Facing tough competition from its Chinese peers, Gionee has made a comeback with a feature-loaded phone A1. Launched in India on March 21 and priced at Rs 19,999, Gionee A1 aims to take on brands like Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, that have seized the smartphone market in the country.
Gionee is known for delivering camera-driven smartphones in the past and this phone is no exception. Gionee A1 is a selfie-focused, mid-segment smartphone.
The key highlight of this smartphone is its 16MP selfie camera, and 13MP rear camera. It has an in-built flash for the front camera, to take a better and bright selfies, especially during low light.
Looking at its specifications, we unboxed the new smartphone with a lot of expectations.
Here is our quick review of Gionee A1:
Design:
Gionee borrows flat design of its earlier devices for A1. The smartphone features a metal body which feels sturdy in hand, and has a polished look.
The well-rounded phone feels sturdy in hand, as its edges allow it to sit comfortably in the palm and offers plenty of grip. The gadget looks clean at first but does not have an inspiring design.
Display:
The smartphone has 5.5-inch full-HD display with AMOLED panel. The display works well indoors, delivers sharp colour reproduction, and contrast with good viewing angles.
Hardware:
Gionee A1 offers pretty good configuration for its price range. The phone is armed with 2GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor. Coupled with 4GB RAM, A1 has smooth a functioning.
The phone has 64GB internal storage, and can be expanded up to 256GB. With this memory capacity, there will be no dearth of space.
Camera:
USP of the Gionee A1 smartphone is its selfie camera, and we expect it to offer good quality pictures. And we were not disappointed. The 16MP front camera produced brighter pictures. Under low-light conditions, the LED flashlight brightens the image.
The images captured through its front camera have rich colour tones with an appreciable amount of detailing.
The rear camera comes with 13MP lenses. The images captured have bright colours, fine details and delivered good depth of field when clicking in bright-light conditions.
Battery:
Gionee A1 comes with a 4,010mAh battery, probably the highest in this price segment. With heavy users capturing moments on camera, accessing social media and listening to music, the phone offers plenty of battery life. Full charged battery runs easily for a day on Gionee A1.
What works for Gionee A1:
Gionee A1 offers a decent quality display, extraordinary camera and a long battery life for a phone in this range.
What does not work for Gionee A1:
There is no innovation with the design, and rear camera also fails to impress. With a weight of 183 grams, the smartphone is heavier than the devices of this size. Besides, the phone is slightly expensive, considering the selfie focused front camera the key USP of the phone. However, the youngster who love and are obsessed with selfie may like to own the Gionee A1.
Key specifications:
Display: 5.50-inch
Front Camera: 16-megapixel
Rear Camera:13-megapixel
Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels
RAM: 4GB
CPU: MT6755(Octa Core 2.0GHz)
Chip: Mediatek MT6755 Helio P10
OS: Android 7.0
Storage: 64GB (expandable up to 256GB)
Battery Capacity: 4010mAh
Price: Rs 19,999
