We Unbox Starmobile’s Engage 10 Pro

Today we’ll be unboxing Starmobile’s newest Windows tablet, the Engage 10 Pro. Announced a few days ago after being leaked to the internet, the Engage 10 Pro is Starmobile’s entry to the highly lucrative Windows 8.1 market, right after other local rivals Cherry Mobile and CloudFone. The Engage 10 Pro is one of the nicer Windows 8.1 tablets currently in the market and today we’ll see what’s inside the retail packaging of the device.

Starmobile Engage 10 Pro specs

• Intel Atom Z3735F Baytrail-T processor, 1.8 GHz Quad Core with Hyper-Threading Technology
• Intel HD Graphics Gen 7
• 2GB DDR3L RAM
• 10.1-inch Multitouch Capacitive Screen with In-Plane Switching (IPS); 1280 x 800 resolution
• 32GB storage, expandable via MicroSD up to 64GB Expansion
• 5-megapixel rear camera
• 2-megapixel front camera
• WiFi, Bluetooth, mini HDMI
• 7500mAh Li-Ion battery
• Windows 8.1 with free 1-year subscription to Office 365

Packaging and contents

The Engage 10 Pro is one of the new devices to come with Starmobile’s flat, refreshed packaging, coming with a bright green box that simply tells you the name of the gadget that you just bought.

Once you open her up, you’ll see the tablet itself along with the keyboard dock, charger, USB cable and a microUSB to USB adapter.

Initial Impressions: feels like the local equivalent of the Transformer series

Comparisons between the Engage 10 Pro and ASUS’ Transformer series of hybrid tablets/notebooks will be unavoidable since both products have roughly the same features, though the big difference here is that the keyboard dock doesn’t have an extra battery to extend the life of the tablet beyond what’s already provided by the built-in battery.

The Engage 10 Pro has a design that’s similar to other hybrid Windows 8.1 slates out in the market today. It’s a very utilitarian design compared to Starmobile’s other tablets but it gets the job done. One thing we really liked about the Engage 10 Pro was the matte, anti slip coating that’s present on both tablet and keyboard dock – it allows you to get a very tight grip on the device which is crucial, since the tablet with the keyboard attached to it is rather hefty.

Unlike Android tablets, Windows 8.1 tablets, especially hybrid ones need plenty of ports and connectors to be able to fulfill their role as productivity tools, thankfully the Engage 10 pro has plenty of those: there’s a USB, micro USB, HD Out and 3.5mm ports as well as a microSD card slot located on the left side. The power button is located on the left side while the volume rocker is located on the top of the device. There’s another USB slot available once you connect the keyboard dock and with the use of the micro USB to USB adapter the number of pluggable USB slots available to the user goes up to 3.

The keyboard dock gives you a full (albeit cramped) QWERTY keyboard to use during those times you want to type out a full report. While the keys are small and a little cramped, they have good travel and is nice to type on – we actually used the keyboard of the Engage 10 Pro to type out this unboxing article, though it took us a little longer to finish since we were still adjusting to the spacing of the keys.

As far as specs go, the Engage 10 Pro is powered by an Intel Atom Z3735F processor, chugging along at 1.8GHz paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. While the storage isn’t as large as we’d like, it’s still enough for most students and mobile workers – the Engage 10 Pro isn’t an entertainment device – it’s capable of playing movies on its 10.1-inch, IPS HD panel but it’s not a gaming notebook.

That’s it for now, we’ll be taking the Engage 10 Pro with us in the next few weeks and using it as our work notebook.

The Starmobile Engage 10 Pro retails for Php 11,990.