Gionee A1 Plus Review

Trying to break into the league of top five Chinese smartphone maker, Gionee has launched its latest offering A1 Plus in India. Priced at Rs 26,999, the phone was able to clock around 74,000 pre-orders worth Rs 150 crore in 10 days, as claimed by the company. The company is ready to take a head-to-head competition with other offline players as the device is available only on offline channels. It is currently offered in mocha gold and black colours.

Gionee A1 Plus is the bigger version of its sibling A1 which was launched in March 2017. Both A1 and A1 Plus were featured at Mobile World Congress in February 2017. But why did Gionee wait so long to introduce the A1 Plus in India? Gionee waited to see its competitors coming up with new technology. The device competes with the likes of Honor 8 Pro, OnePlus 3T, Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro, and Moto Z2 Play among others.

Display and Design

Gionee A1 Plus features a 6-inch full-HD (1920x1080) IPS LCD display which delivers a very good picture quality. It is fairly sharp and bright and works perfectly in the sunlight. The display is made for multimedia consumption and you can spend a good time watching videos on this device. You will get Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection with the display to prevent scratches.

The handset has a home button at the bezel of the handset which also doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Gionee claims that the device is unlocked by fingerprint sensor in 0.2 seconds which sometimes don’t work accurately; in fact, it didn’t work several times and instead displayed the ‘draw a pattern to unlock the device’.

There is nothing unique to the device's design features as it looks similar to Gionee A1. A1 Plus is positioned by Gionee on the same lines as A1 and features a larger display, bigger battery, a dual-camera setup and more weight than its predecessor.

Gionee A1 Plus measures 166.4x83.3x9.1mm and weighs 226 grams. The device is pretty heavy and not suitable for single handed functionality.

Software and Performance

Gionee A1 Plus runs on company’s Amigo 4 OS based on Android 7.0 Nougat which will annoy you. Some notifications are hidden inside the notification shade and you will have to tap one more time to open it. The Amigo UI on the device is smooth but doesn’t make it look premium.

In the settings menu you will find an extra column named ‘Features’ which only includes tutorials of ‘Features ‘which Gionee thinks is the ‘USP’ of this smartphone like Fingerprint sensor, Power manager, Bokeh-Selfie, and Virus detection among others.

A1 Plus is powered by a 2.5Ghz MediaTek Helio P25 Octa-core processor coupled with 4GB RAM. It has 64GB internal storage which is expandable up to 256GB through a hybrid dual-SIM configuration where second SIM slot doubles as MicroSD card holder. It delivers a smooth experience and merely lags while multitasking.

Camera

A1 Plus is Gionee’s first smartphone to sport a dual-camera setup. The rear camera has 13-megapixels and 5-megapixels sensors with LED flash. The camera shoots with Portrait mode, Time-lapse, Night mode, Face beauty mode and Bokeh effect.  On the front is a 20-megapixels selfie-camera with f/2.0 aperture, and selfie flash. The camera clicks good pictures with ‘Night mode’ on in the dark though there is 

Battery

Gionee A1 Plus is backed by a 4550mAh non-removable battery which comes with company’s ultrafast technology that charges the handset in less than 2 hours from zero to full. With this device, you don’t need to worry about battery running out. The battery won’t disappoint you and will easily last for more than a day and half. It also supports Reverse charging, which means you can turn your device into a power bank and charge other devices from it.  

Verdict

Given the features, the phone turns out to be a bit costly. The design is simple generic as was with its brother A1. The battery is comfortable enough and the phone stays up for more than a day and a half, even on heavy use. The device is a bit bulky and not suitable to be used single-handedly.

If you are a layman and don’t like to buy smartphones online, then Gionee A1 Plus is a good choice.