Say Goodbye to Low Light Selfies with the New Gionee A1 - Powered by 'Selfie Flash'


Continuing its trend of targeting the selfie-obsessed youngsters of today, Gionee, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer launches yet another camera centric smartphone – the Gionee A1. Prior to this launch, Gionee had come-up with a special ad campaign – ‘Selfiestan’ – featuring Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt.

Priced at 19,999, the new Gionee A1 comes with a Micro-USB cable, a charger, earphones, a transparent back cover, and a SIM eject tool, and offers premium features, most of which are seen only in high-end smartphones. Let us take a look at some of those features:

Display & Body Design: The Gionee A1 has a 5.5 inch corning Gorilla glass display and weighs 182 grams, which is slightly heavier than other smartphones in this display size and battery capacity range. With metal bodies becoming a compulsory norm for smartphones these days, Gionee A1 has bodywork made of A6000 aircraft-grade material that the company claims is used in manufacturing premium cars and aircrafts. The back of the device is given a sandblasted finish, where the camera is placed at the center with LED flash lights placed just below it for hassle-free photography experience even in low-lit areas. Additionally, the Gionee logo embedded within a circle is located below the LEDs. This symmetrical placement of the camera, LEDs and the Gionee logo at the back of the device offers an amazingly cool look and a trendy feel to the user.

Camera: As we mentioned earlier, the Gionee A1 is specially designed keeping in mind the niche photography needs of today’s generation. Flaunting a 13 megapixel primary camera and dual LED flash, the Gionee A1 is also equipped with a 16 megapixel secondary camera along with ‘selfie flash’ in order to offer an exquisite selfie experience to the users. This device is the first smartphone in India to have a front camera that is more powerful than the rear camera, along with a LED flash supporting the front camera.

Battery Capacity & Charging: The Gionee A1 device is powered by a 4010 mAh non-removable battery which offers a run-time of up to two days. The device supports ultrafast charging feature, which the company claims can easily power-up the device to 100 percent in two hours. However, the charge doesn’t seem to last over 12 and half hours if used for multi-tasking or gaming purposes, which is clearly a drawback compared to other smartphones in this price range.

Performance & Storage: The Gionee A1 comes with a combination of Amigo 4.0 and Android 7.0 versions, making it the first smartphone from Gionee to have a preset Nougat update. Powered by a 2 GHz Octa Core Mediatek MT6755 Helio P10 processor, the device comes with a 4 GB RAM and has an internal storage capacity of 64 GB, which can further be expanded to 128 GB via an external Micro SD Card. Like most Chinese smartphones, the app drawer/launcher and the UI of Gionee A1 is heavily inspired by iOS, with the quick toggle shortcuts bar appearing from the bottom of the display, a feature only seen in iOS devices till recent times.

The smartphone works pretty decently with the 2 GHz processor, with most games like Candy Crush, Pokemon Go, Temple Run or Clash of Clans, but lags at times when using games with HD graphics like ‘Blood & Glory’. Also, the device heats up surprisingly fast when using multiple apps simultaneously or watching movies or while charging, making it yet another drawback compared to its counterparts operating on 2 GHz processors.

Overall, the Gionee A1 is a decent smartphone with average performance rating and exquisite photography and image viewing experience. However, being priced in the 20K segment, the smartphone should have had a larger RAM along with a couple of performance tweaks. Unless you are a selfie person or passionate about clicking pics, Gionee A1 is not considered to be your best option, as there are multiple other smartphones in this price range with a better RAM capacity, battery life and performance aspects.

Read Also:
lephone Unveils New 4G Smartphone In India

Airtel Launches Internet TV With 7,999 Annual Subscription