Photo: techook.com
Kathmandu
Gionee, this time around, went all out by launching their latest mid-range smartphone the Gionee A1 at MWC 2017. And just a few months later, the phone is available in Nepal for a price of Rs 32,999. So, is the phone worth it? Should you buy this phone? Well, let’s find the answers to that in this full review.
Design
The Gionee A1 is a good-looking smartphone with its airplane grade aluminium construction. It not only looks good, but also feels quite premium in the hands. The phone can also be easily maneuvered by a single hand all thanks to its rounded edges and curved back. All in all, the design is quite appealing, especially in the almost matte black colour variant.
Display
The A1 sports a 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display giving it a pixel density of 401PPI. The display is covered by Gorilla Glass 3 and is edged out by a 2.5D glass. The panel also sits on a tapered edge which makes it look almost like a ‘floating display’. Being an AMOLED display, it has very deep blacks and eye-popping vibrancy. Overall, the display on the A1 is top notch and it was a joy streaming media on it.
Performance
The Gionee A1 had no trouble keeping up with my day-to-day activities. The MediaTek MT6755 Helio P10 coupled with 4GB RAM was able to take whatever I threw at it. That was until I started gaming on this device. I noticed quite a bit of stutters and dropped frames while playing high-end games like Asphalt 8, Modern Combat 5 and Nova 3. The built-in Mali T860MP2 GPU just couldn’t keep up with my demanding graphic needs. That said, the day-to-day performance of Gionee A1 is good, but a processor of higher calibre would have been more acceptable in a smartphone of this class.
Software
The A1 runs on Android 7.0 Nougat with Gionee’s own custom skin Amigo 4.0 UI overlaid on top of it. The inclusion of Nougat out of the box makes it a sweet deal, no pun intended. The UI in this iteration focuses on adding more features rather than a major visual overhaul. Personally, I feel that the UI is very functional but could have been a bit more discrete in the aesthetics department.
Photo: images-amazon/techook.com
Camera
The Gionee A1 is a selfie-centric smartphone which packs a f/2.0 16MP front facing camera with an LED flash. The selfies taken on this phone are amazing with high clarity and structure. To make the experience even more seamless, the phone packs a ton of beautifying tools and creative feature set. The low light capabilities of the phone is also very good and I am quite impressed with it.
The phone also has a f/2.0 13MP rear camera which takes some good photos. The low light capabilities, however, is not as good as that of the selfie camera. That said, it is still a very capable camera especially considering the price.
Biometrics and others
The phone has an active front mounted fingerprint scanner embedded into its home button. It works very well as I was easily able to unlock the phone in a jiffy. The A1 also has a pretty good speaker and audio jack output, all thanks to the built in MaxxAudio. There is also an infrared blaster which helps you control things like your TV, AC and other IR devices.
Connectivity
Connectivity wise the phone offers a hybrid SIM card slot meaning that you can either use two Nano SIM cards or one Nano SIM card and a Micro-SD card up to 256GB. Storage won’t be an issue in this phone as it comes with 64GB of internal storage by default. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 4G and USB 2.0.
Battery
The phone packs a large 4010mAh non-user removable battery. The battery life of this phone is insane as I was easily able to get 6-7 hours of screen on time. Heavy media consumers will be overjoyed with this offering of Gionee A1. And to top it off, the A1 comes with fast charging capabilities backed by dual charge chips to make charging the phone safer and hassle-free.
Conclusion
The Gionee A1 is a very good smartphone which offers a lot for the price including an excellent selfie camera. The processor is the one component that falls short in an otherwise powerful device. If you can look past that, Gionee A1 is one impressive smartphone with a super display, super selfie camera, and a super battery.
The author is a gadget expert who runs TechnoNepal. He also makes tech videos on Youtube for phones In Nepal
Ratings
Design: 4.7/5
Display: 4.7/5
Performance: 3.9/5
Software UI: 4.3/5
Camera: 4.8/5
Connectivity: 4.8/5
Others: 4.8/5
Battery: 4.8/5
Price: 4.7/5
Overall score: 4.6/5
Source: Technology
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