Gionee India announced recently the launch of their selfie-centric smartphone, the Gionee A1 in India. With so many selfie smartphones in the market, this is Gionee’s attempt to please the selfie-obsessed consumer in India. The phone was first showcased at the Mobile World Congress 2017 that was held in Barcelona, Spain in February 2017. We get you the review of the Gionee A1.
The Gionee A1 is well-built smartphone by the Chinese tech company and offers a premium metal finish design that’s aesthetically pleasing. Everything is in place and the device feels good to hold in hand. The phone does have some weight to it but that makes this phone not bulky to hold but offers the feeling of a sturdy device.
Upfront the device comes with a 2.5D curved glass display that’s nicely integrated into the shell of the phone. The 5.5-inch full HD display offers vivid colours and good brightness. The display also comes protected with Gorilla Glass 3.
The Gionee A1 runs on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat operating system with Amigo OS on top of it. The software experience is intuitive enough to keep you engaged with this phone. Powering the Gionee A1 is a 2 GHz octa-core processor that’s backed by 4GB RAM. The processor offers more than enough firepower that you would need in your daily usage.
The 4,010 mAh battery on the Gionee A1 is also superb and offers a decent day-and-a-half backup in average to heavy usage. It does come with fast charging and a regular micro USB charger. There is also a fingerprint sensor on the front of the device that works fine.
The main USP of the Gionee A1 is its front 16-megapixel camera that offers a great selfie clicking experience. It also comes with a front flash feature that makes taking selfies in dimly lit areas easy. The face beauty mode on the front camera comes with a smoother, whitening, slimming and eye enlarge feature.
This can make you also look funny at times but the software magic that’s used on the A1 makes your selfies definitely stand out. The 16-megapixel resolution is available in images that have 4:3 aspect ratio, but if you want to click a selfie in a 16:9 wide format then the phone only offers you a 12-megapixel resolution.
Overall this phone has been designed to click some good selfies and it does that job well.
For starters, the Amigo UI that runs on top of Android Nougat on the Gionee A1 can hang up at times if you have overused the smartphone or recorded a video for longer durations. Yes, there is a fast charging feature on the Gionee A1, but it still takes more than 2-hours to charge that 4,010 mAh battery to 100%.
And finally, the rear camera on the Gionee A1 is just about fine. Gionee A1 sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with flash. But a rear camera is also as important as a front one on a phone. Gionee has let some corners loose here.
The image results are just decent and the low light images usually come out grainy on the Gionee A1 from its rear camera. The 13-megapixel resolution is only offered in 4:3 aspect ratio images, and if you click 16:9 images the resolution is lowered down to 10 megapixels only. That can be a bit of a downer at times.
For now, the Gionee A1 promises to be an amazing smartphone. Gionee A1’s pre-booking starts on 31st March 2017 in India and the phone is priced at Rs 19,999. It basically kills its competition from selfie smartphones like Oppo and Vivo.
With Oppo being bold enough to launch a selfie-centric smartphone for in excess of Rs 30,000; Gionee has its chance to take it all with the A1 with an amazing price point of Rs 19,999.
