Starmobile’s newest tablet is a stunner!

Looking at the Starmobile Engage 9i, you wouldn’t think it came from a local brand. Its design language is decidedly premium, with rounded corners and a glass back, even if its price isn’t. The fantastic design is backed up by a processor that delivers excellent performance even though detractors label it as merely “dual-core”. The end result is a beautiful, powerful tablet that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

Stamobile Engage 9i specs

• 2.0 GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 Clovertrail+ processor
• 2GB RAM
• PowerVR SGX544Mp2 GPU
• 16GB internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
• 8.9-inch full HD IPS display, 1920 x 1200 pixels
• 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus
• 2-megapixel front famera
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0
• USB OTG
• 6500 mAh battery
• Android 4.2.2
• Php 9,990

Premium build, through and through

Like we mentioned in our initial review, the Starmobile Engage 9i’s overall design is best appreciated in person. No amount of product photos will show how well the tablet is constructed. The Engage 9i is solidly constructed, which adds to the overall premium feel of the device. The Engage 9i is hefty but not overly heavy.

The body of the Engage 9i is made out of a combination of aluminum and glass, with the back of the Engage 9i encased in glass, similar to the one on the iPhone. It’s the iPhone’s glass back writ large. The Engage 9i has a black trim that goes around the side of the device which breaks up the otherwise white color of the tablet.

Laying on the side, you’ll find the volume rocker and the unlock button on the top of the device, with the USB port and the 3.5mm jack on the left. The Engage 9i has 16GB of storage on board which can be augmented via the microSD slot located on the top of the device. There’s a 5-megapixel camera located near the upper right part of the device, with a smaller front facing secondary camera on the left side of the device (with the tablet oriented sideways).

Performance that won’t leave you hanging

The Engage 9i has a 2.0GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 Clovertrail+ processor paired with 2GB of RAM. While it has less cores than the typical tablet offered by other local brands, Intel’s Clovertrail+ processor has hyperthreading, the company’s unique solution that allows multiple threads to run on each core. Basically, the dual-core processor on the Starmobile Engage 9i works more like a quad-core device, and its synthetic benchmarks reflect this. On AnTuTu, the Engage 9i managed to score 19,610 points.

Of course Synthetic benchmarks will never replace real-world testing, so we fired up several Android games to see just how far Intel’s Clovertrail+ processor could go. Dead Trigger 2 ran exceptionally well on the tablet, though the game was still stuck on lower graphical settings meant for less powerful devices. While our session with Dead Trigger 2 was mostly lag-free, we did notice some lag during the first few seconds of a level, which is normal. We had a similar experience with other games as well, and the Engage 9i is capable of running a myriad of Android games with few issues.

The hardware inside the Engage 9i did a great job of powering the device during our daily use – navigation and transition effects are buttery smooth, even with the full HD resolution display. This just goes to show that full HD displays need 2GB of RAM at a minimum to work smoothly. The device made short work of our 1080p version of Gravity (love that movie) without any issues.

The display on the Engage 9i is bright and crisp, with excellent viewing angles thanks to its IPS panel. Colors were bright, vibrant and sharp, which is what you’d expect from a device of this caliber.

Unfortunately we noticed that the Engage 9i became a bit warm during extended gaming use. This is a known issue with Intel’s Clovertrail family of processors – the Lenovo K900 suffered from heat issues when we reviewed it before, and unfortunately it’s the same thing with the Engage 9i. After a few minutes of Dead Trigger 2 and Tiny Tower Star Wars Edition the Engage 9i became uncomfortably warm, so much so that we had to put it down for a few minutes. It’s disappointing that Intel still hasn’t fixed the heat issues with their Clovertrail chips, as it’s the only thing that puts a black mark on the performance of the Engage 9i.

>>> See also: Lenovo K900 review

7 hour battery life

We managed to get around 7 hours of battery life from the Engage 9i’s big 6500mAh battery, about an hour short of the company’s 8-hour video playback claim. That 7-hour battery life was from playing the games listed above, browsing the net and viewing videos and movies on YouTube and our local server – basically really heavy usage. We’re sure you can extend the battery life by managing your power use and brightness settings if you chose.

Average camera

Starmobile’s reputation for putting good camera optics on devices doesn’t extend to the Engage 9i. That’s not to say the camera on it is bad – with enough light it’s capable of producing images good enough to upload to social networks. Unfortunately the images produced by the camera is simply too noisy in artificial lighting.

Verdict: Worth the money

After all’s said and done, the Engage 9i is worth the Php 9,990 price tag that Starmobile is asking for it. It has a great display, a design that you’d expect from foreign brands and a powerful processor. The only thing going against it is the heat issues because of the processor, but then again that’s simply the price you pay to get the performance at the Engage 9i’s price point.