REVIEW: Starmobile UP Mini, UP Lite: good phones on a budget

Except for their prices, the Starmobile UP Mini and UP Lite don’t come off as cheap. Their build quality is excellent and the phones are very responsive.

Starmobile's UP Mini and UP Lite.

Starmobile’s UP Mini and UP Lite.

I passed the UP Mini around and asked friends and colleagues to feel its finish, check out the device’s responsiveness and guess its price: P15,000 said one, P13,000 said another. The lowest guess was P5,000 with most saying it’s price was higher than P8,000.

The UP Mini actually sells for P3,690 and what a device for such a price. It has a 1.3GHz quad core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU with Android 4.4, a 4GB built-in storage expandable via micro SD, 8MP rear camera with Backside Illumination (BSI) and 1080P at 30FPS video capture. The device is dual SIM with dual 3G standby.

Starmobile UP Mini

UP MINI. The phone retails for P3,690 but its responsiveness and build quality made some colleagues guess it was selling for as high as P15,000. (Photo by Max Limpag)

I used the device for two weeks and found it a perfectly capable smartphone. Although its RAM is only 512MB, it was okay as a device to manage email, browse websites, keep up with news and boost productivity through my go-to apps.

The UP Mini and an iPhone 5.

The UP Mini and an iPhone 5.

UP Mini Specifications

  • Android 4.4 KitKat
  • 1.3GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A7
  • Mali-400MP2
  • 2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz, 3G UMTS/WCDMA: 850/2100Mhz, HSPA+: Download up to 21Mbps
  • 4GB ROM
  • 512MB RAM, Micro SD expansion
  • 133.4 x 66.4 x 9.3mm
  • VGA Front Camera plus 8MP with Backside Illumination (BSI) Rear Camera with 1080p @ 30fps
  • Wireless Internet and File Transfer, Miracast, FM Radio, GPS + A-GPS, OTA Update
  • 1550mAh Li-ion
  • Regular + Regular, Dual 3G Standby
The UP Mini (top) and UP Lite.

The UP Mini (top) and UP Lite.

The UP Lite, on the other hand, is a speedier alternative. It has the same processor but more RAM, at 1GB, than the Mini. The company describes it as “speedy and stylish.” It delivers on the speedy but I found the Mini more stylish. Maybe it’s just me.

As a phone, the UP Lite is more than a capable device. It handled games – even those with heavier graphics demand – very well. I asked our eldest son to play games with it and he said he was very happy with the performance.

UP Lite. The phone comes with a quad core processor and a 1GB RAM, which makes for a very responsive device.

UP Lite. The phone comes with a quad core processor and a 1GB RAM, which makes for a very responsive device.

When I used it the UP Lite, I found it responsive enough for my needs. I used it for work for a couple of days – through my regular apps of choice Mailbox, Google Docs, Trello, Slack, Flipboard – and had no complaints. It ran apps well.

The phone comes with an 8MP rear camera with BSI and 1080P at 30FPS capture and a 2MP front camera with BSU and LED flash.

UP Lite Specifications

  • 2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz, 3G UMTS/WCDMA: 850/2100MHz, HSPA+: Download up to 21.1Mbps
  • 1.3 GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A7
  • Mali-400MP2
  • 1GB RAM, Max 32GB Micro SD expansion
  • 8GB ROM
  • 134 x 65 x 8.2mm
  • 2MP with BSI and LED Flash Front Camera and 8MP AF with Backside Illumination (BSI) Rear Camera with 1080p @ 30fps video capture
  • Wireless Internet and File Transfer, Mirecast and Chromecast Support, FM Radio, GPS + A-GPS, OTA Update
  • 1650mAh Li-ion
  • Regular + Micro, Dual 3G Standby
UP LITE UNBOXED. The UP Lite, as with the UP Mini, comes out of the box with a free screen protector, instacase and a smart cover.

UP LITE UNBOXED. The UP Lite, as with the UP Mini, comes out of the box with a free screen protector, instacase and a smart cover.

Even the phone chargers of the two devices don’t look cheap. They are actually a stylish white. The devices also come out of the box with a free screen protector and smart cover.

