Starmobile Goal: A Practical Choice for a Smartphone

With the surge of Android Jelly Bean smartphones lately people might ignore the practical value Ice Cream Sandwich-powered phones still bring to the table. Sometimes the latest in everything isn’t the best. For example, we’re seeing a lot of Jelly Bean smartphones with 1GB RAM and HD screens selling for more than Php7,500. However when it comes to actual real life user experience the phones are actually sluggish because the processor wasn’t made to support the HD display. Having said that, it actually makes more sense to just get an overpowered Android Ice Cream sandwich handset than settle for an unoptimized Jelly Bean device. That’s what you get with the Starmobile Goal. It has a beautiful chassis, respectable display quality, and competitive specifications. Result? A much more smoother user experience compared to the latest flagships at a more affordable price (it sells for Php5,990 on Lazada).

We’ve been playing around with it for the last few days and we’d like to share with you guys our unboxing and initial review. Check it out below after the spec rundown.

Starmobile Goal Spec Sheet

• 1.0Ghz Dual-core MTK6577 CPU
• SGX531 GPU
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB Internal Storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD
• 4.5-inch Capacitive Touch Screen, 854×480 resolution
• 8.0-megapixel rear-facing camera with Auto Focus
• VGA front-facing camera
• WiFi, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth, 3G Connectivity (HSDPA)
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 1,800mAh Battery
• Free Jelly Case
• Free Screen Protector
• Free microSD Card (8GB)
• Price: Php5,990

Packaging

The Starmobile Goal came in the usual Starmobile hard carton box with printed photos and product information at the back and sides. The color scheme they used for this one was much more cleaner though with a lot of whites, greens, and blues making it very pleasant to look at.

Just like previous Starmobile devices we removed the tape at the bottom and pulled the inner compartment out. What greeted us immediately was the Starmobile Goal wrapped in plastic.

We were initially underwhelmed since the phone looked kinda small as we’ve been reviewing mostly 4.8-5.5 inch devices lately. However we were pleasantly surprised with the build quality and over-all aesthetics after we took it out of the plastic and held it in our hands.

The Starmobile Goal is compact, solid, ergonomic, and practical. The form factor is perfect for one-handed texting making it an ideal everyday smartphone. It also isn’t too bulky and hefty due to the plastic chassis.

All the ports and buttons are in their usual places. The Starmobile logo is cleanly located at the back of the device.

Speaking of it being a practical buy, we loved how Starmobile packed the box with a bunch of freebies!

Andami naman laman ng box!

Just like the Starmobile Crystal, the Starmobile Goal comes with a jelly case, a microSD card, and a screen protector. These “freebies” are very well appreciated since we don’t have to go out and look for more accessories. Everything you need is already in the box. Hopefully Starmobile will continue this with their future handsets.

Software Check: Faster than *some* Jelly Bean touting smartphones

If you take a very close look at the specifications, the Starmobile Goal actually has almost the same innards as the more expensive Starmobile Crystal. It’s literally the same chipset, GPU, storage, and RAM. The only difference really is that the Crystal has a better camera (since it has Backside Illumination) and higher quality display (qHD). That said the Goal actually ups the Crystal when it comes to battery life as it has a better 1,800mAh battery and since the display quality isn’t qHD it will have better power consumption. Anyway, my point is if you check our Starmobile Crystal review, we had nothing bad to say about the over-all performance of the device. That’s why it’s not hard to sing praises for the Goal as well since it comes at an even lower price point of Php5,990 (the Starmobile Crystal sells for Php7,990) and offers almost the same experience!

While we haven’t tried running Antutu yet on the Starmobile Goal, we can already say at this point that we prefer the user experience it offers compared to the bigger Jelly Bean HD handsets because there’s considerably less lag. The 5-inch form factor of those devices might be great for media consumption but if you want an everyday workhorse smartphone you need one that’s consistent and that’s what the Starmobile Goal delivers.

Initial Verdict: Practical, Efficient, and Solid

The Starmobile Goal, for us, is a very practical buy. It gives you everything you need in a smartphone. It might not have all the bells and whistles of bigger handsets out there but this one offers you consistent performance. It’s also a big plus that Starmobile has been getting a lot of good feedback with their after sales service which gives us even more confidence in the phone. The only downer really is that the camera doesn’t have BSI which makes noticeable difference with picture quality. Other than that it’s a great device, one that even just at this stage (unboxing), we can already recommend.

The Starmobile Goal sells for Php5,990 and you can get it from Lazada Philippines.