Gionee A1 Plus Review
Gionee A1 Plus must be the most cliche phone right now. With all the dual cameras popping up around here and there, promising their fair share of quality, Gionee A1 Plus sits there on the side and ready to deliver. So, is the handset worth the hype? Let’s find it out in our Gionee A1 Plus Review.
Design
The design really struck a chord here, since the phone has a massive screen and with it, a big body. The metal body is well-made for the size and won’t turn any heads like the latest S8 Duos from Samsung. The phone has a neat design and doesn’t shy away distinguishing its power button with a colored form below the volume rockers. The home button is somewhat similar to the Gionee A1 and has an embedded fingerprint scanner. Despite all these promising build features, it is worth mentioning that the phone weighs heavy and will bring your pocket down, thanks to the big screen.
Display
I personally despise the big phones with their big screens, weighing like a ton and barely fitting in the pocket. But I have known the outliers that go for a bigger phone anytime. This phone is for them. Gionee A1 Plus has a huge 6-inch Full HD resolution screen that offers more than most of the competition. The only competition on the market should be the Samsung C9 Pro and the more expensive S8s. That doesn’t mean that the phone is bad. The screen on this phone is sufficiently bright and provides a good enough color range. The phone doesn’t try anything fancy like putting an AMOLED display, but sticks to the basics and cuts cost here and there to bring the phone at this price range.
Camera
Gionee is famous for its mid-range selfie line-ups like the Gionee S6 and S6s. A1 Plus follows these older generation models and builds upon them. It has a 20MP selfie shooter with a f/2.0 aperture. As you might have guessed, the selfies on this phone are good. Pictures are detailed and expose faces a little to avoid any dark pictures with shadows. A quick recommendation from our side would be to incorporate an auto-focus feature on the front camera.
Moving on. The Dual Camera of A1 Plus, well, doesn’t surprise us in any way. It offers 2 camera sensors on the back with 13MP and 5MP resolutions. There is no easy way to tell this, but the dual cameras do not live up to the expectations. One, because delivering a promising dual camera setup requires optimized software and data to get the ‘Portrait’ pictures right, and two because the camera hardware isn’t just good enough.
Like many other dual camera phones, the ‘Portrait’ mode is more like a gimmick than a good feature. The phone does take some good portrait photos by blurring the background, focusing on the person. But you are likely to get blurs on the edges.
The feature, however, should get better with time, like the iPhone 7 Plus’s portrait mode did if, and it is a big if Gionee adheres to the standards set by the Apple.
Performance
To our surprise, the phone performed better than expected. The slightly less favored MediaTek processors runs main apps like Facebook and YouTube without any lags. Gaming on the big screen is also entertaining and doesn’t heat up the phone until a long time. Try playing heavy 3D graphics game and then you might suffer. Other than that, ordinary multi-tasking and watching movies is more than good enough.
What else?
What completes the phone is the little features that add up. The software is Android 7.0 Nougat with the Amigo UI on top. There are easy optimizations for users like quick settings access by swiping from the lower screen and redesigned icons ‘inspired’ by certain non-Android pioneers.
The fingerprint scanner at the home button is fast and responsive and while the phone has a big screen draining power rapidly, the phone offers a capable 4550mAh battery. Well done Gionee.
Should you buy it?
The decision is an easy one. Gionee A1 Plus costs around 50 thousand in Nepal. It works with brilliance with the big screen, capable front camera and a more than capable processor. The main shooters are a let down while the battery couldn’t be better. For a bigger budget, you could get a better-featured phone, but if you are stuck at 50 thousand budget, A1 Plus is definitely worth a look. Add a 10 thousand and you have got a C9 Pro from Samsung if you would rather go for the blunt but assuring phablet from Samsung.
