Full review of the Starmobile Play!

When Starmobile announced the Play, it generated a lot of buzz and interest from their loyal fans and customers. On paper, it looks as if the Play could deliver the best value for money under Php 3,000. The listed specs coupled with Starmobile’s reputation of combining above average cameras in their devices meant that the Play had the potential become one of the best budget smartphones around. Does the Play live up to the hype? Read our review below to find out.

Starmobile Play specs

• 1.2GHz Dual-core Mediatek MT6572 processor
• Mali-400MP GPU
• 512MB of RAM
• 4-inch capacitive display, 480 x 800 pixels
• 5-megapixel fixed focus camera
• VGA fixed focus camera
• 4GB of storage, expandable via microSD
• 3G, HSPA+
• WiFi, Bluetooth 3, GPS, A-GPS
• 2000mAh battery
• Php 2,999

Good all-around design and build quality

The Starmobile Play is mostly constructed out of plastic, like other devices in its class. Unlike other devices in its class however, it doesn’t feel cheap or plasticky. The Play has rounded corners and back, which allows you to get a firm grip on it. The back of the Play has tiny raised dots that give it a visual punch, and adds to the overall grippiness of the device.

The volume rocker and the power button are located on the right side of the device, which allows for easy one-handed operation. The 3.5mm jack and the USB port are where you’d expect them to be, namely on the top and bottom respectively. On the back of the Play lies the 5-megapixel fixed focus camera with the lens slightly protruding forward. Unusually enough, the speaker grill sits right on the camera’s right side. One of the main selling points of the Play is the loud speaker, and it certainly is loud, though sound does distort at higher volumes.

The Play uses a 4-inch capacitive TN display, which is typical of devices in its class. What’s not typical is the generous viewing angles that the display on the Play has. Typically, a smartphone with a TN display doesn’t have good viewing angles.

That’s not the case with the Play, and while there is some color shift (that negative-like effect when you view a TN panel from the side) when you twist the phone left or right, the image on the device doesn’t completely grey out, like some other smartphones with TN panels. Tilting the phone up gives you the same results, though you’ll see some dramatic color shift when you tilt the phone slightly downwards.

Decent hardware, but not a gaming machine

The Play has the typical 1.2GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6572 that you’ll find in devices in its class. We’ve encountered the Play’s hardware combination before, though on a bigger device with the MyPhone Agua Hail and was impressed by the performance of the chipset.

The Play is no different – there was little lag when we were navigating the Play, and the lag we did encounter was usually the result of us opening way too many apps that a was reasonable for the device. In AnTuTu, the Play scored a respectable 10736 points, which is good considering the price point. 

We knew coming in that the Play wasn’t an Android gaming powerhouse, and our gaming tests confirmed it. While Dead Trigger 2 was still playable, there’s quite a bit of lag in some areas, which may or may not be a deal breaker for you (we suppose it’s up to how patient you are lol).

It was the same story for Despicable Me: Minion Rush – there were definitely some lag spikes here and there, but overall the game was still playable. Less hardware intensive games, like Zombie Tsunami ran well on the Play.

As far call quality is concerned, the play passed with flying colors. Calls made with, and to, the play were clear and understandable.

Superb camera for the price point, with caveats

Starmobile has a good track record of putting great cameras on their smartphones, so it was natural to assume that this was also the case with the Play. Well, we have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that the Play’s camera performs extremely well considering the price point when there’s enough light around, as evidenced by the photos that we captured while we were frolicking in Baler, Aurora. The detail of the camera is fantastic.

 

Here’s the bad news: it doesn’t fare too well when there’s not a lot of light around, or when there’s only indoor lighting. There’s quite a bit of noise in the test photos that we took above inside our house. But again, you will have to consider the price of the device into the equation – this isn’t a Lumia 1020, with a 41-megapixel camera. You’d be hard pressed to find a camera with similar performance in the 3K and below segment of the market.

The camera also has a nice panoramic feature built into it, which was a nice touch. What we didn’t like was that there was a noticeable delay when it comes to taking photos with the Play – around a quarter of a second – when you press the shutter button and when the device actually takes the photo of your subject. You’ll get used to it after a while, but it doesn’t make it less annoying.

The front facing VGA camera delivers images that you’d expect from a sensor of its size. It’s not the best camera out there, but that’s not surprising – it IS a VGA camera after all.

Great battery life

Another nice thing about the Play is that it sports a relatively large 2000mAh battery. During our tests, we managed to stretch our battery to around 7 1/2 hours with heavy use. That includes gaming, mobile internet, calls, texts and checking our social networks. We’re sure that you can probably extend that a bit more with proper battery management.

Verdict: Starmobile has another winner

Starmobile is on a roll lately, with so many solid products under its belt. The Play is no different, as it’s definitely great value for money. It has great hardware, a great camera, decent battery life and a killer price point. You won’t be disappointed if you get yourself one. Two thumbs up.