The smartphone market is increasingly trending towards the ‘phablet’ category. Anything that does not come with a large display, long-lasting battery and a dual camera is in danger of falling by the wayside.  Now, in order to intrigue its consumers, Gionee has launched a new phablet, the Gionee A1 Plus, with dual cameras and a massive battery. We took a look at this new kid in the block and compared it to products already available in the market.

Battery (5/5)

The best feature of this phone is its battery. The A1 Plus comes with a 4550mAh battery which is just what the given set of specs demands. The phone will go on for a complete day even with heavy usage like gaming and photography. With normal use, it lasts almost two days completely on the battery backup. And if you happen to use your phone only sparingly, turning on the battery saving mode can squeeze more time out of the battery, providing almost three days of usage. When it comes to charging, this phone comes with an 18W charger which charges the device in less than 2 hours. You couldn’t ask for more.

Camera (4.5/5)

The Gionee A1 features a dual camera setup on the back, where the primary shooter is of 13 megapixels and the companion shooter is 5MP. The combination of these lenses helps calculate the depth of the image which produces DSLR-quality images with a blurred background (Bokeh Effect). The dual camera feature also helps with faster focus and better picture clarity.

Images taken from the camera are stunning. They are crisp and sharp which capture natural colours very well. To use the camera for Bokeh Effect, you have to turn on the Portrait Mode. Portrait mode is useful for both headshots and for objects. If the subject is more distinct or in a less cluttered space, then the results are great with crisp and sharp bokeh, if not then the bokeh effect jumps inside the edge of your subject. This issue can be managed to some extent by frequently changing the aperture depending on the subject and location, but all in all, this feature still seems to be a work-in-progress.

There’s also a Professional mode, where you can play around with ISO, White Balance, Exposure and so on, to capture the desired image. There are other handy features included in the camera UI like time-lapse, slow motion, text recognition and GIFs. These features help you cut out different external apps that do the same thing.

If you are a selfie person, the phone’s features should be right down your alley as well. The front camera has an impressive 20MP shooter which puts all the other selfie cameras to shame. The selfies come out with amazing details and sharpness, with the Bokeh Effect as the cherry on top.

On the more vain side, the phone also comes with a beauty mode which of course completely changes how a person looks. One can shoot incredibly unnatural selfies by cleaning their skin tone, enlarging their eyes, and altering the width of their face. But, whatever floats your boat.  

Build (4/5)

The Gionee A1 Plus weighs 226 grams and has a big 6-inch of display. Due to its size, it’s almost impossible to use it with just one hand. However, despite the bulkiness, the phone comes with a curved body that makes it easy to hold. The metal jacket gives it a premium feel for the price. The A1 Plus comes with capacitive navigation keys alongside the fingerprint sensor on the bottom front which doubles up as a home button. The fingerprint sensor is fast and responsive.

Display (4.5/5)

The 6-inch Gionee A1 Plus comes with a Full-HD resolution with a pixel density of 367 ppi. The colour accuracy of the display is spot on with well saturated and vibrant colours. There is no colour shifting when using the device at different angles.

The phone is built for outdoor use as the brightness can be easily adjusted to use it even under direct sunlight. The phone comes with night mode, which protects your eyes from the blue light during nighttime.

Performance (4/5)

As for the performance, A1 Plus is powered by MediaTek’s Octa-Core Helio P25 Chipset clocked at 2.5Ghz and is coupled with 4GB of RAM. I found the phone to be fast during regular usage, but the wait times can try your patience while launching a few heavy apps. However, you can play graphic intensive games at decent frame rates (medium settings) without any frame drops. One of the best features of the phone is that it maintains its cool even after long gaming hours—there is no noticeable heating. With 4GB of RAM, the phone can switch between apps without any hiccups.

Verdict

The Gionee A1 plus is indeed an eye-catching product—it comes with great display, good performance, amazing cameras and durable battery life. The size of the phone and the chipset might be a matter of concern. Large phones are not everybody’s cup of tea. If you are invested in multimedia, you’ll be sold on this phone for its crisp display and audiom, which is supported by Maxx Audio. The photo junkies too will love this phone because it will easily bring out the photographer in you. Performance wise, however, the rival One Plus 3 might be a better choice.

SPECIFICATIONS OF GIONEE A1 PLUS:

•    6.0 inches Full HD IPS Display

•    Weight: 226 grams

•    Amigo OS 4.0 on top of Android 7.0 Nougat

•    MediatekHelio P25 Chipset

•    Octa-core (4×2.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.4 GHz Cortex-A53) CPU

•    Mali-T880MP2 GPU

•    4GB RAM

•    64GB Internal Storage, Expandable up to 256GB

•    Dual 13 MP + 5 MP Rear Camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection auto-focus

•    20MP Front Facing Camera with f/2.0 aperture

•    Non-removable Li-Ion 4550 mAh battery with fast charging