Starmobile is turning out an impressive line of devices at such a low price. At such low prices, the UP devices perform way above their price class. If you’re looking to upgrade to a smartphone or to find a device to give for Christmas, make sure you check out these two models from Starmobile.

The post REVIEW: Starmobile UP Mini, UP Lite: good phones on a budget appeared first on Leon Kilat : The Tech Experiments.

REVIEW: Starmobile UP Mini, UP Lite: good phones on a budget

Except for their prices, the Starmobile UP Mini and UP Lite don’t come off as cheap. Their build quality is excellent and the phones are very responsive.

Starmobile's UP Mini and UP Lite.

Starmobile’s UP Mini and UP Lite.

I passed the UP Mini around and asked friends and colleagues to feel its finish, check out the device’s responsiveness and guess its price: P15,000 said one, P13,000 said another. The lowest guess was P5,000 with most saying it’s price was higher than P8,000.

The UP Mini actually sells for P3,690 and what a device for such a price. It has a 1.3GHz quad core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU with Android 4.4, a 4GB built-in storage expandable via micro SD, 8MP rear camera with Backside Illumination (BSI) and 1080P at 30FPS video capture. The device is dual SIM with dual 3G standby.

Starmobile UP Mini

UP MINI. The phone retails for P3,690 but its responsiveness and build quality made some colleagues guess it was selling for as high as P15,000. (Photo by Max Limpag)

I used the device for two weeks and found it a perfectly capable smartphone. Although its RAM is only 512MB, it was okay as a device to manage email, browse websites, keep up with news and boost productivity through my go-to apps.

The UP Mini and an iPhone 5.

The UP Mini and an iPhone 5.

UP Mini Specifications

  • Android 4.4 KitKat
  • 1.3GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A7
  • Mali-400MP2
  • 2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz, 3G UMTS/WCDMA: 850/2100Mhz, HSPA+: Download up to 21Mbps
  • 4GB ROM
  • 512MB RAM, Micro SD expansion
  • 133.4 x 66.4 x 9.3mm
  • VGA Front Camera plus 8MP with Backside Illumination (BSI) Rear Camera with 1080p @ 30fps
  • Wireless Internet and File Transfer, Miracast, FM Radio, GPS + A-GPS, OTA Update
  • 1550mAh Li-ion
  • Regular + Regular, Dual 3G Standby
The UP Mini (top) and UP Lite.

The UP Mini (top) and UP Lite.

The UP Lite, on the other hand, is a speedier alternative. It has the same processor but more RAM, at 1GB, than the Mini. The company describes it as “speedy and stylish.” It delivers on the speedy but I found the Mini more stylish. Maybe it’s just me.

As a phone, the UP Lite is more than a capable device. It handled games – even those with heavier graphics demand – very well. I asked our eldest son to play games with it and he said he was very happy with the performance.

UP Lite. The phone comes with a quad core processor and a 1GB RAM, which makes for a very responsive device.

UP Lite. The phone comes with a quad core processor and a 1GB RAM, which makes for a very responsive device.

When I used it the UP Lite, I found it responsive enough for my needs. I used it for work for a couple of days – through my regular apps of choice Mailbox, Google Docs, Trello, Slack, Flipboard – and had no complaints. It ran apps well.

The phone comes with an 8MP rear camera with BSI and 1080P at 30FPS capture and a 2MP front camera with BSU and LED flash.

UP Lite Specifications

  • 2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz, 3G UMTS/WCDMA: 850/2100MHz, HSPA+: Download up to 21.1Mbps
  • 1.3 GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A7
  • Mali-400MP2
  • 1GB RAM, Max 32GB Micro SD expansion
  • 8GB ROM
  • 134 x 65 x 8.2mm
  • 2MP with BSI and LED Flash Front Camera and 8MP AF with Backside Illumination (BSI) Rear Camera with 1080p @ 30fps video capture
  • Wireless Internet and File Transfer, Mirecast and Chromecast Support, FM Radio, GPS + A-GPS, OTA Update
  • 1650mAh Li-ion
  • Regular + Micro, Dual 3G Standby
UP LITE UNBOXED. The UP Lite, as with the UP Mini, comes out of the box with a free screen protector, instacase and a smart cover.

