Starmobile Knight Unboxing and Initial Review: Stellar Flagship Smartphone

It's the Starmobile Knight! — It’s the Starmobile Knight!

Starmobile Knight… unboxed!

Ever since Starmobile Marketing Head Katrina Tioseco guested on the show and gave us a teaser of the Starmobile Knight we’ve been itching to get our grubby hands on a unit so we could unbox and review it. Fortunately tonight, despite the horrible weather, was a lucky night. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the podcast we did a live feature/initial review of Starmobile’s newest flagship smartphone. As far as initial impressions go we can say without a shadow of a doubt that we were all blown away. This phone can literally compete with the likes of global brands like Samsung, HTC, Lenovo, etc. and it won’t leave a burning hole in your wallet.

Here’s a quick refresher on the specifications:

Starmobile Knight Spec Sheet

1.2GHz Quad-core Processor MediTek
PowerVR SGX544MP GPU
1GB RAM
4GB Internal Storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD Card
4.7-inch IPS Display, Corning Gorilla Glass
HD Resolution, 315 pixels per inch
18.0-megapixels rear-facing camera with LED flash, autofocus, and BSI
8.0-megapixels front-facing camera with autofocus and BSI
Dual SIM, Dual 3G, Dual Standby
WiFi, WiFI Hotspot, Bluetooth, HSPA+, 3G, GPS/aGPS
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
2,000mAH Battery

Ready? Let’s take this baby out of the box!

Packaging: More Details and Information

Perfect balance of tech info and consumer non-tech icons

Most of the time boxes either have too much info or too little. Starmobile has the perfect balance in the box of the Starmobile Knight. At the front you have the hero product shot with the consumerized non-techie feature icons. At the back though is where techies will go. The complete spec sheet is there in a neat table layout. Everything you need to know and more is there.

The rest of the box though is standard fare. It’s the same two-part box which we’ve seen in previous products. You pull out the top part to reveal the compartment which has the phone on top and the accessories/peripherals at the bottom. What we got though was just the final prototype so it didn’t come with any chargers, cables, or earphones. I heard though that the final box will have all of that and more (in typical Starmobile fashion).

While looking at the phone in the photo above you’re probably thinking that it looks so familiar. That’s because it is. The Starmobile Knight has a stunning resemblance to the iPhone 5.

Hardware Check: The Best Looking Local Branded Smartphone, Period

Imagine the iPhone 5 with a 4.7-inch screen and replace the aluminum slate at the back with a smooth black matte finish. That’s the Starmobile Knight, lol.

The Starmobile Knight could easily pass for the iPhone 5S (without the Aluminum) if Apple kept the iPhone 5 design elements and just increased screen size to 4.7 inches. At the front we have the all glass 4.7-inch display and the capacitive buttons at the bottom. The 8-megapixel front-facing camera is beside the receiver at the top. At the back we have a smooth matte finish with the red Starmobile logo proudly at the center (red logo means quad-core for Starmobile). The 18-megapixel rear-facing shooter is at the top with the LED flash. All the ports and buttons are neatly placed on the sides and at the top of the device.

Just like the iPhone 5, the Starmobile Knight is also crazy thin. In fact it’s one of the thinnest quad-core 4.7-inch smartphones we’ve had the pleasure of testing.

It’s even more impressive when you turn it on! The Starmobile Knight has 315 pixels per inch on the display making all the images crisp, sharp, and vibrant. The screen itself, by the way, is made from Corning Gorilla Glass, which is supposedly still tougher than the Dragontrail glass which we’ve been seeing on a lot of local smartphones lately.

When it comes to aesthetics the Starmobile Knight has it nailed down. We have nothing bad to say it at all.

Software Check: Quad-core Babeh!

We'd imagine this can handle anything you throw at it — We’d imagine this can handle anything you throw at it

Powered by a quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, we’d imagine that the Starmobile Knight can take whatever you throw at it. We were able to try out the basics: transitions, animations, and app loading times. They all ran smoothly with no problems.

When we get the final commercial unit we’ll definitely put it through our barrage of tests but so far it looks pretty good.

Initial Verdict

At Php11,290 the Starmobile Knight is a good deal. We say that without any doubt whatsoever. Why? Because here at Unbox we believe that design counts and the Starmobile Knight doesn’t just have roaring internals, it has an excellent form factor that can go toe-to-toe with the offerings of global brands.

Watch out for our full review once we get our hands on the final commercial unit.

Note from EIC: Congratulations Starmobile! You guys have a crazy good phone, one that I would personally love to have and use daily (kulang na lang LTE pwede na to pampalit ng gamit ko ngayon).