Monster Twins: The Starmobile Diamond and the Cherry Mobile Omega HD

Starmobile Diamond

The Manila Bulletin calls Starmobile's new Diamond a gem of a phone. Yugatech has a review of the Starmobile Diamond, a 5-inch Jelly Bean Android phone with a HD (720 x 1280) display. The review reveals that the phone has an excellent display, a very decent camera but with less than stellar benchmarks. Overall, it is an excellent choice.

Starmobile's problem is that the same can be said about Cherry Mobile's lower priced Omega HD. Techlolokal's review of the Cherry Mobile Omega HD, shows that it has the same strengths, but suffers the same weakness as the Starmobile Diamond. The reason for this, is that two phones are pretty much identical.

Starmobile Diamond Quick specs:

• Dual SIM
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
• 5-inch IPS HD display (720 x 1280) protected by Dragontail Glass
• 4 GB internal storage, expandable via a microSD card slot
• 1 GB RAM
• 1 GHz dual core Mediatek processor 
• PowerVR SGX531 GPU
• 12 MP primary camera (BSI sensor), autofocus with flash
• 3 MP (BSI) front camera
• HSPA
• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• A-GPS
• 2000 mAh battery

Cherry Mobile HD Quick specs:

• Dual SIM
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
• 5-inch IPS HD display (720 x 1280) protected by Dragontail Glass
• 4 GB internal storage, expandable via a microSD card slot
• PowerVR SGX531 GPU
• 1 GB RAM
• 1 GHz dual core Mediatek processor 
• 12 MP primary camera (BSI sensor), autofocus with flash
• 2 MP (BSI) front camera
• HSPA
• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• A-GPS
• 2100 mAh battery

If you compare the basic specifications of the two, the only difference you will notice is the MP rating of the front camera and the size of the battery.  A difference of 1 MP on the front camera and 100 mAh is not all that significant. Design wise, the two are also very similar, with the main difference being a slightly slimmer bezel surrounding the Cherry Mobile Omega HD's 5-inch display.

It is the price where these two entry level Titan's differ the most. The Php7,999 suggested retail price of the Cherry Mobile Omega HD is substantially lower than the Php9,990 price tag of the Starmobile Diamond. The Starmobile Diamond does come with a 8 GB MicroSD card which effectively lowers the price gap. but it still ends up being the more expensive device.

I will give this round of the local smartphone wars to Cherry Mobile. But that is not surprising. For the past sic months they have been able to undercut the prices of all their competitors substantially.