UP LITE UNBOXED. The UP Lite, as with the UP Mini, comes out of the box with a free screen protector, instacase and a smart cover.

Even the phone chargers of the two devices don’t look cheap. They are actually a stylish white. The devices also come out of the box with a free screen protector and smart cover.

Starmobile is turning out an impressive line of devices at such a low price. At such low prices, the UP devices perform way above their price class. If you’re looking to upgrade to a smartphone or to find a device to give for Christmas, make sure you check out these two models from Starmobile.

The post REVIEW: Starmobile UP Mini, UP Lite: good phones on a budget appeared first on Leon Kilat : The Tech Experiments.

REVIEW: Huawei Ascend Mate7: This is the ‘droid you’re looking for

WHEN you first hold the Huawei Ascend Mate7 in your hand, what is immediately apparent is how sleek its design is. At 7.9 mm thin, the Ascend Mate7 is a well-built device with top-of-the-line specifications worthy of a flagship device.

I tested the phone for a few days this week and found the device a great option for those who prefer their phones with larger screens.

The Ascend Mate7’s 6-inch screen is bright and sharp. While it’s not quad HD, the difference isn’t by much, at least as far as I can see. I use an LG G3, which is a quad HD phone, and I didn’t see any glaring difference with the Ascend Mate 7’s display.

The phone packs a powerful octa-core CPU that’s more than up to the task of running any app or game. In my few days of using the device, I found it very responsive and quite zippy. I loved using it for work – managing emails with Mailbox, taking down and organizing notes using Google Keep and Evernote, working with interns in our startup via Slack, writing and editing using Google Docs, reading articles and keeping up with news updates via apps Flipboard, Pocket and Zite.

Unboxing Huawei Ascend Mate7

UNBOXING THE ASCEND MATE7. The Huawei Ascend Mate7 is a great phablet with long battery life (Photo by Max Limpag)

Powerful octa-core processor

I also used the phone to watch a couple of episodes of my favorite TV series The Newsroom, Person of Interest, Forever and The Flash and found the experience even better than watching these shows on the G3, primarily because of the larger screen and the more responsive performance of the Ascend Mate 7.

And what a processor it is. According to the company website, “boasting octa-core architecture, Ascend Mate7 has an intelligent Huawei Kirin 925 processor made up of four large A15 1.8 GHz and four small A7 1.3 GHz chipsets which are activated in different configurations depending on the power needs of a specific app or function so the smartphone can be smarter with power management.”

The phone saves up to 50 percent of battery life by using smaller A7 cores to run standard apps, which the company said consumers use “at least 80% of the time.” The phone uses the bigger A15 processors for high-demand use such as in gaming.

That explains why the phone was such a joy to use when I tried out a few games in it.

Huawei Ascend Mate7

PHABLET. The Ascend Mate7 has a 6-inch display, about the right size to use your phone as your main portable computer. (Photo by Max Limpag)

Great battery life

The Ascend Mate7 has a 4100 mAh non-user removable lithium polymer battery – a beast considering its svelte frame. I got the device about half-way charged on a Monday and it still had power even by Wednesday night, after more than a day of heavy use taking photos – often trying its rapid-fire multiple shots capability by pressing continuously on the shutter button – watching TV shows, listening to music and podcasts and trying out a few games.

I gave it a full charge Wednesday night and used the phone for reading, checking emails and keeping up with news on Thursday and then doing a factory reset on Friday before returning the device and it still had more than 85 percent battery charge. Like I said, a beast.

The phone comes with an ultra power saving feature that the company said “is designed to intelligently shut down the most battery draining features as your phone starts to lose power, meaning that you get extra life with the last 10 percent of your battery.”

Emotion UI

The phone comes with Huawei’s EMUI or Emotion UI and it looks good. I’ve long used Nova Launcher and when I tried EMUI for the first time with the Ascend Mate 7, I found it visually refreshing and actually liked the experience of using that interface with the phone. I tried out a few of its themes and the selection was good.

