Gionee decided to offer a great selfie camera phone for a lesser price than its upper variant selfie king Gionee A1 with 16 MP selfie camera. Gionee just added a Lite variant to its A series for a price of ₹14,999. This is the price where there are many smartphones, however, as far as the selfie camera is concerned, there are a few among the range. Gionee A1 has got a 20 MP camera with LED flash on the front side and with a long lasting battery of 4,000 mAh capacity.
Gionee A1 Lite Specifications
- Display: 5.3-inch IPS display, HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels), 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 3
- Operating System: Amigo OS 4.0 based on Android 7.0 Nougat
- Fingerprint Scanner: Yes, on the back
- CPU: 1.3 GHz octa-core processor, MediaTek MT6753V SoC, 64-bit
- GPU: ARM Mali-T720
- Memory: 3 GB RAM, LPDDR3
- Storage: 32 GB internal, Expandable up to 256 GB via microSD card
- Rear Camera: 13 MP with LED flash
- Front Camera: 20 MP with Selfie Flash
- Connectivity: Micro USB, 3.5mm port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
- Cellular: 4G LTE support, Dual nano SIM, VoLTE
- Colors: Black, Gold
- Battery: 4,000 mAh
- Price: ₹14,999
- Availability: Available from August 10 through retail stores across India
The Gione A1 Lite is a tad smaller with a size of 5.3-inch whereas its larger variant Gionee A1 is 5.5-inch. The phone feels easy to hold due to its curved edges, however, feels bulky when you lift it. The design is metallic, it does look like its all metal, but there is an aluminum plate covered on the back, while the rest of the sides are plastic that looks like metal.
Gionee A1 Lite sports a 5.3-inch IPS display with HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels) and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Protection. Unlike its upper-end sibling Gionee A1 which has an AMOLED display onboard, the Lite variant uses an IPS panel that drastically drops the price. AMOLEDs are expensive in terms of pricing and you can find it on the high-end smartphones.
Looking into it, the internals is just about the mid-range level. It is powered by a 1.3 GHz octa-core processor from MediaTek MT6753V SoC. Paired with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage with a storage extension of 256 GB via MicroSD. These specs sound off a little underpowered when we compare the phones under ₹15,000 price range and if we aren’t considering the 20 MP selfie camera, there are phones having better specs overall.
Nevertheless, Gionee seems concerned about the selfie competition which is controlled by the Vivo and Oppo smartphones. The A1 Lite should probably take care of all your selfie needs even in dark areas. The front camera here comes with LED flash.
Gionee A1 Lite runs Amigo OS 4.0 out of the box based on the Android 7.0 Nougat operating system. While this isn’t the latest Android, the phones with latest OS uses 7.1.1 version of Android probably with the upgrade to Android O once it is released. Gionee’s software is just about the same as we saw on most Gionee phones, no app drawer, the quick access panel is from the bottom, and some third party apps, so-called bloatware.
On the front side, there are capacitive touch buttons for navigation at the bottom, however, they do not light up. On the back, you will find a fingerprint scanner. The overall design appears to be very identical to some Chinese phones.
For the cameras, the company is trying to make its space into the selfie-centric phones market. A clever move by Gionee, the A1 Lite uses a 20 MP camera on the front side with LED flash and a 13 MP camera on the rear side with LED flash. And after all, everything is backed up with a 4,000 mAh battery.
It supports 4G LTE network nano SIM cards, though the only limitation here despite being a dual SIM phone, you may not be able to utilize the MicroSD clot if you use dual SIM, otherwise, its hybrid slot can accommodate one nano SIM and one MicroSD card.
The bottom has the usual Micro USB port, not the type-C, a microphone and a 3.5 mm port for headphones. The loudspeakers are located on the back, which might not be a sweet spot if you are going to put it on a flat surface.
Gionee A1 Lite is merely midrange level smartphone, according to the specifications, along with a super selfie 20 MP camera on the front. We know Gionee phones are good at battery performance, now selfie camera is their target. While the best specs on paper are yet from the Xiaomi’s specs’ killer phones, Gionee may be underpowered on the performance, but not at least on the battery and the selfie camera as far as we know. It can give a tough competition to the selfie-centric phones by Vivo and Oppo that dominates the market already.
