Looking back at the previous unboxing article, the Starmobile Play Five first gave me the impression that despite the super low price, you may not get bang for your buck. The question is, would this smartphone still be worth it?
With every purchase of the Starmobile Play Five, you’ll get:
- Starmobile PLAY Five (1 pc)
- Travel Charger (1 pc)
- Micro USB Cable (1 pc)
- 1,500 mAh Li-Ion Battery (1 pc)
- Headset (earphones) (1 pc)
- Quick Start Card (1 pc)
- Warranty Card (1 pc)
The outer build isn’t the best. The first thing I noticed about the phone is its inability to produce HD, only offering a resolution of 480 x 854. It also feels cheaper, mainly because the material has the texture of a lightweight plastic toy. While for some, the low cost and price point might be a good thing, but in my opinion, being an affordable phone shouldn’t be an excuse to look and feel a little too cheap. On the bright side, it’s at least light to hold, making it extremely portable.
It’s still built with the Starmobile standard design. On the back, one can find the rear camera, its flash, and two small slits that act as the speakers. Additionally, as with most Starmobile models, the audio jack and Micro USB port situated themselves at the top of the phone. Three buttons place themselves at the bottom black bezel, namely the home button, back button, and the button that allows the phone to display which apps are running. For anyone accustomed to the Starmobile setup, you’ll be right at home.
Surprisingly decent performance. The Starmobile Play Five runs on a 1.2GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A7 processor. On top of that, it sports 512MB RAM and 4GB ROM, expandable to 32GB. How does that translate to performance? Well, not that bad. The OS interface doesn’t lag at all, and it responded in time to my touch commands.
Not exactly a gaming phone. Don’t hold your breath if you want this for gaming, either. At most, you could probably get by with something lower-end. We were able to play Angry Birds, for example, though it was a bit marred by recurring lag. If you’re not really concerned with mobile gaming, then this should be fine.
The cameras are acceptable. By passable, we mean ‘it takes pictures, and it’s not a completely blurry mess’. With a 5MP rear camera with flash and 2MP front camera, you can definitely use this phone to capture some memories. However, it should not come as a surprise if all these photos come out in low quality. As I said in the unboxing, I can forgive this as the Play Five isn’t meant to be a photographer’s smartphone at all.
Not for huge hands, possibly perfect for kids. Anyone with thick fingers or thick hands won’t be able to manipulate this phone effectively. The screen is small and at least four times my fingers hit another icon or app even though I meant to open something else. With that in mind, I could recommend this as a kid’s first smartphone, as the smaller build would be perfect for their grip. Plus, the aforementioned low price point means you won’t invest much as you would on a pricier phone.
Passable battery life. The 1,500 mAh Li-ion battery sounds small, but it has a surprisingly long life when you just use it for phone calls and text messages. With that kind of usage, you can get around 7 hours from one full charge, but note that the data and wi-fi are turned OFF. With either of the two ON, this cuts the usage time to HALF (around 4 hours). If you’re streaming a movie, you better have a charging cable ready, as you might not even be able to finish it. It should last you about 3 hours with the wi-fi on, and while streaming a film. In terms of charging from an empty battery, it took me a bit over two hours to fully recharge the phone.
More Bang For Your Buck? Despite all the flaws of the Play Five as a smartphone, it’s decent considering the low price point. It’s certainly one of the most affordable smartphones out there at PHP 1,790. If you’re really desperate for a quick phone that can do internet browsing, calls, texts, and a few social media apps,then you should definitely check this out.
Starmobile Play Five Specs
OS | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
Processor | Spreadtrum 7731C 1.2GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A7 |
GPU | MALI 400-MP |
Memory | 512MB RAM |
Display | 4-inches |
Storage | 4GB storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD |
Camera | 5-megapixel rear camera + 2-megapixel front camera |
SIM | Dual-SIM |
Battery | 1,500mAh removable Li-Ion battery |
Price | PHP 1,790 |
Dimensions | 126 x 64.5 x 11.5 mm |
Weight | 117g |