The phone comes with Android 4.4 or Kitkat, the penultimate version as of this year.

Huawei Ascend Mate7

THIN FRAME. The Ascend Mate7 is just 7.9mm thin and looks very sleek. (Photo by Max Limpag)

Fingerprint scanner

The Ascend Mate7 comes with a fingerprint scanner located just below its camera lens. The company said the phone is “possibly the market’s first six-inch smartphone with instant single-touch fingerprint access to put an end to password fatigue.”

“It enables users to unlock the phone at least 80 percent faster than devices that use a slower sweeping recognition option,” Huawei said in its website.

I tried it on the test unit and it does live up to the company’s promise. The phone took only one touch to unlock the device using my fingerprint – a pretty nifty feature that saves you a lot of time (multiply the time it takes to enter your PIN by the number of times you check your phone in a day and you’d get a peek into how much time the system saves for you – time you can then on the latest viral mobile game).

Camera

The Ascend Mate7 comes with a 13-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. It’s front camera is 5 megapixels. I used it to take a few test photos and liked the results, especially those taken in low light condition. It’s at par with my favorite cameraphone, the LG G3. The phone can do 1080p video recording and playback.

Storage

The phone comes with 16GB built-in memory that is expandable through a microSD card up to 128GB.

Connectivity

Since the test was only for a few days, I didn’t bother inserting a SIM. After all, calling is among the least of the things we do on our phones today.

But the company says the Ascend Mate7 uses a “dual antenna optimized to provide fewer dropped calls and smooth 4G LTE navigation.” It said the the device is compatible “with a wide range of network spectrums worldwide . . . and uses smart antenna switching to intelligently detect the strongest signal, choosing the ideal source for emission or reception of data.” The company said the device uses Cat6 4G LTE technology with a download rate of up to 300 Mbps within a compatible network.

The test unit I used was the amber gold model and it looked really good. Other colors are obsidian black and moonlight silver.

The package comes with a good quality folio case along with noise reducing earphones that, according to the company, “use active noise reduction technology to block out background sound and provide an immersive and crystal-clear audio experience for music, movies and calls.”

The Huawe retails for P27,890 in regular phone stores and in retailers like Thinking Tools, which lent the unit used for this review.

For its price, the Huawei Ascend Mate7 is a great phablet that should be on top of your list if you’re planning to upgrade your phone this year.

Huawei Ascend Mate7 test photo

TEST PHOTO. A test photo taken with the Huawei Ascend Mate7 of the wooden robot on top of my computer in the Sun.Star Cebu central newsroom. Click on the photo to view the full size. I did not edit the photo and merely compressed it to save on file size using the TinyJOG service. (Photo by Max Limpag)

Huwaei Ascend Mate 7 specs

RAM: 2 GB
ROM: 16 GB
Display: 6 inches FHD Screen,1080p (1920 x 1080), 368PPI, 16M colors
CPU: Hisilicon Kirin 925 4×1.8GHz + 4×1.3GHz + 1x230MHz
OS: Android 4.4/Huawei Emotion UI 3.0
Camera: Rear: 13 megapixels, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus with LED flash, 1080p at 30fps; Front: 5 megapixels, 720p
Battery: 4100mAh
Height: 157.0mm
Width: 81.0mm
Thickness: 7.9mm
Weight: 185g (including the battery)

The post REVIEW: Huawei Ascend Mate7: This is the ‘droid you’re looking for appeared first on Leon Kilat : The Tech Experiments.

Tech and ambient information

WHEN are you due? I asked a PR professional last week, two months after she gave birth. In my defense, I was seated when she approached me and I looked up at her face, not at her tummy. She said it was obvious we haven’t seen each other for some time, while, involuntarily I think, patting her tummy.

A colleague looked horrified at the faux pas. Technology, I said to explain myself, failed me. I had emailed her just a few days earlier and got a vacation auto-reply about her being on maternity leave.

Had I been on Facebook, I would have known about her giving birth. But I have been mostly off the social network and didn’t know this.

Epic fail, indeed. My phone, I thought to myself, should have given me that piece of information.

