With the A1 already in circulation, Gionee has launched yet another phone, this time it’s the bigger Gionee A1 Plus. In a market already saturated with mid-range to flagship grade expensive phones, the A1 Plus is a relief to the wallets. With phones like iPhone 7 Plus exceeding Rs. 100,000 and other phones like Coolpad Cool1 available at the price of 30,000, Gionee have put a price of Nrs. 50,000 on the A1 Plus sitting in the middle of the extremes.
Design and Display
Just like the iPhone 7 Plus, Gionee A1 Plus is bigger than the Gionee A1 and way pricier. It has a 6-inch 1080p Full-HD screen enclosed in a slim metallic body. The phone feels thin in hand despite the big screen and a large battery with thin antenna bands on the top and bottom at the back. The fingerprint scanner is embedded inside the home button, not at the confusing Gionee logo on the back. Apart from that, the phone features a clean look with the dual cameras on the back and a front camera.
Camera
Gionee has stressed on the quality of its cameras before and this phone is no exception. As its first dual camera phone, Gionee has gambled a lot with the dual camera setup of 13MP and 5MP sensors. The promise of the bokeh effect offered by the phone is sketchy here. We have used the camera just for a while and the pictures taken by the main camera is ‘fine’. The special feature of the camera, the ‘Portrait’ mode, however, is untested right now. So, take a look at the results in the final review of the phone later.
However, the crowned jewel of this phone tends to be the front camera. The 20MP selfie camera live up to the expectations. Regular selfies are detailed and well lit. We are curious though if the selfie camera performs in the night as well.
Performance and Software
When it comes to performance, I have serious doubts about Gionee A1 Plus.
- Chipset: Mediatek MT6757T Helio P25
- CPU: Octa-core (4×2.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.4 GHz Cortex-A53)
- GPU: Mali-T880MP2
We haven’t benchmarked or tested the phone yet and the phone specs are respectable, but any general tech head can tell you that MediaTek processors are still not on par with the Qualcomm chipsets. Still, the phone should handle multi-tasking smoothly with its 4GB RAM. On the software side, Gionee A1 Plus comes with Android 7.0 with the custom Amigo UI on top — same as that of Gionee A1. Read more about the software in our Gionee A1 review.
First Thoughts on Gionee A1 Plus
Gionee A1 Plus selfie cameras are good. The big screen size is a plus(pun intended) for the phablet lovers, and A1 Plus’ 4550 mAh battery makes it a decent phone. We are still skeptical about the rear dual cameras on this phone along with its performance, so check our review later to learn more.
