Starmobile Knight X Hands-on, Cavalier in Armor

Starmobile Knight X Hands-on, Cavalier in Armor

INTRODUCTION:

The Starmobile Knight X was released late last year, it was the first local branded device to boast both the MediaTek MT6595M chipset and 3GB of RAM, thus touted as the most powerful and most advanced pinoy smartphone.

Although it is already out in the market for quite some time, we never had a chance to review it or at least play with it. Luckily, Mark Marcelo, a fellow tech blogger lends us his unit to have at least take a good look on its physical attributes plus the bonus of a running the Antutu benchmark.

To give a quick recap, the Starmobile Knight X sports a 5.5-inch IPS touchscreen display with full HD resolution, this translates to an amazing 401 PPI, which in reality gives you crisp and clear display. On the inside is an octa core system-on-chip having 2GHz quad core Cortex-A17 processor and another 1.5GHz quad core Cortex-A7 processor.

Related: Starmobile Announced Knight Vision, Android Phablet with Built-in Digital TV Receiver


HANDS-ON:

Front

The front is mainly covered by the display wherein all the bezels surrounding it are put into good use, in fact the sides are just 4.4mm thin. Below the screen you will find the usual capacitive keys while the secondary camera and hidden sensors are located above the display.

Back

The back features a fine-textured finish, which is quite resistant to fingerprints and smudges. The Starmobile logo is placed in the center, the loudspeaker grill at the bottom and the main camera together with the LED flash at the top. The 3350mAh battery is not removable, as the back cover is fixed permanently.

Left

Right

On the lower left side you will find the SIM tray, you need an ejector pin to be able to access it. It supports two SIM cards, one micro and the other one is nano. The volume rocker can be found on the upper left side while the power button is placed at the opposite side.

Top

Bottom

The micro USB port supports OTG function and you can find it together with the microphone pin hole at the bottom side. Meanwhile, the IR blaster and the 3.5mm audio jack are both located at the top side.

The Starmobile Knight X has the usual rectangular bar touchscreen phone with rounded corners. Do not get me wrong, the design might be simple, but it still looks elegant. In terms of build quality, it feels firm and solid.

Antutu - 43249

We also managed to run Antutu and it scored more than 43K, one of the best we have seen from the local brand. However, it is slightly lower when compared to its main rival, the Cherry Mobile Cosmos One Plus (about 47K).

Even in our short hands-on, we can say that it has the quality of a flagship - good build quality and top of the line specs. However, there are some things that you might want to consider before buying, such as non-expandable storage and the slightly steeper price tag than its competitor.

Related: Starmobile Engage 10 Pro Announced, Windows 8.1 2-in-1 Convertible

Specifications:

• Quad band 2G, triple band 3G, multiple band LTE
• Dual (micro+nano) SIM, dual standby
• 5.5-inch IPS capacitive FHD (1920x1080) touchscreen display, scratch resistant glass
• Dimensions: 152mm x 77.7mm x 8.9mm
• Weight: 155 grams
• Android 4.4.2 KitKat
• 2GHz quad core Cortex-A17 CPU + 1.5GHz quad core COrtex-A7 CPU, PowerVr G6200 GPU, MediaTek MT6595M octa core chipset
• 3GB of RAM
• 32GB internal storage, non-expandable
• 13MP f/2.2 auto focus main camera with LED flash, Sony IMX135 CMOS sensor
• 1080p video recording at 30fps
• 5MP fixed focus secondary camera
• Multimedia player
• FM Radio
• 3.5mm audio jack
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidu
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• Micro USB 2.0 with OTG support
• Bluetooth v4.0, LE
• NFC
• Infrared
• Sensors: accelerometer, light, proximity, gyroscope, magnetic
• 3350mAh battery (non-removable)
• Price: Php15,990
• Freebies: screen protector, smart case