Imagine this: as you head to a meeting, your phone automagically presents you a dossier of people you are scheduled to meet with by scouring data on social networks, e-mail communications, blogs and calendar items.

Agent Android

DIGITAL NANNIES. Apps like Agent for Android can serve as digital butlers or nannies. Among its other features, Agent automatically detects whether you are driving and turns your phone silent, rejects calls with a text message that you are on the road and reads out any SMS that you receive.

Or how about this: as you walk in a mall, your phone presents you with information on people, whom you do not know from Mark Zuckerberg, around you with context provided by LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and blog updates and data.

That isn’t far out. In fact, apps and services are already available to provide a rudimentary version of a system providing you ambient information on people, places, things and events.

For location, Foursquare and later, Swarm provided us updates on where our friends are.

Apps like Rapportive provide contextual information on email correspondents. I can’t recall now for sure but one such service displayed the lovesick tweets of a reporter who emailed me her story. These were meant for her boyfriend but the service I used displayed it alongside her contact details to provide me contextual information. Too. Much. Information.

But that’s in our very near future–a future when information is widely available and delivered via mobile devices and wearables and in the context of space and time.

With developments like those, it is understandable for people to push for the “right to be forgotten.” The European Union, for example, allows people to petition for articles on themselves deleted from search engine records. Those who have been convicted of a crime and do not want this information to be widely available when people search for them can petition to have the data scrubbed from search engines in the EU.

But despite the move by the EU, technology will move such that information will become even more widely available and pervasive.

That will have profound implications on society, productivity and the way we do business. It will truly be — as the jargon de rigueur of our tech generation puts it — a disruption.

Now, if only I could assert my right for that faux pas last week to be forgotten.

The post Tech and ambient information appeared first on Leon Kilat : The Tech Experiments.

Tech and ambient information

WHEN are you due? I asked a PR professional last week, two months after she gave birth. In my defense, I was seated when she approached me and I looked up at her face, not at her tummy. She said it was obvious we haven’t seen each other for some time, while, involuntarily I think, patting her tummy.

A colleague looked horrified at the faux pas. Technology, I said to explain myself, failed me. I had emailed her just a few days earlier and got a vacation auto-reply about her being on maternity leave.

Had I been on Facebook, I would have known about her giving birth. But I have been mostly off the social network and didn’t know this.

Epic fail, indeed. My phone, I thought to myself, should have given me that piece of information.

Imagine this: as you head to a meeting, your phone automagically presents you a dossier of people you are scheduled to meet with by scouring data on social networks, e-mail communications, blogs and calendar items.

Agent Android

DIGITAL NANNIES. Apps like Agent for Android can serve as digital butlers or nannies. Among its other features, Agent automatically detects whether you are driving and turns your phone silent, rejects calls with a text message that you are on the road and reads out any SMS that you receive.

Or how about this: as you walk in a mall, your phone presents you with information on people, whom you do not know from Mark Zuckerberg, around you with context provided by LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and blog updates and data.

That isn’t far out. In fact, apps and services are already available to provide a rudimentary version of a system providing you ambient information on people, places, things and events.

For location, Foursquare and later, Swarm provided us updates on where our friends are.

Apps like Rapportive provide contextual information on email correspondents. I can’t recall now for sure but one such service displayed the lovesick tweets of a reporter who emailed me her story. These were meant for her boyfriend but the service I used displayed it alongside her contact details to provide me contextual information. Too. Much. Information.

But that’s in our very near future–a future when information is widely available and delivered via mobile devices and wearables and in the context of space and time.

With developments like those, it is understandable for people to push for the “right to be forgotten.” The European Union, for example, allows people to petition for articles on themselves deleted from search engine records. Those who have been convicted of a crime and do not want this information to be widely available when people search for them can petition to have the data scrubbed from search engines in the EU.

But despite the move by the EU, technology will move such that information will become even more widely available and pervasive.

That will have profound implications on society, productivity and the way we do business. It will truly be — as the jargon de rigueur of our tech generation puts it — a disruption.

Now, if only I could assert my right for that faux pas last week to be forgotten.

The post Tech and ambient information appeared first on Leon Kilat : The Tech Experiments.