Affordable Quad-core Three-way: MyPhone Rio, Cherry Mobile Omega Spectrum and Starmobile Up

Affordable Quad-core Three-way: MyPhone Rio, Cherry Mobile Omega Spectrum and Starmobile Up

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How does each one stack up against their rivals?

With the release of the Starmobile Up, we’ve been getting requests to put it up against the two other smartphones currently fighting it out in the sub 5K quad-core category, namely the MyPhone Rio and the Cherry Mobile Omega Spectrum. While we’re not going to be crowning a winner (as we haven’t finished our review of the Up yet) we are going to compare each one to see their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the display, processor, design and OS. We’ll leave it to you guys to decide which one is right for you.

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MyPhone Rio Specs

  • 1.3GHz quad-core MT6582M Processor
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 5-inch HD IPS Display, 1280 × 720 resolution
  • 4GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB
  • 8-megapixel main Camera with Autofocus
  • 2-megapixel front Camera
  • Wi-Fi, Wireless Display, USB-OTG, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
  • Dual-SIM
  • 3G, HSPA+
  • 2000mAh Baterry
  • Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
  • Php 4,999

Read: MyPhone Rio review

Cherry Mobile Omega Spectrum specs

  • 1.2GHz quad-core Broadcom BCM 23550 processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 5-inch HD IPS display, 1280 x 720 resolution
  • 4GB storage (possibly expandable via microSD)
  • 8-megapixel camera with flash
  • 2-megapixel front camera
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, GLONASS, Miracast ready, USB-OTG
  • 3G
  • Dual-SIM
  • 2000mAh battery
  • Android 4.2
  • Php 4,999

Read: Cherry Mobile Omega Spectrum review

Starmobile Up specs

  • 1.3Ghz quad-core MediaTek MT6582M processor
  • Mali 400MP- 2 GPU
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 5-inch scratch resistant FWVGA IPS display, 854×480 resolution
  • 4GB of storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
  • 8-megapixel BSI rear camera with flash and AF
  • 2-megapixel front camera with BSI
  • Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, USB-OTG
  • Dual-SIM
  • 3G, HSPA+
  • 2000mAh battery
  • Android 4.4 KitKat
  • 146 x 73 x 9.99mm
  • Php 4,990 

Read: Starmobile Up unboxing

Display

While all three smartphones use 5-inch, IPS displays, the MyPhone Rio and the Cherry Mobile Omega Spectrum have the edge, as both have HD displays (1280 x 720 resolution). The Up uses a lower, FWVGA display (854×480 resolution). As far as protection goes, the Omega Spectrum is the clear winner, possessing Asahi’s Dragon Trail glass protection on the display. The Up also has a scratch resistant display, though Starmobile did not specify exactly what kind it was. The MyPhone Rio does not have any kind of protection on the display.

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Processor and performance

Since we haven’t really stress tested the Up yet, we’ll be going with the synthetic benchmarks of all three smartphones to see how they stack up to each other. Cherry Mobile’s Omega Spectrum, with its quad-core 1.2GHz quad-core Broadcom BCM 23550 processor scores the lowest in AnTuTu, at only 13171 points. The MyPhone Rio, with its 1.3GHz quad-core MT6582M processor scores around 17170 points in AnTuTu. The clear winner as far as benchmark scores go is the Up, nabbing 18258 points with the same processor as the one used in the Rio. Since the processor in the Up only has to power a lower resolution display, the Up scores higher than the Rio even though both of them posses the same processor.

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Design

The MyPhone Rio uses a colorful, rather simplistic design with the phone covered with an plastic shell similar to Nokia’s Microsoft’s line of Lumia devices. The Omega Spectrum meanwhile, uses a somewhat subdued and elegant design with a matte black back. Finally, the Starmobile Up has many design elements of the company’s earlier budget smartphone Play, including the non-slip pattern on the back.

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OS and software

Both the MyPhone Rio and the Cherry Mobile Omega Spectrum initially shipped with Android 4.2, while the Up has Android 4.4 on board. It’s also important to note that the Omega Spectrum has a KitKat update available, although you’ll have to manually update the phone yourself, as the KitKat update isn’t available as OTA. 

We also have to note that the MyPhone Rio has two versions (actually three, but we’ll get into that later). The first version of the device was a bit laggy when it comes to UI navigation and some 2D games, though the second version (dubbed V1 because of the label on the box) mostly eliminated those  problems. The Rio also initially did not support SD card installs, but an OTA update issued by MyPhone fixed all those issues. Some MyPhone users have noticed a third version floating around (V2). This comparison thread in the MyPhone Rio United Facebook group outlines all the differences in the V2 compared to the V1.

The Cherry Mobile Omega Spectrum has a relatively weaker core Broadcom BCM 23550 processor which, combined with the HD display, produced quite a bit of lag when you’re going through the UI. While the lag was smoothed out somewhat when we installed a Nova launcher, it never really went away, unfortunately.

Because Starmobile took their time in launching the Up, they probably took note of the issues that their competitors had and made sure it didn’t show up in their device. The Up is pretty smooth when it comes to navigation, and had the ability to install apps straight to the SD card.

 

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