The Starmobile Diamond V3 was officially announced about a month ago at Starmobile’s concept store launch event at SM North Edsa, however it had yet to go on sale or even get official pricing. Well, that’s just changed with a tweet from Starmobile’s that revealed that the competitively specced phablet will be going on sale tomorrow for Php8,990. The price point is also quite competitive, but is the Starmobile Diamond V3 all that it’s hyped up to be?
The Chipset
The Diamond V3 will be powered by a quad core Qualcomm 8225Q Processor with Adreno 203 graphics. The performance will be respectable, but not quite as good as the quad core MediaTek6589 SoC that’s found on the Starmobile Knight and a few other flagship models from competing local brands. It should still be enough for even the heavier applications and games, and the 1Gb of RAM should allow the Diamond V3 to do some proper multitasking.
The Screen
The screen is a bit of a disappointment though. It’s a large 5.3 inch IPS panel, so color reproduction and viewing angles should be great. However, it only has a resolution of 480 x 854 (FWVGA), resulting in a pixel density of 185ppi. Other 5+ inch phablets with WVGA or FWVGA resolutions have had a fair bit of success in the past, but those are last year’s specs, and you’d expect a current generation phablet to have a better screen these days. At least it’s protected by scratch- and shatterproof Dragontrail glass so you can forgo the free screen protector that it comes with.
Imaging
One key feature that should have a lot of people interested is the imaging capabilities of the Starmobile Diamond V3, and in this aspect, the phablet doesn’t disappoint. It sports dual BSI cameras: a 12mp autofocus shooter on the back and a 2mp shooter in front. BSI stands for backside illumination, which describes the sensor used in these cameras. Expect shots to look better when taken with the Diamond V3, even when taken in low-light conditions.
Other Key Specs
The rest of the specs are what you would expect from most locally branded smartphones today. There’s 4Gb of internal storage that can be expanded up to 32Gb via micro SD. Then there’s a slew of connectivity options, including Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and 3G.
The Starmobile Diamond V3 is priced slightly cheaper compared to other quad core phablets in the market and there are even a few freebies: 8Gb micro SD card, InstaCase and screen protector . There are only a few that sell below its price point, however, it does so by compromising a bit in the screen department. Still, I still find it to be a great buy for the price, especially with the dual BSI cameras that are great for those impromptu Kodak moments that can’t be missed.
Starmobile Diamond V3 Specs
- 5.3 inch FWVGA IPS display, 480 × 854, 185ppi
- Quad Core Qualcomm 8225Q SoC
- Adreno 203 GPU
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- 1Gb RAM
- 4Gb internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD
- 12mp autofocus BSI autofocus primary camera w/ LED Flash
- 2mp BSI front-facing camera
- 3G, WiFi,Bluetooth
- FM Radio
- GPS with aGPS
- 2,100mAH Battery
- Price: Php8,990
Source: Starmobile
What a power combo – 4 Cores to drive 185ppi – those pixels are sure going to fly off the screen!!!! And this is what Starmobile gives you for your hard-earned 9K. Man, this is by far the most wasted screen capability in a smartphone i’ve seen so far.
185 ppi for 5.3 inch quad core then P8990? >_< superFail starmobile.
If you’ll still choose SM, just add P2000+ then go for knight then.
GANDA NA SANA EH, SAYANG -.-