Starmobile Jump Review

Starmobile has released a barrage of new phones recently and one of them is the Starmobile Jump. It is one of the most affordable smartphones running Android 4.1 Jellybean. However given the rise of the sub Php6,000 quad-core smartphones lately, one would think if this is still a wise buy given the Php4,990 price tag.

Here is a rundown of specs with the Starmobile Jump:

Starmobile Jump Spec Sheet

• 1GHz dual core MediaTek MT6577 processor
• PowerVR SGX531 GPU
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD
• 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash
• VGA front facing camera
• Dual SIM and dual standby
• Dual 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth
• GPS with A-GPS support
• 1,400 mAh battery
• Android 4.1 Jellybean
• SRP: P4,990

Beautifully made and presented budget Android smartphone but

The Starmobile Jump has solid body with curved edges and mostly made of plastic. The phone shares the same design with some old HTC models and has a little bit of heft. The phones has a smooth back panel which is a fingerprint magnet making it very slippery. Good thing the package comes with a hard case that give it a good grip. Build quality is excellent. It makes you feel you are holding a premium phone.

The screen has a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) display with a decent 233ppi. Because of the small screen, pixels are not so evident. What’s noticeable is its bluish hue found on the screen making it a little flushed out.The phone has good viewing angles although it gets a little washed out when viewing sidewards. Viewing the screen outdoors is a bit hard but its understandable considering the screen quality for the price.

Performance is surprisingly snappy. Thanks to the Android 4.1 Jellybean’s project butter, navigating through apps. switching, opening and closing apps was a smooth experience. With nearly stock Android running it you wouldn’t feel that it is powered by a 1GHz dual core processor. Playing games would be a different story. We tried playing medium sized games like Candy Crush or Minion Rush although it ran well for most times but lags are noticeable. However, playing Dead Trigger was a struggle.

Browsing experience is great when using the stock web browser. Pinch to zoom works well. When loading graphic intense websites zooming in takes time though. We had better browsing when using Chrome browser. Both browsers are already installed in the phone.

The device has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. Viewing pictures on the phone appeared to be washed out. When we viewed pictures taken from Starmobile Jump on our desktop or our iPad, pictures are surprisingly good. Colors are nice with an acceptable amount of sharpness.

Here are some sample shots:

We managed to get a hands on with an engineering unit barely a month ago. We were worried about the phone’s 1,400 mAh battery which is pretty small for today’s standards. Now with the final unit that we have, battery is actually below average. During our days of testing, the battery lasted for 10 hours with just casual call and texting. The battery’s weakness came out when we turned the WiFi on and watched videos in You Tube, played games, social networking and browsing the battery drained faster. It was even faster when 3G is on.

Verdict

The Starmobile Jump is a good day-to-day phone, especially given the price tag. However it starts to struggle when you start loading up multiple apps or go for heavy graphics intensive games. The silver lining though is that it’s probably the nicest looking sub-Php5,000 phone you’ll get your hands on to date, hehe. If you’re going to make this your primary phone though be mindful of the battery especially if you do a lot of 3G and calls. Best you have a mobile charger with you.