Gionee A1 and A1 Plus hands on: big batteries and high megapixels galore

While most of our time at MWC 2017 has been focused on flagships from LG, Huawei, and Sony, we’re not forgetting about the little guys either. During our time on the floor, we had the chance to check out two new phones from the brand Gionee.

So what do they bring to the table? Let’s jump right in and find out.

Let’s start with the specs. The Gionee A1 and A1 Plus both pack full HD displays, with the former coming in at 5.5-inches and the latter at 6. They both have MediaTek Helios chipsets, with the A1 powered by a P10 and the A1 Plus giving us a Helio P25.The A1 and A1 Plus also have 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, support for microSD, and Android 7.0 Nougat onboard.

However, where the phones really stand out is in the camera and battery departments.

On A1 there’s a rear 13MP camera and a 16MP front facer. The Gionee A1 Plus takes things a step further with a 13MP and 5MP dual configuration on the back and a whopping 20MP front facing camera. Both devices have front and rear flash.

From our brief time with it, we can see the interface isn’t the fastest out there and the beauty modes are pretty aggressive. That said, the cameras should provide a reasonably decent experience, especially for selfie fans.

Onto the batteries, you get a massive 4010mah for the Gionee A1 and a slightly bigger 4550mah battery with the Plus variant. This is quite a bit above what you’ll typically find in most similar sized phones these days, with many devices hovering around the 3,000 mAh mark. You can also expect fast charging, with 18W fast charging onboard.

Spec wise, the Gionee A1 and A1 Plus are reasonably capable but what about the design? While there’s nothing wrong with the construction and design of the Gionee phones, we’ll admit they are a bit on the generic side. The solid metal construction makes them feel a bit more premium, but there’s not a lot of frills or thrills when it comes to the look or feel of these devices.

And that pretty much sums up the new A1 family. The Gionee A1 will arrive first in March, priced at 349 Euros. The A1 Plus will follow in April, priced 100 Euros higher at 449. There’s no word on a US launch, but Gionee has a history of licensing their designs over to BLU so it’s possible we could see one or both of these models surface in the US market in some form.