The dragons are here. Am talking about the Chinese OEMs. We have seen earlier unknown China made phones flooding the market and then we have Indian OEMs who sell re-branded Chinese mobile devices. Now we have the big, established Chinese mobile companies entering our market directly and expect them to spit fiery competition. Gionee is one of the top big mobile brands in China and they are making some aggressive marketing moves in India. Oh and they are also making the right buzz in Social media. What we got at our review desk is Gionee Gpad G2 smartphone. As the nomenclature indicates it’s the second iteration of the original Gionee Gpad. Featuring a 5.3 inch display, Gionee G2 is a budget mid-segment device that can satisfy the wishlist of big ‘phablet’ in a more affordable pricing.
Out of the box contents
Gionee is quiet lavish in its box contents. Apart from the obvious contents like the device, battery, USB cable, power adapter and 3.5mm headphone and documentations and warranty card, you also get a 16GB microSD card, flip cover with plastic back, two scratch guards, SIM ejection tool.
Design, build quality and display
It’s plastic but so what? Gionee Gpad G2 looks well build and feels confident on palm. The design language looks a bit familiar may be because many of the big Android smartphones are increasingly looking similar. The bezels are quiet prominent and cannot claim to be thin, so the device looks rather big. It also has a metal rim running across the sides. Adding a bit to the weight as well as giving it a shade of premium look. Below the 5.3 inch display is the capacitive touch keys for Home, Menu and back which lit up in a warm blue when pressed. On the top of the display is the ear piece flanked by ambient and proximity sensor placed one above the other on the left side and a 2MP front camera on the right side. Gionee has chosen a off-beat positioning for power and volume rocker. Unlike other devices here we have the power button on the left side and volume rocker on the right. A 3.5 mm audio jack on the top and the microUSB slot on the bottom completes the button and ports positioning.
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On the back we have a glossy rear panel which has a huge finger print affinity. On the top left position is the 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and the speaker grill is found at bottom right position. On the middle of the bottom half of the rear we can find the Gionee branding subtly marked.
Peel off the rear panel and we can find a large 3000mAh battery.
Above the battery is a micro SIM slot and a regular SIM slot placed side by side. On the far right corner you can find the microSD card slot and comes with a 16GB card out of the box.
Gpad G2 has a dimension of 145*73*9.9mm. Overall Gionee Gpad G2 has a solid build, design is unassuming and the device is tad heavier. With the flip case, it feels even more bulky.
Let’s talk display. The 5.3-inch qHD IPS display has a 960*540 resolution that adds up to 240 ppi density. The display has a 5-point multi-touch which is good for the segment. The display output is a mixed bag.The color reproduction is pretty good with good contrast levels but a bit warmer and when viewed at straight angles it’s yields impressive results. On a bright outdoor, you strain your eyes to read the display. Touch responsiveness is pretty satisfactory. Also, if you are using the flip cover, whenever the flip cover is closed the phone gets locked automatically.
Internals and Performance
Powering the device is a 1.2GHz quad-core processor from MediaTek – MT6589 which is used in most of the similar devices in this segment. Its mated to a 1GB RAM and PowerVR Series5XT GPU completes the list. On OS side, it runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Our AnTuTu benchmark results of Gionee Gpad G2 gave the device a score of 13229 which is pretty decent for this segment and it is higher than the micromax Canvas HD pitted against it in this segment.
The UI is more or less stock android experience except for few extra apps and add-ons. An app named ‘Change’ enables single click change of themes and wallpapers. Also there is an app ‘OneTouch’ which allows you to close all running apps and clear the caches in one press. The device also comes with pre-installed apps like Gamezone app, NQ mobile security app, Kingsoft Office app and packs also Asphalt 6 game.
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Due to the large screen real estate, Gionee Gpad G2 comes alive during media consumption. It’s pleasure to watch movies and playing games and also for casual browsing. During our extensive usage, we did not face any heating issues that bother most of the devices. Only complaint we had is the audio output which is not up to the mark. The speaker output quality is disappointing and the included earpiece is not impressive either.
There are minor software glitches like the display locks randomly gets unlocked and opens apps when kept in pocket probably when the display gets in contact with fabric, I assume.
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