts a premium on looks and not performance. We’re not sure if that approach is the right one, but in the end consumers will be the ones to vote with their wallet.